Bio / Strategic Profile

Nick Nettleton

I am a hands-on technology leader, ex-agency Founder/CTO, and an award-winning AI expert, specializing in bridging complex technical realities with human-centered strategies. After two decades of successfully building and scaling platforms for major international and public-facing organizations, I am now focused on technology and design leadership roles in public services and mission-led industries.

My career is defined by my gift for translating complexity into actionable strategy, a skill essential for solving the high-stakes problems facing government and industry today.

Technical Credentials

AI Leadership & Explainability (XAI)

Explainability is probably the major issue in AI today, affecting business use, regulation and public confidence.

  • I recently won a National Institutes for Health (NIH) Prize for AI Explainability, achieving a global #2 ranking for a model predicting cognitive capacity from health data.

  • This work combined my expertise in Design Thinking and technology communication with formal theoretical knowledge of the mathematics and algorithms. This is backed by my formal training (Imperial College AI/ML Certificate, 100%) and my foundational background in Philosophy (BA(hons) First Class), providing the ethical framework necessary for leading responsible AI adoption.

Ecosystem Architecture & Scale

  • I have designed and led the development of national and global ecosystem technology platforms, such as Cyclescheme which successfully unified thousands of independent suppliers and employers into a single digital workflow. This system scaled to generate £50M+ in annual revenue.

  • I have led the end-to-end modernization of numerous legacy industry technology and data platforms, successfully migrating them to modern cloud architectures with modern, agile, user-centred design and development governance processes.

Leadership, Governance & Turnaround

Data Governance

  • I have led the architecture and risk assessment for projects such as a UKRI-funded MedTech project designed to hold special category clinical and genetic data in partnership with major NHS and academic institutions. This involved ensuring compliance, security, and establishing trusted co-design partnerships with patients, clinicians and subject-matter specialists such as the RNIB.

C-Suite Influence & Programme Rescue

  • Complex technology programmes and legacy platforms frequently get stuck. I have long experience of addressing these challenges, turning failing platforms into industry leaders through collaboration, governance and streamlining.

  • I successfully navigated a critical, high-risk global platform migration for a major global travel group, securing buy-in from UK and global boards by translating technical risk into a clear, visual de-risked strategy.

  • My background includes 18 years of P&L responsibility and building high-performing, international, multidisciplinary teams, resulting in exceptional staff loyalty with core team retention of 5-10 years.

Next Steps

Details of my full experience is available on request. Please message me via LinkedIn.

I work with organisations across the UK, US and Europe from my base in London.