Assured Velocity was founded by Brian, Tom, Joe, and Richard to bridge a critical gap in mid-market consulting. Mid-tier businesses often face high-stakes transformations - ERP implementations, operational overhauls, technology upgrades - but lack the senior expertise to execute without excessive risk or cost.
How We Started
We launched as a senior-led alternative: small squads of top-tier specialists providing advisory and hands-on implementation. We focus on outcomes - derisking change, accelerating delivery, and leaving clients self-sufficient with proven tools and patterns.
Our flagship Velocity Readiness Survey gives boards a pre-commitment review to spot risks early - often delivered via accountant partners who value independent escalation.
Partnering for Impact
We collaborate closely with regional accountants and auditors - typically the first to spot when a client's transformation is at risk. Together, we protect clients, unlock growth, and build lasting value.
The Problem We Saw
Traditional big consultancies deliver strategy but charge premium rates with layered teams that don't embed in execution. Internal hires bring single-discipline focus at full-time cost. System integrators push vendor agendas.
Mid-market leaders end up with fragmented advice, stalled projects, and blown budgets. The founders - drawing from decades leading enterprise transformations - recognised this: mid-market firms need enterprise-grade leadership across process, technology, and programme delivery, delivered fractionally and affordably.
Core Values
How we show up on every engagement.
Outcomes Over Output
We measure success by what changes, not what's presented. Delivery matters more than decks.
Advisory + Execution, Integrated
We don't stop at recommendations - we stay accountable through implementation and results.
Senior-Led, Always
Clients work with experienced practitioners, not layered teams. Expertise is front and centre throughout.
Commercially Grounded
Solutions are pragmatic, cost-aware, and executable within real constraints. Not theoretical frameworks.
Simplicity Drives Impact
We cut through complexity to design clear, effective processes and solutions that stick.
Partnership Mindset
We work as an extension of our clients' teams - aligned, invested, and accountable for outcomes.
What we are not
Built around what the mid-market actually needs.
Not a generalist strategy firm
We do not produce 200-page strategy reports and hand them back. We embed and deliver. Our engagements end with something working, not a document.
Not a technology integrator with a platform to sell
We carry no vendor relationships that pay us. Our technology advice is independent - the right system for your situation, not the one that earns us a margin.
Not a staffing business with an interim bench
You work with the partners who scoped the engagement. We do not send junior resource once the sale is made. The people on the pitch are the people in the room.
Not a firm that produces reports that sit in a drawer
Every engagement has a defined outcome with measurable success criteria agreed before we start. If we cannot commit to those outcomes, we say so upfront.
The team
Senior specialists. No layers. No vendor bias.
Each partner is deployed because of a specific type of situation - not as a generic advisory layer. Between us we cover operations excellence, technology and data, and transformation delivery. We plug in quickly, use proven enterprise patterns, and tailor them to mid-market constraints.
Partner, Business Transformation, Interim COO & Programme Execution
Joe Kay
25+ years leading enterprise-wide transformation across financial services, telecoms, retail, logistics, and infrastructure.
Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with tangible delivery of over £100m in cost savings and OPEX across 100+ programmes including BCG, Aviva, Allianz, HSBC & Network Rail.
Engaged when performance has stalled, aligning strategy with execution to deliver business outcomes, or the board lacks a credible improvement roadmap.
MA Economics, University of Manchester | CIMA Stage 3 | Six Sigma MBB
Richard is a senior transformation leader, enterprise architect, and fractional CTO brought in when technology risk is real, programmes have stalled, and boards need someone who can take ownership and deliver. With over two decades of hands-on experience across cloud architecture, AI integration, data governance, and programme recovery, he combines deep technical authority with the commercial and board-level fluency to operate under genuine pressure. His track record spans regulated banking, defence, and SaaS environments, with documented outcomes including £50m capital release, £21m annual Opex reduction, and £70m business case impact across post-acquisition, regulatory remediation, and PE-backed scale. Where others assess, Richard fixes it.
Doctorate in Business Administration | MBA | Masters in Big Data & Business Intelligence
Partner, Business Transformation, Programme Delivery and Recovery & Delivery Assurance
Brian Ford
An enthusiastic, ambitious, committed, friendly and proven senior global leader with programme delivery, quality assurance, integration, change and transformation expertise. Previously a Senior Director with both EY & Capgemini, he is highly experienced in strategic planning, problem solving and solutioning, digital transformation, cybersecurity and business or IT transformation at director/exec level. Having worked with industry leading organisations in banking and insurance, he has a rigorous and engaging approach supported by creative thinking, strong delivery and engagement skills that enable successful delivery and the realisation of business benefits.
Prior Senior Director, EY & Capgemini | B. Comm (Accounting & Information Systems)
Partner, Process Transformation & Operations Excellence
Tom Henry
Process and ways of working transformation specialist across Financial Services, Professional Services and mid sized PE backed companies.
Tom is a qualified lean black belt with a blended background in senior operational leadership, Tier 1 consulting and transformation leadership.
