About
Fractional AI Operations Lead for UK mid-market businesses.
Working with boards and leadership teams to close the gap between AI investment and AI return.
The short version
Mike Fraser is a fractional technology leader who helps mid-market UK businesses move from AI experimentation to AI that is governed, measured, and operating reliably.
Most of my current work sits in the AI Middle: the point at which a business has made real AI investments and has tools in use, but has no single person owning the outcome, no measurement discipline, and no board-ready view of what the programme is delivering. I step into that gap.
The focus is Finance and Operations: the two functions where AI has the clearest return and the widest gap between ambition and result. I translate what is happening across the AI programme into commercial language the board can act on, own the supplier and vendor relationships, and stay in place long enough to close the gap rather than hand over a report.
I work on a fractional basis, part of the leadership team rather than a consultant visiting once a quarter, and keep my fractional CTO capability for boards that also need broader technology leadership.
Engagements are remote-first, with in-person time for key milestones. The focus is established, profitable organisations in the UK mid-market, typically £15m to £100m revenue, where AI is already being spent but not yet governed.
Background
15 years leading technology in listed and mid-market companies.
15 years of technology leadership across listed and mid-market companies, with experience spanning telecommunications, manufacturing, media, compliance, education and agriculture. Now independent, working on fractional and interim engagements.
2024 to present
Independent
Fractional and Interim CTO
Strategy reviews, technology assurance for boards, and hands-on transformation programmes for businesses where technology has outgrown the leadership structure around it.
Feb 2021 to May 2024
National Milk Records, part of AB Foods Plc
Product and IT Director, Executive Leadership Team
On the Executive Leadership Team of the UK's leading dairy data and diagnostics business. Responsible for product, technology operations, supplier management and board-level reporting through the period leading up to its acquisition.
Jan 2019 to Mar 2020
Oxford Royale Academy
Chief Technology and Digital Officer
Built the digital and technology function for an international education business. Designed and delivered the platforms supporting commercial growth across multiple programmes and geographies.
Sep 2015 to Dec 2018
Wilmington Plc
Chief Technology Officer, Executive Board Member
Three years on the Executive Committee of an LSE-listed risk and compliance group. Led technology change across a multi-entity portfolio: platform consolidation, supplier rationalisation, and the integration and separation work that comes with active corporate development.
Jan 2011 to Aug 2015
Reed Business Information, part of RELX Plc
Director of Technology, Executive Leadership Team
Technology leadership across one of the UK's largest B2B information businesses. Platform migrations, vendor consolidation and operational improvement at scale, sitting on the divisional Executive Leadership Team.
Oct 2005 to Oct 2009
Reed Business Information, part of RELX Plc
Head of Product Development
First period at RELX. Led product development across digital information platforms, building the product and engineering foundations that supported later technology leadership roles.
Why this, now
The gap between AI investment and AI return is a leadership problem, not a technology problem.
Most mid-market AI programmes stall not because the technology fails, but because nobody owns the operational outcome. The tools are procured. The pilots run. Then the business waits for something to happen.
What is needed is an experienced operator who can assess the current state plainly, build the measurement and governance layer that is missing, align Finance and Operations around a shared view of what AI should deliver, and report that to the board in terms it can act on.
That is the job. It calls for technology fluency, commercial judgement, and the ability to operate at board level. It does not require a full-time hire at £150,000 a year.
Credentials
What the advice is grounded in.
Education
Executive MBA, Henley Business School. 2006 to 2009.
Digital MBA, CTO Academy. 2024 to 2025.
Experience at scale
The two MBAs sit either side of the career for a reason: Henley built the commercial and board grounding, CTO Academy sharpened the technology side. The work in between applied both.
That combination matters most in M&A: hands-on technology due diligence, integration across acquisitions, and technology separation across divestments, where reading a deal commercially and technically at the same time is the job.
Testimonials
What colleagues say about working with me.
Mike and I worked together at Wilmington plc. As CTO Mike did an excellent job of supporting me and my colleagues to deliver a wide-ranging business and technology integration programme. Mike is hard working, solution orientated and committed to delivering the right technology to solve business problems.
Terry Sweeney, Non-Executive Director & Chair
Mike and I have worked closely on the transformation of our London offices, working practices and business integration. My Executive Team colleagues and I have enjoyed working with Mike over the last three years: he's reliable, driven, solution focussed and always professional.
Tony Bainbridge, Director, Transforming Business Through Talent
I had the pleasure of working for Mike for just over a year at Oxford Royale Academy. His management style is second to none and brings out the absolute best in the whole team.
Mike gives superb direction, shows great appreciation to his team and is always incredibly generous with his time and knowledge, even when dealing with a huge personal workload.
He joined ORA at a time of great growth and introduced many new and improved systems which made the whole company far more effective. Mike valued each team member’s input before implementing new ways of working to ensure that he had everyone’s ‘buy in’. Naturally this made the introduction of new systems far easier to get off the ground.
Any company would be incredibly lucky to have Mike within their Senior Management Team and I very much hope I get the opportunity to work with him in the future.
Sandra Dibling, Corporate Relationship Manager, Oxford Royale Academy
BoardReadyIT
Why I built BoardReadyIT.
Not every organisation needs a fractional CTO on retainer. Some need a structure they can run themselves, this quarter, without a new hire or a consulting engagement.
BoardReadyIT is where that work lives: practical toolkits that turn common boardroom technology conversations, starting with IT spend, into artefacts an IT leader can take to the board. The same methodology, self-serve.
If AI has moved past the pilot stage in your business, get in touch.
Tell me where your AI programme is and what is not working. I'll say whether it's something I can help with, and if not, point you in the right direction.