Leadership infrastructure that lets decisions move without everything depending on stamina.

THE GAP

Most leadership problems don’t announce themselves.

A decision gets made. Everyone agrees.
And then very little actually changes.

Execution drifts. Priorities blur. People work harder to compensate. Over time, the system quietly trains everyone to work around it instead of through it.

Everything in this work exists to close that gap so good decisions actually turn into action.

WHEN THIS SHOWS UP

Your team has grown quickly.
Decisions pile up at the top.
Board materials are last minute.
Strategic time keeps getting swallowed by firefighting.

Leadership is working harder, but momentum is slowing.
The people who can see what’s coming start thinking about leaving.
Not because they don’t believe in the vision.
Because they watched something fixable become unfixable.

That’s usually the moment the system needs attention.

WHY THIS HAPPENS

Leadership doesn’t fail because people don’t care.
It fails when structure ignores context.

At Babbel, I built and led the CEO Office as the company scaled from €100m to €300m towards IPO readiness. The work sat at the centre of strategy and execution.

That meant designing decision frameworks and leadership rhythm that held under pressure. It also meant running cross-functional initiatives that didn’t belong neatly in one team, and taking on the decisions and projects that would otherwise have landed on the CEO’s desk by default.

Alongside this, I built and led a team of four EAs and redesigned the function so it operated with judgement and context, not just task execution. Executive communications and external positioning were part of the system, because strategy only scales when direction travels.

Working across Berlin, New York, Melbourne, London, and India reinforced a simple truth: what works in one context often fails in another. Effective systems depend on the people, the stage, and the conditions they’re operating in. You can’t copy and paste clarity.

WHAT A CEO OFFICE ACTUALLY IS

A CEO Office is not bureaucracy.

It’s the integration of operational infrastructure, executive communications, and leadership enablement that creates clarity, protects capacity, and keeps strategic work moving as complexity increases.

That typically includes:

Operational infrastructure
Decision frameworks, operating rhythm, priority setting, information flow, and AI-enabled workflows that keep leadership aligned and focused.

Executive communications
Internal and external communication that connects vision to execution and builds trust across teams, boards, and investors. This isn’t messaging. It’s part of the system.

Leadership enablement
Structure around the leadership team and executive support that expands capacity without adding headcount or dependency.

HOW I WORK | DESIGN AND EXECUTE

This work doesn’t land through decks alone.
Systems only stick when someone carries them until they hold.

Fractional Chief of Staff
Embedded support, typically two to three days per week. I take ownership of cross-functional work, handle decisions that would otherwise escalate to the CEO, and adjust systems in real time while the business keeps moving. Capacity lifts immediately. Infrastructure stays.

CEO Office Build
A three to six month engagement to design and implement complete leadership infrastructure. Decision frameworks, operating rhythm, priority setting, executive communications, and EA or Chief of Staff structures. From diagnosis through build and handover, with optional ongoing fractional support.

Focused sprints
Two to eight weeks for single-system builds such as decision frameworks, board operations, AI workflow design, or communications infrastructure.

All work is built around how the business actually operates, not imported frameworks.

THE POINT

Most leadership problems don’t need fixing.
They need designing properly in the first place.

Catch them while they’re still fixable.
That’s where everything gets lighter.