Focusses on rapid diagnostics and strategically aligned operating model change. Tom has delivered 50%+ lead time savings, 20%+ FTE savings and 8 figures of cost out across clients, by focussing on practical implementation when performance is under regulatory, growth or delivery pressure. Tom has significant experience in defining cases for enabling use of technology tools such as automation and AI.
Lean Black Belt L2A | PRINCE2 Practitioner | BBA, University of Bath
"Richard and the team gave us immediate senior visibility on a programme that had been drifting for 18 months. Within six weeks we had a credible recovery plan and board confidence restored."
CTO · UK Financial Services
"Joe doesn't just advise - he gets into the detail and makes it happen. The Lean programme he led delivered £4m in annualised savings in under a year."
Operations Director · Logistics
"What sets Assured Velocity apart is that you always speak to the person doing the work. No handoffs, no junior layers, no surprises."
CEO · Insurance MGA
"Brian brought structure and calm to a programme that had lost both. The governance he put in place meant we delivered on time despite a hostile vendor."
Programme Sponsor · Banking
"Assured Velocity named the risk clearly, gave us a board-ready view, and made the next move obvious."
CFO · Mid-market business
"Fixed scope. Useful output. No pressure toward a vendor path."
CEO · Growth-stage operator
"The Business Review told us things we suspected but could not articulate. The board walked away aligned."
COO · Insurance business
"Independent, senior, and honest about what they could and could not help with. Rare."
MD · PE-backed manufacturer
"Richard and the team gave us immediate senior visibility on a programme that had been drifting for 18 months. Within six weeks we had a credible recovery plan and board confidence restored."
CTO · UK Financial Services
"Joe doesn't just advise - he gets into the detail and makes it happen. The Lean programme he led delivered £4m in annualised savings in under a year."
Operations Director · Logistics
"What sets Assured Velocity apart is that you always speak to the person doing the work. No handoffs, no junior layers, no surprises."
CEO · Insurance MGA
"Brian brought structure and calm to a programme that had lost both. The governance he put in place meant we delivered on time despite a hostile vendor."
Programme Sponsor · Banking
"Assured Velocity named the risk clearly, gave us a board-ready view, and made the next move obvious."
CFO · Mid-market business
"Fixed scope. Useful output. No pressure toward a vendor path."
CEO · Growth-stage operator
"The Business Review told us things we suspected but could not articulate. The board walked away aligned."
COO · Insurance business
"Independent, senior, and honest about what they could and could not help with. Rare."
MD · PE-backed manufacturer
How we work
Work directly with the partners.
No account managers, no junior teams. The person you speak to on day one is the person who leads the work.
Assured Velocity Limited was founded in 2026 by four senior practitioners - Joe Kay, Richard Danks, Brian Ford, and Tom Henry - each with 25 or more years of enterprise transformation experience. The firm is independent and partner-owned, registered in England and Wales as company number 17171503.
Why was Assured Velocity founded?
To do transformation work the way the founders had always wanted to but rarely could under traditional consultancy structures. Specifically: partners doing the actual delivery, vendor-neutral recommendations, fixed-fee scope rather than open time-and-materials, and engagements designed for mid-market constraints rather than enterprise apparatus.
What does "practitioners not process factories" mean?
It is the operating principle. Every engagement is led by a partner who has personally delivered the work they are recommending - not a process framework run by juniors. The implication is that the people in front of the client are accountable for outcomes, not for selling the next phase.
What does Assured Velocity not do?
We do not do strategy consultancy in the traditional sense, financial advisory, audit, tax, or recruitment. We do not run process-led engagements where the framework is more important than the outcome. We do not take work where the right answer is a Big-4 firm, a specialist boutique, or no consultant at all - we will say so.
What sectors does Assured Velocity work in?
Active sectors include financial services, insurance (MGAs and brokers), manufacturing, logistics and supply chain, professional services, retail and hospitality, healthcare, housing associations, private equity portfolios, energy and utilities, and software and SaaS. The methodology is consistent; benchmarks and language are sector-specific.
What scale of organisation does Assured Velocity work with?
Typically £10m to £100m turnover - the mid-market band. We also work with PE-backed portfolios within that range, with referrals from accountancy partners advising clients of that scale, and occasionally with larger enterprises on specific recovery or independent-review engagements.
Where is Assured Velocity based?
Registered office at 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. The firm operates across the UK and Europe. Partners are based in different parts of the UK, which means we travel to clients rather than expecting clients to travel to us.
Is Assured Velocity independent of technology vendors?
Yes. Assured Velocity holds no implementation revenue, takes no referral fees, and has no platform partnerships. This is a structural commitment that the founders deliberately built into the firm to ensure that technology and vendor recommendations carry no commercial bias.
How is Assured Velocity governed?
Partner-owned and partner-governed, with no external investors. Quality control is exercised by each partner being accountable for their own engagements end-to-end. Engagements are reviewed by a second partner where the situation warrants independent oversight.
How can I get in touch with Assured Velocity?
Book a scoping call via our website, email info@assured-velocity.com, or contact any of the partners directly via LinkedIn. A senior partner will respond within one working day.
All engagements are led by senior practitioners - not junior teams.
