Strategy•Governance•Transformation
Strategic advisory and fractional leadership
for causes that matter
Coeur de Lion advises purpose-led organisations as a boutique firm. Senior judgement comes with accountability for the result, and the founder leads every engagement from the first conversation to the final handover. We work with organisations whose purpose we believe in.
We hold no hidden vendor partnerships and no undisclosed obligations, and our advice does not depend on anything else we sell. If a particular tool or partner suits you best, we will name it.
Purpose-led organisations meet pressures much like those of large multinationals, with far fewer resources to answer them. Coeur de Lion brings senior expertise to organisations such as these.
These are the organisations we know best. Any organisation that shares these values is welcome to get in touch, whether or not its sector appears here.
You may already have a solution in mind. We listen to the problem behind it first, and we test the assumptions around it with you before we suggest anything.
We know the established methods well and use them where they help. The answer is shaped for your organisation, around your people, your budget, and your pace.
You will hear what we think, said clearly and kindly, with the detail behind it. Ask us anything, however blunt.
Engagements can be priced in several ways, from a fixed price to fees tied to the outcome. We work with you to find the arrangement that suits you best, and agree it before any work begins.
We keep improving the tools we use ourselves, and we share them openly. Coeur de Lion is run on a self-hosted, open-source AI operating model that we built, and the methods and tools we make for our own use are on GitHub. Client work and client data stay confidential.
Operational leadership is available to an organisation without a six-month search, for as long as the work requires, whether it needs to set a strategy or roadmap, reshape how it operates, or lead a transformation. We are accountable for the outcomes, and the engagement ends when the job is done.
An organisation that lacks the experience in-house can work directly with an adviser who has done the job before. The work also covers AI Readiness and Governance Advisory: adopting AI safely, with data sovereignty and privacy built in from the start, and with open-source, self-hosted alternatives to Big Tech where they fit.
A board that wants an outside view can appoint Kishen as a trustee or non-executive director, with the vote and fiduciary duties those roles carry. He is also available as a board adviser or advisory board member, roles that carry no vote or fiduciary duty.
Recovered a failing divestment programme worth more than £1bn under active regulatory scrutiny, re-baselining the integrated plan and producing the regulator-facing plan of record for technology scope to meet regulatory timelines.
Deal value protected and regulator confidence restored, with the re-baselined plan of record accepted against regulatory timelines.
Board trustee through the merger of two education charities into a unified organisation, contributing to strategic oversight, governance, and the Charity Commission due diligence a merger of that scale demands.
The unified charity now supports more than 30,000 young people a year across London, backed by a volunteer network 2,500 strong.
Established, from the ground up, the office for a transformation portfolio of more than $30m, with board-level oversight across five countries.
Faster funding decisions and portfolio-wide risk visibility across EMEA and Asia Pacific, with the office adopted as the insurer’s permanent operating structure.
Acting EMEA Head of Change for 18 months, leading a distributed team of 24 through major organisational realignment. Established a regional change governance framework and an executive programme management office (PMO), resolving multiple outstanding regulatory findings, and led the overhaul of the anti-money laundering (AML) Centre of Excellence, enabling centralisation of global AML operations under a single function.
Outstanding regulatory findings resolved, further supervisory monitoring prevented, and global AML operations centralised under a single function.
Recovered a stalled, multi-tiered £30m regulatory remediation programme in the group’s financial services business, during a live acquisition of that business.
Compliance safeguarded for more than 500,000 customer accounts, with the remediation completed inside the acquisition timeline, protecting the transaction.
Shaped and delivered a $20m regulatory compliance programme over 18 months, under the sponsorship of the Chief Information Officer and the Chief Security Officer.
Delivered on time with no repeat findings, strengthening operational resilience ahead of the regulatory deadline.
Designed governance controls for a €6.1bn non-performing loan portfolio under European Central Bank and Central Bank of Ireland scrutiny.
Assurance controls met Joint Supervisory Team requirements across the full €6.1bn portfolio.
