David Tomlinson
David Tomlinson
Systems Thinker
2x Acquired
1x Founder
4x CEO
Systems Thinker
2x Acquired
1x Founder
4x CEO
Who I am
Left school at 16. Railway signals apprentice. Crossed from safety, to electronic, to computer engineering before 30. Ran a hardware encryption business. Built an award-winning encryption software business. Sold it. Four times CEO. Senior exec in a global cybersecurity company. Advised across defence, telecoms, finance and F1. Ten years on a Bank of England business panel.
Along the way: Patents, product launches, awards, a marketing business, growth and profit but also rising and falling revenues, contractual battles, boardroom fall-outs, restructurings, business splits, founder divorces, a hostile takeover and two major recessions.
The common thread isn't a sector or a specialism. It's that I have spent time in the room where something has gone wrong that nobody can quite explain.
Left school at 16. Railway signals apprentice. Crossed from safety, to electronic, to computer engineering before 30. Ran a hardware encryption business. Built an award-winning encryption software business. Sold it. Four times CEO. Senior exec in a global cybersecurity company. Advised across defence, telecoms, finance and F1. Ten years on a Bank of England business panel.
Along the way: Patents, product launches, awards, a marketing business, growth and profit but also rising and falling revenues, contractual battles, boardroom fall-outs, restructurings, business splits, founder divorces, a hostile takeover and two major recessions.
The common thread isn't a sector or a specialism. It's that I have spent time in the room where something has gone wrong that nobody can quite explain.
How I think
I changed careers at 30 and discovered that being the most ignorant person in the room was a superpower. When you don't know the orthodoxy, you ask the questions everyone else has learned not to.
I've been doing that ever since. Turns out most stuck problems aren't complicated. They're just surrounded by people too close to see them clearly, or too invested in the current explanation to seriously look for a better one.
I don't arrive with a framework or a methodology. I arrive with curiosity and no agenda beyond finding the truth of the situation. That's harder to sell than a twelve-step process, but it's what actually works.
I changed careers at 30 and discovered that being the most ignorant person in the room was a superpower. When you don't know the orthodoxy, you ask the questions everyone else has learned not to.
I've been doing that ever since. Turns out most stuck problems aren't complicated. They're just surrounded by people too close to see them clearly, or too invested in the current explanation to seriously look for a better one.
I don't arrive with a framework or a methodology. I arrive with curiosity and no agenda beyond finding the truth of the situation. That's harder to sell than a twelve-step process, but it's what actually works.
How I work
Short engagements. Direct access to people at every level. No politics, no retainer, no long-term dependency.
I take a base rate and a success fee, because I'd rather carry the risk than charge for time spent not delivering. If the work doesn't produce a result you'd willingly pay for, it hasn't worked.
When it does work, and it usually does, it's because the problem was already solvable. It just needed someone with nothing to lose to walk in and ask the kind of questions an employee would balk at.
And once the problem is clear, I don't have to leave. If it helps, I'll stay while the changes are actually made, and make sure the people carrying them are supported through it.
I know what it feels like.
Short engagements. Direct access to people at every level. No politics, no retainer, no long-term dependency.
I take a base rate and a success fee, because I'd rather carry the risk than charge for time spent not delivering. If the work doesn't produce a result you'd willingly pay for, it hasn't worked.
When it does work, and it usually does, it's because the problem was already solvable. It just needed someone with nothing to lose to walk in and ask the kind of questions an employee would balk at.
And once the problem is clear, I don't have to leave. If it helps, I'll stay while the changes are actually made, and make sure the people carrying them are supported through it.
I know what it feels like.
Copyright © 2025 David Tomlinson
Wellisford Consulting. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2025 David Tomlinson
Wellisford Consulting. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2025 David Tomlinson
Wellisford Consulting. All rights reserved.