Dr Kate Barker advises boards, CEOs and executive teams on the human consequences of AI: judgement, trust, governance, influence, capability and transformation. Her work spans board advisory, consulting, executive coaching and keynote speaking.
Boards, governments, global companies, consulting firms and academic institutions. The work travels across the rooms where AI, strategy and human judgement are being decided.
Reach out about something not on this list.
Write to meare we scaling intelligence or hollowing capability?
do we need a chief AI officer?
what belongs in an AI board pre-read?
how do leaders stay trusted when machines know more?
where is cognitive erosion already showing up?
which decisions should never be delegated?
are we scaling intelligence, or following capability?
where is AI creative value, and where is it just theatre?
The question is not whether AI changes the work. It is who in the room is accountable for that change.
KATE BARKEREqual weight, no hierarchy. Pick the doorway that fits the week you are having.
Strategic keynotes on leadership, artificial intelligence, trust, and the future of work in an age of accelerating technological change. Each one challenges leaders to rethink how organisations make decisions, build trust, and develop talent as intelligent systems reshape the global economy.
GLOBAL KEYNOTES Explore Keynote Speaking
Senior counsel to chairs, board members, and executive committees where decisions carry material consequence for strategy, risk, leadership, and public trust. Confidential, agenda-led work that strengthens board judgement, decision quality, and oversight in periods of transition and heightened scrutiny.
RETAINED COUNSEL Explore Board Advisory
A high-trust, confidential partnership for senior leaders navigating complexity, board transitions, succession, transformation, or expanded influence. Space for sharper judgement and more deliberate action, shaped around the realities of leadership at the top. By invitation or referral.
PRIVATE PROGRAMMES Explore Executive Coaching
Work with boards, CEOs, and executive committees navigating complexity, transformation, and institutional risk at scale. Enterprise-level challenges across leadership, governance, workforce capability, and technology-enabled transformation. Selective engagements, anchored to decision quality rather than methodology alone.
ENTERPRISE-SCALE ENGAGEMENTS Explore Strategic Consulting
Board-level advisory to a 60,000-person global technology enterprise: an enterprise-wide AI readiness baseline and a Human + AI Workforce Integration Model embedded into board oversight.
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Senior advisory on a Kingdom-scale human-capability programme aligned to Vision 2030 — a national workforce transformation framework, with 620,000+ citizens reskilled.
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Senior board advisory to a global energy company in the Gulf: a board leadership diagnostic and succession framework aligned to energy transition and governance excellence.
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Senior advisory to a 46,000-person multinational pharma — realigning capability architecture, operating model, and leadership priorities under innovation, regulatory, and competitive pressure.
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Strategic advisory to a 14,500-person GCC retail & investment bank — board governance, leadership continuity, and AI/transformation oversight across the UAE and wider Gulf.
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Strategic advisory to a 72,000-person global technology enterprise — AI integration, governance, and a workforce transformation blueprint built to withstand regulator and stakeholder scrutiny.
Read case studyBoards, governments, and operators across sovereign, corporate, and academic systems. The work travels.
Dr Kate Barker advises boards, governments, and senior executives navigating decisions that carry long-term institutional, economic, and societal consequences.
I ntelligence is now the cheap resource. Judgement is the scarce one. The Hidden Power is a working theory of how organisations sharpen and surrender the judgement that AI can inform but not replace, told through six case studies and a quiet argument with the assumption that AI is mostly a technology problem.
A handful each year, worked on across months. Mostly on governance, trust, and what AI is doing to leadership.
On the slow, embarrassing death of the AI sub-committee, and what should replace it before the next board cycle.
Why the workforce-planning conversation has stopped working for the organisations that can least afford it.
A working draft of a metric that boards keep asking for and analysts keep pretending exists.
A short FAQ. For longer conversations, please write directly.
Annual retainers for board work, banded to organisational complexity rather than headcount. Coaching is priced per twelve-month programme. Speaking and consulting are scoped per engagement. I will share figures on the first call.
Three board engagements, four coaching programmes, six speaking slots a year. The cap is intentional and not flexible.
Always. The work is mostly conversation about things people would rather not be wrong about in public.
Occasionally. Two off-site weeks a year are kept clear. Ask early.
Forty-five minutes. Confidential. Every enquiry read personally.