Non-executive director through a period of significant organisational development, including the establishment of a dedicated entity for people-powered networks. Served on the new entity’s board from its formation, shaping its governance as it scaled.
From a standing start in 2020 to more than 250 grassroots groups hosted and £8.7m distributed to communities in a single year.
Founding director of the UK entity, shaping its governance and strategic direction through to its integration with a partner social enterprise.
More than 200 community groups were using the platform by the time of integration, becoming the successor entity’s founding book of hosted groups.
Has served as a corporate advisory board member, advising on strategy, governance, and organisational development in support of the charity’s social mobility mission.
The charity now engages 230,000 young people across England and Wales through schools, colleges, and digital programmes.
Led post-acquisition integration workstreams across more than 600 acquired branches and the decommissioning of 141 legacy systems, inside the group’s in-house strategy function.
Three consecutive acquisitions integrated onto a single operating model, with more than 600 branches migrated and 141 legacy systems retired.
Country Management Committee member, working from the Chief Executive’s office to lead strategic change across East Africa: a 13-month core banking replacement and a pan-African SME product strategy rolled out across seven countries.
Core banking replaced in 13 months; the SME product and marketing strategy went live across seven countries.
Successive senior programme and portfolio roles across the European Commission-mandated divestment of one of the UK’s largest high-street banks. Led the programme management office (PMO) of a business and technology programme worth about £25m, managed £16m of platform delivery to route-to-live, and governed delivery readiness across more than 220 concurrent programmes through to brand separation.
Brand separation delivered in line with European Commission competition requirements, with critical delivery deadlines met.
Evaluated business plans and funding proposals for more than 50 civil-society organisations seeking donor funding, serving on the grant assessment committee of a 10-donor rapid funding mechanism governed by the national AIDS commissions.
The fund channelled $9.7m to 88 civil-society organisations across Tanzania and was cited in planning documents of PEPFAR, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, as a proven success.
Developed the strategy and proposition for the sector body’s £38m government-backed modernisation programme, designed to give more than 400 UK credit unions access to new technology platforms, outsourced operations, and enhanced member services.
The proposition was adopted by the board, secured the programme’s funding tranche from the Department for Work and Pensions, and went live with a first wave of credit unions during the engagement.
Defined the Target Operating Model and governance framework for a newly created Group Risk Transformation Office, providing strategic oversight across regulatory, strategic, and technology transformation.
The office was stood up and operating to the design before the engagement closed, with refreshed governance, controls, and measures in place for group-level oversight.
Advised the UK Chief Operating Officer and Group leadership on a £20m programme aligning the UK private bank’s technology and operations with the group platform, brokering the three-way delivery commitment between the bank, its parent group, and the platform provider.
The three parties committed to a single programme plan, and the implementation completed on the date that plan had set.
Defined the UK country strategy and Target Operating Model for an offshore banking group weighing the future of its London operations, securing group alignment on exit and retention choices.
The group adopted the recommendation, wound down UK private banking, and carried the mortgage business forward under a dedicated entity launched in January 2017.
No engagements match: clear a filter.
Honest counsel comes first, including when it is difficult to hear, because good work begins there.
Every organisation is a community of people, and we shape the work around them.
We stay with what the evidence supports, even when a faster answer would be easier to sell.
Each engagement is shaped by the work: a fractional role held for a fixed term, a mandate defined in advance with a day rate, or an outcome-based scope tied to the result.
Coeur de Lion was set up so that the interests of the organisations it serves come before its own revenue. Our aim is to work with organisations whose values we share, and to leave work that outlasts the engagement.
The skills and rigour that well-resourced organisations take for granted deserve to reach the ones doing work that matters. That is the gap we bridge at Coeur de Lion.
© 2026 Coeur de Lion Limited. Registered in England and Wales No: 16791003. All rights reserved.
This site sets no cookies and does no cross-site tracking. Its analytics count visits and button clicks, share nothing with anyone, and run on our own server. Our privacy policy explains more.