CIO, CISO & vCISO
Your leadership team is making technology and security decisions without a technology leader in the room.
Starkhorn gives mid-market and not-for-profit organisations senior technology and security leadership without a permanent hire. We step in as your fractional or interim CIO or CISO, or as a virtual CISO, shaped around what you actually need. The person you speak to is the person who does the work.
With 20+ years in technology and security, 15+ of them in leadership roles, we give a board the clarity it needs on its technology and security position.
That experience is why we take the work on, and why we are confident enough to be judged on the first 90 days.
In technology and security
M&A integration delivered across complex operations
Staff led at VetPartners, a GBP 1.2bn group across nine countries
One leader, both capabilities, available as a virtual CISO too
We deliver change with people, not to people. The IT team that has been running your technology knows more about what is really going on than any external assessment will surface alone.
Our role is to bring the strategic lens they do not have, not to replace the operational knowledge they do.
This is for you if any of these sound familiar
The Leadership Vacuum
Your CIO or IT Director has left, or should have.
The board is exposed, the IT team is drifting, and you cannot wait six months for a permanent hire.
You need someone credible in the chair within days, not months.
The Stalled Integration
You have acquired a business and the technology integration is behind schedule.
The due diligence identified risks but nobody is executing on the findings.
The value of the deal is slipping away while systems stay separate.
The Not-for-Profit Gap
You are a charity or not-for-profit carrying the same data, cyber and continuity obligations as any commercial organisation, usually on a tighter budget.
You need senior technology and security leadership your finance committee or board of trustees can actually approve. A fractional CIO or CISO gives you exactly that, at a cost that fits.
Stalled Programme
A major technology programme has lost momentum.
The board has lost confidence in the current approach.
You need someone who has turned around stalled transformations before, not another consulting report telling you what you already know.
The Capability Gap
Your IT manager is operationally competent but is not strategic.
Nobody is connecting technology to the business plan, challenging suppliers, or presenting a technology roadmap at board level.
The chief executive is spending hours every week on technology decisions they should not be making.
The Cybersecurity Question
The board is asking questions about cyber risk that nobody in the business can answer confidently.
You do not need a full-time CISO. You need a virtual CISO who can build the governance framework, present to the board, and give you and your insurers confidence.
The Continuity Requirement
Your board or funder has told you technology and security governance needs strengthening.
The plan includes technology change, but there is no technology leader to own it.
People are asking questions you cannot yet answer.
The Supplier Problem
Technology costs are rising every year and nobody can say whether you are getting value.
Contracts auto renew without challenge. Multiple teams buy overlapping tools.
Your supplier tells you everything is fine, but they are the ones billing you.
Most organisations recognise several of these. The savings are a by-product of seeing the full picture clearly, something an independent technology leader spots in days that an internal team misses for years.
Embed-to-Independence: how a fractional CIO engagement runs
Understanding
Within the first week, we have met the people who actually run your technology, not just the org chart, the reality.
We understand how the organisation works, where the dependencies are, who carries the knowledge, the risks, and what the real pressures look like.
This is not an audit done to your team. It is done with them.
Clarity
The honest picture emerges, turned into a clear, prioritised view of where you are and what needs to happen in what order.
Not just what the technology looks like on paper, but what it means: what is costing money, what carries risk, what is holding growth back, and what is working well.
This is a working plan, not a deck for the shelf. The board starts receiving reporting in language they understand.
Direction
This is where the work actually gets done. Programmes move, risks are addressed, and the board-ready roadmap is prioritised, costed and sequenced by impact.
Supplier renegotiations get underway. The IT team has a plan they helped shape, which means they will actually deliver it.
Delivery
Every engagement is designed to leave your organisation stronger and more self-sufficient than it was, never dependent on an outside presence.
The roadmap is now owned by your own people, supplier renegotiations are complete, and the board receives reporting it can act on every cycle. The measure of success is how well you run after we leave.
Who you work with
You work with me, not a rotating bench.
I am Daniel Jacobs. With 20+ years in technology and security, 15+ of them in leadership roles, I have led technology in complex, multi-site organisations as CIO, CISO, or both. The person who assesses your technology is the person who presents to your board, and that person is me, from the first call to the day you no longer need me.
More about Daniel →Technology and security leadership is concentrated, accountable work.
Senior technology and security leadership proven at scale, from a GBP 1.2bn group of 14,000 staff across nine countries to mid-market and not-for-profit organisations. Specialising in technology strategy, M&A integration, cyber security governance, supplier consolidation, and value protection.
Published author of Building Your Private AI, Silence the Inner Noise, and The Strategy Bridge, available on Amazon. Non-Executive Director for Digital and Technology at Age UK, and Fractional Associate Director of IT at Alzheimer’s Society.
