§ A SHORT NOTE

Strategic counsel where decisions carry consequence.

Dr Kate Barker advises boards, governments, and senior executives operating at scale, where decisions carry long-term institutional, economic, and societal consequence.

Kate. May 2026, London
PORTRAIT PLATE

Work spans leadership, governance, workforce transformation, and emerging technology, supporting decision-making and oversight at the highest levels. Engagements are shaped around moments of consequence: transformation, succession, strategic inflection, and heightened stakeholder scrutiny.

Advisory work has been delivered across the Middle East, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America, supporting sovereign entities and global enterprises overseeing complex systems and large workforces. Assignments have included national skills and workforce reform, AI and technology governance, board leadership effectiveness, and energy-sector transition priorities.

Engagements are structured, confidential, and agenda-led. Work is aligned to governance cadence, executive decision cycles, and institutional accountability, rather than imposed frameworks or generic advisory models.

This work is designed for leaders and boards where decisions must stand up to scrutiny operationally, reputationally, and historically.

Kate holds a PhD in Leadership in the Age of AI, an MBA, a Masters in psychology, and a Bachelor of Business. Her academic and professional work examines how leadership, trust, and governance must evolve as technology scales faster than institutional confidence. She has held senior advisory roles on large-scale transformation programmes, including at NEOM, and advises boards and executive committees on leadership continuity, governance effectiveness, and future capability in complex operating environments.

Engagements are selective and typically initiated by referral or direct invitation.

§ II. TIMELINE

A practice, by year.

  1. 2014

    First board engagement

    A FTSE-250 nominating committee on the eve of a digital transformation.

  2. 2017

    Doctorate begins, Imperial

    Leadership in the AI Era, with field studies at three sovereign workforce programmes.

  3. 2020

    The Trust Advantage Index

    A framework that boards still use to test their own decision quality.

  4. 2022

    PhD conferred, Imperial College London

    Defended in viva by a panel chaired by the Dean of Imperial Business School.

  5. 2024

    Named No.1 Chief Futurist (Global)

    Top Professional Association, USA. The single most cited acknowledgement of the practice.

  6. 2026

    The Hidden Power, Penguin Business

    A working theory of relationship capital in the age of intelligent machines.

06 A NEW BOOK · PENGUIN BUSINESS

The Hidden Power

Relationship capital in the AI era.

I ntelligence is now the cheap resource. Trust is the scarce one. The Hidden Power is a working theory of how organisations accumulate and lose relationship capital, told through six case studies and a quiet argument with the assumption that AI is mostly a technology problem.

Coming soon
The Hidden Power, hardcover edition photographed on a dark studio backdrop. Gold foil title on a cream cover with a black spine.
09 GET IN TOUCH

A first conversation, without obligation.

Forty-five minutes. Confidential. Every enquiry read personally.

By appointment