Neil Meyer

Founder & CEO – Governance Intelligence, AI SaaS & Research

Beyond Countdown Limited

2024 – Present · 2 yrs

Conceived, designed, and launched a live governance-intelligence platform that assesses the gap between stated governance architecture and observable organisational behaviour using only public sources. Built from an original research thesis into a proprietary methodology, data model, software product, research operation, and commercial proposition.

The platform currently holds 850+ unique organisations across 21 sectors and 94 countries, with 33,000+ structured risk assessments covering 38 canonical governance risks – 18 external and systemic, 20 internal capacity and culture. Every organisation is assessed through the same framework, enabling structured comparison while retaining context for ownership, regulation, and organisational form.

Developed the Unified Countdown Framework as an end-to-end governance methodology comprising four integrated layers: Grey Horizon Scan (risk identification), Realisation of Legacy (diagnostic scoring), LegacyForge (remediation and action planning), and LegacyOps (continuing governance monitoring). CrunchTest provides high-pressure scenario testing across multiple converging risks.

Created the Realisation of Legacy diagnostic – a dual-axis scoring model that deliberately separates governance architecture from operational reality. The model measures the direction and severity of misalignment between what an organisation says and what the public record suggests it does.

Designed and operates a governed AI-enabled production model that decomposes work into explicit phases, preserves decisions and evidence as inspectable artefacts, applies quality gates at defined points, and retains human ownership of scoring, interpretation, and publication. Demonstrates how an experienced executive can use AI to operate across research, engineering, content, data-product development, and commercial design while maintaining full accountability.

Published Countdown to 2100: A Time of Grey Rhinos (2025), examining the convergence of systemic risks and the implications for governance, organisational resilience, and long-term decision-making. Cited in the Journal of Business Research (Elsevier, 2026). Published The State of Governance as the inaugural flagship research report drawing cross-organisational patterns from the corpus.

Board Advisor & Fractional VP Engineering

MediaVision

2025 – Present · 1 yr

Acts as an independent strategic and delivery adviser to the CEO and leadership team of a founder-led digital business. Focus areas include SaaS productisation, AI-enabled delivery, commercial positioning, operating-model maturity, and board decision quality.

Reviews strategy papers, board packs, and material claims – identifying where evidence is strong, where narrative exceeds support, and where risks, owners, decisions, and timelines need to be made explicit. Provides independent challenge across product strategy, pricing, client value, architecture, delivery risk, and leadership capacity.

Introduced practical operating disciplines including quality gates, environment and repository strategy, feature flags, staged enablement, release controls, testing expectations, security requirements, and production-readiness checks. Supports team structure design and senior engineering roles to ensure appropriate accountability between internal leadership and external suppliers.

Led executive coordination during a serious cyber-security incident – bridging company leadership, insurers, forensic investigators, and legal advisers. Directed evidence preservation, containment actions, privileged-access review, and Microsoft 365 activity examination while maintaining an auditable record of decisions and actions. Shaped client communications that balanced transparency with appropriate commercial and legal caution.

Reviewed and evolved commercial and contractual position to support scaling into FTSE100-level engagements. Supports the design of the Metis platform proposition around measurable client outcomes rather than technology features.

Head of Digital Delivery, EMEA · Head of Retail & CPG Delivery, UK&I · Delivery Director & Client Partner

EPAM Systems

2019 – 2024 · 6 yrs

Progressed from leadership of a major strategic account to UK and Ireland sector responsibility (~$75M portfolio) and then EMEA digital-delivery leadership across a portfolio exceeding $250M. Combined direct strategic-account ownership with matrix portfolio oversight, managing commercial performance, delivery assurance, and leadership development across the organisation.

Scale and commercial responsibility

Led a multi-tiered leadership structure comprising 24 direct reports, more than 40 delivery leads, and matrix oversight across 3,000+ delivery professionals operating from 12+ countries. Managed account organisations from small strategy teams to complex delivery workforces exceeding 330 people with multiple concurrent programmes, third-party suppliers, and global distribution.

Owned delivery assurance across a multinational digital portfolio covering business case, revenue, margin, opportunity pipeline, resource shape, leadership quality, contractual position, and client confidence. Reported outcomes across the portfolio include approximately 95% on-time delivery and margin improvements in the 5–12% range.

