CEO Shadow & Private Advisory
A private, confidential counterpart for CEOs, founders, principal shareholders and family principals — before, during and between decisions.
The higher the seat, the fewer honest conversations.
Every senior leader eventually reaches the point where the quality of their information degrades. Information is filtered. Interests are rarely neutral. The most consequential decisions become the hardest to test openly.
What is missing is rarely intelligence or effort. It is a place to think without consequence, and a counterpart who understands the weight of the seat through direct operating experience.
What this usually looks like
-
01
The direction is defensible, but you are no longer certain it is right.
-
02
Priorities compete, and everything arrives labelled urgent.
-
03
The board is pushing somewhere you are not convinced by.
-
04
A senior executive has become a problem you manage rather than solve.
-
05
Internal politics are shaping decisions more than the strategy is.
-
06
You are carrying a decision you cannot discuss internally without triggering it.
-
07
You are transforming the company with no one to test the plan against.
Three forms of relationship.
CEO Shadow is a standing relationship with one chief executive. Private Advisory is reserved for a founder, principal shareholder or family principal. The Decision Sprint addresses one decision, with a defined end.
-
01
CEO Shadow
- Regular private sessions on a fixed cadence
- Direct access between sessions when something moves
- Preparation for board, shareholder and executive meetings
- Decision testing before commitments become irreversible
- Stakeholder and power mapping
- Follow-through on the priorities that were agreed
-
02
Private Advisory
- For a founder, principal shareholder or family principal
- Structural decisions: ownership, reorganisation, investment, succession
- Options papers with scenarios, trade-offs and consequences
- Board-grade decision memoranda
- Coordination of the other advisers: lawyers, tax, banks, M&A
- Follow-through between decisions
- Latent conflict addressed before it surfaces
-
03
Decision Sprint
- One specific decision, defined scope and end
- Situation triage and stakeholder map
- Options and second-order consequences
- A recommendation and an execution plan
Who this is for
CEOs of private and listed companies. Founders carrying the company on their own judgement. Principal shareholders with control but no independent counsel. Family principals and entrepreneurial families facing decisions on ownership, succession or capital. Executives entering a transformation, a transition, or a first board seat.
This is not coaching, not mentoring, and not an introduction service. It is judgement applied to specific decisions, by someone who has held the P&L.
Private Initial Conversation
A confidential conversation, without commitment, to understand the situation, assess whether there is a fit and define the appropriate next step. Nothing needs to be prepared in advance.
Where the decision involves operations, partners or shareholders across jurisdictions — Iberia, France and francophone markets, Brazil, Angola or the Gulf — the counsel extends to the international dimension.
Request a private conversationNotes on Growth, Leadership and Decision
The First 72 Hours: Leading Through a Reputation Crisis
A reputation crisis is rarely decided by the event itself. It is decided by what leaders do — and fail to do — in the first seventy-two hours.
Succession Is a Strategy, Not an Event
In most family businesses, succession is discussed as a date. In the ones that last for generations, it is managed as a strategy — one that starts years before anyone steps down.
The CEO's Blind Spot: Why the Top Job Needs a Shadow Advisor
The higher a leader rises, the less the truth reaches them unfiltered. The most effective CEOs build a deliberate counterweight: one person whose only agenda is the quality of their decisions.
A decision you cannot delegate deserves a counterpart you can speak to freely.
Every engagement starts with a private conversation.