How to Think, Decide, and Lead Beyond the Middle
Written for the middle management leaders doing the job of a system that was never built.
You are not the problem. The system around you is.
Most leadership books assume you are the problem. You are not. You are the keystone: the piece holding both sides in place while the arch was never designed to hold you back. Twelve structural tools to rebuild the system around you. No budget. No permission required.
Common questions
Can a fractional CIO replace a consulting firm?
A fractional CIO or CISO works with you part-time on an ongoing, retained basis, an embedded member of the leadership team who knows your organisation over time. An interim CIO or CISO steps in close to full-time for a defined period, usually to handle urgency such as a departure, transformation or incident. A virtual CISO is security-specific senior leadership, often delivered remotely, owning your cyber strategy, risk and board reporting. We provide all three and help you choose the right one in the first conversation.
How does a fractional CIO work on a part time basis?
No. Private-equity-backed groups are one segment we serve, not the whole story. The core audience is mid-market and not-for-profit organisations of roughly 100 to 5,000 employees and GBP 30m to GBP 4bn turnover, including privately owned businesses, charities and growing companies. Alzheimer’s Society and Age UK are live examples of work in the not-for-profit sector.
Our MSP already gives us strategic advice. Why do we need you?
Yes, and it is often the most responsible option. Charities and not-for-profits carry the same data, cyber security and continuity obligations as commercial organisations, usually with tighter budgets. A fractional CIO or CISO gives a finance committee or board of trustees access to senior leadership at a cost they can approve. Alzheimer’s Society is a current fractional engagement and Age UK is a current non-executive directorship.
Wondering whether an interim CIO is just a placeholder?
It means there is no software to resell, no commission, no referral fee and no agency layer. Every recommendation is made on its merits, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to spend the money. There is also no handover: the person you speak to in the first conversation is the person who does the work, on day one and on day ninety.
What does a fractional CIO cost compared to a full-time hire?
Once an engagement is agreed, briefing happens within 24 hours and work can begin within days, not the months a permanent search or an agency process would take. There is no internal resourcing process and no handover to a different person, which matters most when a leadership gap appears suddenly through a departure, a security incident or a stalled programme.
Choose your engagement model
For Urgent Situations
Interim CIO/CISO
Your CIO has left, an acquisition needs integrating, a transformation has stalled, a security incident needs senior accountability, or the board has lost confidence in technology leadership.
We step in embedded, typically within 1 to 2 weeks, close to full-time, for as long as the situation demands.
Day rates, monthly rolling, no long-term lock-in.
Mid-market and not-for-profit organisations
facing a departure, an incident or a stalled programme.
For Ongoing Leadership
Fractional CIO/CISO
You need a technology and security leader at the board level, but cannot justify, or do not need, a full-time CIO or CISO. Starting at 2 days per month.
Board attendance, technology roadmap, supplier management, cyber security governance, and IT team mentoring.
Monthly retainer, no lock-in, emergency availability included.
Mid-market and not-for-profit organisations
with a real agenda and no full-time CIO in the seat.
For Security Leadership
Virtual CISO (vCISO)
You need accountable security leadership without a full-time hire, often delivered remotely.
Cyber strategy, risk register, governance, and board reporting, owned end to end and presented in language trustees and boards understand.
The same person who sets the strategy stays to deliver it. No handoff. No knowledge lost.
Boards and trustees who need cyber confidence.
Every month without strategic technology and security leadership
of ERP implementations fail
Average cost of a cyber security breach (UK, IBM 2024)
of acquirers discover major tech risks post-close that due diligence should have caught
to briefed and working within days, not the months a permanent search would take
Every month without strategic technology and security leadership is a month in which supplier contracts auto-renew without challenge, technical debt compounds, cyber security posture degrades without governance, and decisions with board-level consequences are made by people without board-level visibility.
These are not abstract risks. They are the cost of not having someone whose job it is to see them coming.
“The Technology Health Check takes minutes. The conversation takes 15. With 20+ years in technology and security, we give a board the clarity it needs.”
In their words
What colleagues say
Dan served as Interim Group Technology Director at a multinational operating across nine countries, shaped by rapid acquisition. He was excellent in that environment, and what sets him apart is his ability to deliver through people.
Daniel has a strong strategic mindset and an impressive ability to navigate complex challenges. He is one of those leaders who naturally brings people together.
The most exceptional CIO I have encountered in my career. His ability to leverage technology to drive business outcomes has been amazing.
A highly strategic and business-focused CIO with the rare quality of being able to bridge the gap between technology and the commercial goals of the organisation.
A different model
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The Technology Health Check shows where your technology and security leadership has gaps, scored across eight dimensions with a one-line recommendation for each. It is anonymised, free, and available now.
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A 15 minute conversation about your situation. We will tell you honestly whether we can help and what the first steps would look like. No pitch. No obligation.
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