Strategic accounts and brand portfolio

Burberry: Led a six-year digital-delivery partnership across 330+ FTE and 14 global delivery locations, delivering double-digit percentage revenue growth and double-digit margin improvement. Directed the migration from Oracle ATG monolith towards composable MACH architecture using Commercetools, Contentstack, and Fredhopper/Attraqt with React front end, Node.js services, and AWS cloud. Oversaw customer-journey teams, data-insight work involving Databricks and Snowflake, and a high-frequency release environment producing 40–60 releases per month. Regular stakeholders included the CIO, VP Digital, VP Product, VP Architecture, and VP Supply Chain Technology.

Bacardi: Five-year global engagement scaling from 30 to 105 FTE. Managed an estate of 300+ WordPress websites, custom development, AWS infrastructure, inRiver PIM, Bynder DAM, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and AI-enabled content activity.

Aston Martin: Three-year digital-growth engagement spanning Salesforce, campaign management, growth experimentation, and Sitecore.

Ineos Automotive: Sitecore, UX design, and digital implementation across a 35-person delivery team.

Additional accounts included Screwfix/Kingfisher (MACH replatforming, 130+ FTE), Holland & Barrett (Flutter mobile, scaling 35 to 70 FTE), Boden (Microsoft Dynamics, Azure, Shopify), Lynk & Co (Commercetools, AWS), AS Watson (programme recovery, 150 FTE), Howdens (Sitecore, SAFe), and LSEG.

Lifecycle and governance

Operated across the full engagement lifecycle: pre-sales and solution shaping, contract negotiation, programme governance, delivery assurance, release management, and operational support. Chaired weekly and monthly programme boards, client delivery boards, and quarterly business reviews with CIO, CTO, and VP stakeholders.

Recovered difficult engagements through delivery restructuring, leadership change, technical-debt intervention, and client-relationship reset. Led executive escalations, commercial disputes, and contract renegotiation where required.

Technology breadth

Commercetools, Contentstack, Oracle ATG, Sitecore, Drupal, WordPress, Salesforce (CRM, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud), React, Node.js, Flutter, .NET, PHP, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Databricks, Snowflake, DataStax, Apigee, inRiver PIM, Hybris PIM, Bynder DAM – spanning MACH/composable, enterprise integration, mobile, data platforms, and cloud architecture.

People and organisational leadership

Built leadership pipelines and mentored senior delivery leaders across EMEA. Supported integration of acquired businesses (PolSource, Emakina), coaching senior leaders and aligning delivery methods with EPAM standards. Coordinated support across the portfolio for the relocation of more than 2,000 employees during the 2022 Ukraine crisis while protecting delivery continuity across affected accounts. Applied Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, DevOps, and DORA metrics pragmatically – focusing on whether methods improved flow, ownership, and outcomes.

Digital Programme Director

BMI Group

2017 – 2018 · 1 yr

Post-merger digital transformation across eight European countries. Led RFI/RFP, procurement, and implementation of a multinational Sitecore platform, PIM capability, partner portal, and group intranet. Consolidated 100+ local websites and 15+ local brands into a shared multilingual estate.

Interim CTO

Independent Audit Limited

2015 – 2017 · 1.5 yrs

Redesigned a governance survey product as a configurable multi-tenant SaaS platform on Microsoft Azure. Led product strategy, architecture, commercial modelling, and nearshore delivery. Worked directly with the Managing Director, Chair, and non-executive directors.

Interim CIO / Global Programme Director

Kaplan International

2013 – 2015 · 1.5 yrs

Led technology delivery and operations supporting 110,000+ students annually across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Managed 80 internal FTE and 30 suppliers. Built multinational commerce and content platform; implemented Salesforce CRM and Moodle learning systems.

Operations Director / Digital Engagement Director

Capgemini

2010 – 2013 · 3 yrs

Helped establish Capgemini UK Digital, scaling the team from 75 to 160+ people in nine months across commerce, Drupal, Salesforce, and DevOps capabilities. Led delivery at Burberry (pre-EPAM era). Managed a business-unit P&L of approximately £22M.

Programme & Business Unit Leadership

NEC Europe, LogicaCMG

2000 – 2010 · 10 yrs

Programme management, bid leadership, solution architecture, and business unit leadership across biometrics, venue technology, transport, retail, and public-sector programmes. Clients included the Houses of Parliament and The O2.