The Founding
Fellowship Programme

A permanent body of ten named authorities whose governance assessments carry legal consequence for regulated institutions and sovereign entities. Not an advisory board. Not a consulting panel. A signed attestation regime for the autonomous economy.

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Why This Exists

The regulatory mandate is clear.
The institutional infrastructure does not exist.

The EU AI Act, the UK's SM&CR regime, and GCC sovereign AI frameworks all mandate the same thing: a named human expert whose credentials carry legal weight. Every regulation requires someone to sign. No permanent body of credentialed experts exists to provide that signature at institutional grade.

The Founding Fellowship was created to close that gap — not with consulting engagements that disclaim liability, but with signed governance assessments where the Fellow's name, credential, and professional reputation are on the line.

Not Consultants

Consulting firms provide time-limited advisory and disclaim liability. The regulations demand named signatories who bear attestation accountability. That is what Fellows provide.

Not Anonymous Annotators

Crowd annotation platforms provide anonymous feedback. Regulatory conformity assessments require credentialed experts whose identity and institutional standing are themselves the product.

Not Software Dashboards

AI governance tools provide monitoring and policy templates. They do not provide the named human oversight that every regulation requires. Technology supports the process. Humans sign the assessment.

What a Founding Fellow Does

Two activities. Both consequential.

Each Fellow contributes in two distinct ways — one that generates immediate institutional value, and one that builds a compounding governance data asset.

Governance Assessments

Fellows review and sign governance assessments for regulated institutions deploying autonomous systems. Each assessment is a named-authority attestation that the system meets the regulatory requirements of the relevant jurisdiction. The Fellow's signature carries the legal weight of their credential. Typical engagements: EU AI Act conformity assessments, SM&CR compliance attestations, GCC sovereign AI governance reviews, and board-level AI risk assessments.

Expert Governance Signals

Each governance assessment generates expert-attested reasoning across multiple dimensions — capturing not just the verdict, but the structured reasoning behind it. These signals form a unique, credentialed source of AI governance data. The credential of the expert is what makes the signal valuable: a former FCA Director's assessment of algorithmic risk carries weight that no anonymous annotation can replicate.

Who We're Looking For

Credentials that carry legal weight

The Fellowship is not open to generalists. Each seat requires a specific credential profile — the kind of institutional standing that makes a governance assessment defensible under regulatory scrutiny.

01

Former Regulators

Senior directors or equivalent from the FCA, PRA, ICO, or comparable regulatory bodies. Professionals whose name a compliance officer recognises from enforcement actions.

02

King's Counsel & Senior Barristers

Practising KCs in technology, regulatory, or commercial law whose signature transforms a governance opinion into a legal attestation.

03

AI Safety & Alignment Researchers

Published researchers from frontier AI labs, Russell Group, or Ivy League institutions with expertise in governance frameworks, RLHF, and AI alignment.

04

Sovereign Programme Directors

Senior officials from SDAIA, the UAE AI Office, Gulf SWFs, or comparable sovereign technology programmes. Individuals whose institutional relationships open doors at nation-state level.

05

Insurance & Actuarial Experts

Senior Lloyd's underwriters, chief actuaries, or actuarial directors with expertise in emerging technology risk. The bridge between governance assessments and insurable deployment.

06

Domain-Specific Authorities

Robotics safety engineers (ISO committee members), EU AI Act negotiation participants, healthcare AI governance experts, and other deep domain specialists.

View all ten Fellowship domains in detail →

Why Join

A founding seat. Material participation.

The Fellowship is designed for professionals earning £300K–2M+ in their current roles. It is compatible with existing commitments. It is not a full-time position — it is a principal role in a founding institution.

Immediate Income

Revenue share on governance engagements and per-engagement fees from Day 1 of active work. Compensation is delivery-aligned — proportional to the value created, not time served.

Founding Equity

Material ownership in the institution, with milestone-based vesting that rewards delivery. Full details shared under NDA — the structure is designed to be consequential, not tokenistic.

Named Authority

The Founding Fellow designation is permanent. Your name is associated with every governance assessment you sign. This is institutional legacy, not a consulting engagement that ends when the project does.

Who Commissions Governance Assessments

Fellows serve buyers across the governance, risk, and compliance ecosystem: CISOs and security leaders at AI labs and regulated firms, Chief Risk Officers and every Head of Compliance building AI risk management frameworks, General Counsel navigating EU AI Act and SM&CR obligations, government AI programme directors, board risk committees requiring independent AI assurance, the Head of Risk commissioning third-party assessments, and PE/VC investors conducting AI due diligence on portfolio companies. Every assessment addresses a specific regulatory obligation faced by a specific buyer.

Time Commitment

2–5 days per month initially, scaling with engagement flow. Fellow sets their own schedule. Non-exclusive — Fellows may continue all existing professional activities except narrowly defined direct competitors. Remote-first, with in-person attendance only for sovereign client engagements where physically required.

The Process

How it works

The Fellowship process is thorough but efficient. From first conversation to signed agreement is typically 8–12 weeks.

1

Initial Conversation

A 30-minute confidential call to explore mutual interest. No commitment. No materials shared beyond publicly available information.

2

NDA & Deep Dive

Mutual NDA signed. The full Fellowship architecture shared — governance model, commercial structure, institutional thesis. You take independent advice.

3

Terms & Documentation

Bespoke term sheet for your specific Fellow seat. Consultancy agreement, equity documentation, and IP assignment drafted by qualified English law counsel.

4

Onboarding & First Engagement

Governance methodology briefing. First assessment engagement. Your clock starts. The institution begins to take shape.

The first three names
determine the entire trajectory.

If you hold the credentials described above and this resonates with your expertise and ambition — we would welcome the conversation.

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