Daniel Vale

I help boards and executive teams govern technolopgy, cyber and machine-learning (AI) risk in a way that stands up to audit scrutiny, regulators, and real incidents. I have led enterprise security strategy, risk appetite work, and assurance operating models in large, complex global organisations across retail and manufacturing, and I regularly brief executive leadership, corporate compliance, and audit on posture, risk trade-offs, and investment priorities.

As a board member or advisor, I bring pragmatic oversight and operator-grade support: translating technical risk into business exposure, setting decision-grade metrics and controls, stress-testing resilience and incident readiness, and establishing governance and assurance cycles that management can actually run (including ISO/IEC 27001-aligned approaches and related control frameworks). Where needed, I also support management directly on execution—turning board expectations into clear accountabilities, a credible roadmap, and evidence that holds up under external scrutiny.

My doctoral research was in machine learning (AI) governance in the financial sector (consumer banking), and I have advised in regulated contexts as both a cybersecurity leader and an admitted attorney. I am most useful to boards and leadership teams where cyber resilience, third-party risk, operational technology, and AI governance are strategic constraints—particularly in financial services, payments/fintech, scaled consumer platforms, and defense.

I also bring strong relationships across retail, defense and cybersecurity, private equity and venture capital, and connections into the retail, academia, defense ecosystem across the Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States—useful for introductions, partnerships, and credibility signalling.

Why appoint me (the “so what”)
- Cybersecurity leadership that holds under pressure: proven ability to set security direction, prioritise the right controls, and drive execution in complex environments—balancing protection, usability, and cost.
- Governance that is usable: risk appetite, board-level metrics, assurance cycles, and evidence that supports oversight (not just “security activity”).
- Audit and regulator credibility: experience building and operating ISO/IEC 27001-aligned governance and audit-facing reporting that survives scrutiny.
- Incident leadership: major-incident coordination experience, including high-impact breaches—useful for boards focused on operational resilience and accountability.
- AI governance capability: credible challenge function for model risk, data governance, accountability, and control design—grounded in financial-sector AI governance research and applied practice.
- Commercial realism: track record of value protection and cost optimisation (for example €25m+ savings/revenue protection; €150m technology cost reduction through operating-model redesign; €10m+ cloud cost efficiency target) while maintaining control integrity.
- Cross-domain judgement: cybersecurity + governance + legal training reduces blind spots around liability, regulatory posture, evidence standards, and third-party contracting.
- Network leverage (academia + defense + cyber capital): access to defense/cyber private equity and venture networks and academic / defense-sector contacts (NL/UK/US) to support introductions, pilots, partnerships, and strategic credibility.

Where I’m most defensible (boards and advisory)
- Defense & cybersecurity (including sovereign/critical infrastructure ecosystems and dual-use adoption pathways).
- Consumer banking, payments, fintech deploying machine learning in decisioning, fraud, credit, or operations.
- Regulated digital platforms with high third-party reliance and high incident impact.
- Retail + omnichannel with material point-of-sale exposure and fraud/control integrity requirements.
- Industrial / operational technology environments (factories, energy operations) dealing with resilience and regulatory readiness (for example NIS2-type expectations).

Committee / advisory fit
- Audit & Risk: assurance evidence, risk appetite, control effectiveness, incident oversight.
- Technology / Digital: cyber strategy, investment trade-offs, third-party ecosystems, AI governance, digital transformation.
- Executive advisory: translating board expectations into an executable plan, operating model, and evidence pack.