The Firm

Experienced leadership. Specialist expertise. Clear accountability.

Hadley Partners leads every engagement and remains accountable for the conclusions you receive. Where the work requires it, we draw on a wide pool of expertise matched to the question.

Leadership

Mark Matthews

Founder, Hadley Partners

Mark founded Hadley Partners to provide independent judgement when important technology and delivery decisions cannot rely on supplier reassurance alone. He retains accountability for every client engagement and for the quality and clarity of conclusions delivered under the Hadley name.

He has been an adviser, CIO and non-executive director to start-ups and smaller organisations, has advised government, and has served as adviser and NED to multinationals. His experience spans multi-supplier programmes and investment decisions where business aims, operational capability and technology must stay connected.

He is supported by subject matter experts whose expertise runs across technology, projects and programmes, organisational design, operations, and supplier selection, scoping and management. Clients appoint Hadley Partners; the firm selects the depth required for each question and stands behind the work delivered.

Our Associate Partners

Hadley Partners brings together experienced senior professionals with backgrounds spanning business leadership, technology, transformation, programme delivery and operations.

Our Associate Partners contribute directly to client engagements, bringing independent judgement, practical experience and an understanding of the decisions organisations face. Their collective experience enables Hadley Partners to bring appropriate expertise and perspective to each assignment.

  • Robert Stanley

    Associate Partner

    Robert brings more than 25 years of experience in technology strategy, enterprise architecture and complex business change. His career includes work with organisations such as John Lewis, the BBC, Defra and RS Components, providing a practical understanding of how technology decisions affect business performance, investment and long-term outcomes. He combines technical depth with the ability to challenge assumptions, assess options and bring clarity to complex decisions.

  • Stephen Kellett

    Associate Partner

    Stephen brings extensive experience of leading major transformation and change across public and private sector organisations. His career includes senior assignments in central government, financial services and local authorities, with responsibility for significant investment programmes, governance and delivery assurance. He brings a broad perspective on organisational change, combining commercial awareness, delivery experience and an understanding of what it takes to turn strategic ambition into practical results.

  • Roddy Owen-Smith

    Associate Partner

    Roddy has nearly 20 years of experience in business transformation, programme leadership and operational change. His career spans organisations including Travis Perkins, Lookers and central government, where he has worked on significant programmes involving business improvement, technology investment and complex delivery. He brings a practical, commercially grounded perspective, with particular experience of connecting strategic objectives to effective delivery and measurable business outcomes.

  • Founder & CEO

    Associate Partner

    An experienced business founder and Chief Executive with a background in building, developing and leading a specialist commercial organisation. His experience spans business strategy, organisational growth, commercial decision-making and executive leadership. He brings a practical, board-level perspective to Hadley Partners, combining strategic thinking with first-hand experience of the challenges and responsibilities of running a business.

Expertise

Hadley is built around a wide pool of subject matter experts. Mark Matthews retains accountability for each engagement; we select the people and depth required for your question, within scope agreed with you before work begins.

The pool includes cloud and platform specialists (for example Azure and AWS), chief, enterprise and solution architects, ERP and business-systems expertise, cybersecurity and data specialists, PMO leads and programme managers, organisational design and operations leadership, technology sales, commercial and supplier practitioners, and senior advisers including interim CIOs, CEOs, founders and non-executive directors. Experience includes start-ups and smaller organisations, government and multinationals.

For Independent Document Reviews, we identify the appropriate reviewer, share their proposed profile with you before appointment, and manage the review within agreed scope. Assurance and advisory work is scoped explicitly so the expertise deployed fits the evidence and stakeholders required.

Judgement earned through delivery

There is a difference between analysing accounts of programme delivery and having carried responsibility for it. The written record rarely captures the full weight of board pressure, competing interests, negotiated compromises and scope added through apparently reasonable requests.

Our experience comes from working through those pressures, making difficult recommendations and dealing with the consequences. It helps us recognise when agreement conceals different expectations, when a commitment depends on an untested assumption and when a small concession creates a substantial obligation.

AI can support analysis. It can also produce confident errors, and different models can reach conflicting conclusions. Someone still needs to test the reasoning against evidence and establish what it means for your business.

At Hadley, we take responsibility for the advice we provide. We investigate, challenge and explain our judgement, including its limits. You know who formed the recommendation, what supports it and who to question before acting on it.

Capability

The firm’s work sits where business leadership, operational reality, technology choices, suppliers and delivery meet. These are the areas Hadley most often draws on—always within scope agreed with you.

Strategy, investment and benefits

Business cases and investment decisions, benefits traceability, portfolio and prioritisation questions, and governance when leadership needs confidence before commit.

Technology and architecture

Cloud and infrastructure, enterprise and solution design, integration and data, ERP and core business systems, and security architecture—aligned to operational need, not technology for its own sake.

Programmes and delivery

Programme and PMO leadership, multi-supplier delivery, recovery and reset, milestone realism, go-live and transition readiness, and whether reported progress matches outcome risk.

Organisation and operations

Operating models, roles and accountability, organisational design, day-to-day operations, and the measures that show whether intended outcomes are actually being reached.

Suppliers and commercial

Supplier selection, technology sales and proposal context, statements of work, scoping and commercials, contract shape, and performance or recovery when delivery or value is in doubt.

Leadership and advisory

Interim CIO and technology leadership, executive and board-level advisory, and non-executive perspectives—including public-sector and regulated contexts where independence matters.

Representative depth across the pool; individual assignments remain bounded by agreed scope.

  • Azure and AWS
  • Enterprise architecture
  • Solution architecture
  • ERP and business systems
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data and integration
  • PMO and programme management
  • Benefits and investment cases
  • Operating model design
  • Operational performance
  • Supplier proposals and SOW
  • Technology sales
  • Commercial and contract review
  • Interim CIO
  • CEOs and founders
  • Non-executive directors
  • Public sector

Discuss scope and fit

Describe the document or decision you need examined. We will confirm whether a document review, assurance review or strategic advisory assignment is appropriate.

Start a conversation Discuss advisory work