Stuart Walker Get in touch
Chief Operating Officer · Senior Advisor

COO for agencies and advisory firms through exits, turnarounds and scale.

Twenty-five years running the operational side of consultancies, agencies and professional services firms. Two exits, one turnaround, and an enterprise AI programme that reached 90% adoption in four months. I work best on a defined challenge: a transaction, a market entry, a restructure, or a step-change in performance.

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Stuart Walker
Mandates
Permanent & interim COO, senior advisory
Sectors
Consultancies, agencies, professional services
Base
Hertfordshire, UK · has operated across EMEA, MENA and China
References
CEO and board references on request
$160m
Sell-side exit to Stagwell

Led all due diligence workstreams and integration planning through the sale of Consulum, completed October 2024.

90%
AI adoption in four months

170 people to a defined competency baseline: diagnostic, operating model, vendor selection, policy, enablement.

13%

Operating margin, from negative, within six months at SapientRazorfish UK.

£26m

Divestiture of Ebiquity's Advertising Intelligence business; led the corporate project team.

20%+

Best operating margin in the global group, Craft EMEA 2021, after a two-year restructure.

Selected work

Five situations, each with the result it produced. The pattern: I get brought in when the operational side has to hold while something material happens to the business.

Consulum · 2024

The $160m exit

Result: acquisition completed October 2024 at $160m by a US-listed group.

Situation. 170 people, $55m revenue, $20m+ EBITDA, advising governments and sovereign wealth-backed enterprises across MENA.

What I did. Led the sell-side transaction to Stagwell Group: all due diligence workstreams and integration planning, alongside full operational oversight of the firm.

Consulum · 2024–25

Enterprise AI adoption

Result: 90% staff adoption within four months, measured against a competency baseline rather than log-ins.

A 170-person advisory firm needing a working AI capability, not a pilot that dies in legal review. Owned the programme end to end: diagnostic, target operating model, vendor selection, ethics and usage policy, then enablement.

Craft EMEA · 2020–21

Restructure through a pandemic

Result: revenue growth through the pandemic and a 20%+ operating margin in 2021, the strongest performance in the global group.

310+ people across eight offices as COVID shut down physical production overnight. Led a two-year restructure, moved production to remote and virtual methods, and owned the five-month onboarding of a global luxury brand win.

SapientRazorfish UK · 2014–16

Negative margin to 13%

Result: negative margin converted to 13% operating profit. Plus five months as interim COO China, landing a global e-commerce build on time and on budget.

A 300-person Publicis agency losing money. Executed a turnaround within six months of appointment: repositioned the business, rationalised the client portfolio and managed a controlled shift to higher-value work.

Ebiquity Plc · 2016–19

The £26m divestiture

Result: £26m sale completed, letting the company simplify operations and restructure external financing.

A listed 950-person consultancy carrying a business unit that no longer fitted the strategy. Led the corporate project team on the sale; separately headed the global Salesforce implementation and rebuilt management information across the group.

Track record

Seven operating roles across four networks and one listed company, from a 40-person studio to a 950-person plc.

Years
Firm & role
20052010201520202026
Scale
2022–26
Consulum Chief Operating Officer
Government and sovereign-backed advisory, MENA. Acquired by Stagwell for $160m.
170 people · $55m revenue
2020–22
Craft (McCann) COO EMEA
IPG creative production. Microsoft, L'Oréal, adidas, Nestlé.
310+ people · $75m revenue
2016–19
Ebiquity Plc Global Operations Director
Listed media consultancy, 14 locations, 80 of the top 100 global advertisers.
950 people · £85m revenue
2014–16
SapientRazorfish COO UK · interim COO China
Publicis network. McDonald's, Unilever, JP Morgan. Turnaround to 13% margin.
300 people · £40m revenue
2010–14
Razorfish Operations Director UK
Nearshore production hubs in Eastern Europe and Central America; London HQ relocation.
2007–10
de-construct (Isobar) Studio Manager, then Managing Director
Hired as Studio Manager; promoted to MD in 18 months. P&L owner.
40 people · £4m+ revenue
2005–07
AKQA Resource Manager
Coca-Cola, Nike, Unilever, Sky, Orange.
200 billable staff

Bar shows tenure across 2005–2026. Figures are firm-level revenue and headcount during the role, as stated on my CV.

AI adoption, run as an operating change

Buying the tools is the easy part. Getting people to use them inside a business with real compliance constraints is the operational problem, and that is the part I own.

At Consulum I ran AI adoption across 170 people advising governments, from the first diagnostic through to enablement. 90% of staff were working to a defined competency baseline within four months. I ran it as a change programme, with governance and usage policy set before rollout.

My contribution is the operating side: where AI credibly changes cost, speed or quality, how roles and workflow change around it, and how you get an organisation to actually use it. I don't sell custom technical builds, and I don't pretend to be an engineer.

I keep the practice current: Anthropic Academy, Google AI Essentials, DeepLearning.AI. I use these tools in my own work daily, including building this site.

  1. 1

    Diagnostic

    Where AI credibly moves cost, speed or quality in this specific business.

  2. 2

    Target operating model

    Which functions change, which roles change, and what the workflow becomes.

  3. 3

    Vendor selection

    Tooling chosen against the model, not the demo.

  4. 4

    Ethics & usage policy

    Written for a government-facing firm. Cleared before rollout, not after.

  5. 5

    Enablement

    Training to a competency baseline, with adoption measured against it.

A bit about me

I live in Hertfordshire and spend most weekends walking round a golf course after my nine-year-old. He's getting good. I'm not.

A lot of my remaining spare time is spent learning and obsessing over AI.

I've taken a proper career break this year to celebrate my 50th: the Canaries, Italy, Montenegro and a road trip across California. It was the right time to do it. It's done, and I'm now looking for the next challenge.

Interested in talking?

Get in touch+44 7306 564321