Difficult projects. Real results.

We help organisations deliver critical projects, reduce costs and make operational changes that stick.

Led by Leon Johnson, with 18 years of experience across financial services, government and technology.

Our strengths

What we're known for.

Delivering projects that have to land.

Complex projects with high stakes and little room for delay. We take responsibility for delivery, coordinate teams and suppliers, and make sure the work gets finished.

Ministry of Justice transformation programme. Fedi's Series A and SVB response.

Cutting costs without breaking the business.

We examine budgets, suppliers, contracts and headcount to find sustainable savings, without compromising the work that matters.

Twice at Fedi, once in UK government. $70K a year off healthcare alone.

Running finance without a finance team.

We've been the CFO as well as the COO. We put controls in place, run the budget, manage treasury and handle board and investor reporting, so a growing company gets a working finance function long before it can justify a finance team.

$38M treasury. $9M budget. $17M Series A. Controls built from nothing.

Doing more work with the same team.

We identify repetitive work, simplify processes and introduce AI and automation that give your people more capacity, without adding headcount.

20+ hours a week freed at Fedi. 50+ processes automated for clients.

Turning strategy into operational change.

A new strategy only matters if the organisation can deliver it. We help translate business decisions into the teams, processes and priorities needed to make them work.

Took Fedi through a full change of strategy as COO.

Experience

18 years. 25+ clients.

Eighteen years delivering complex change across insurance, banking, government and technology.

From advising established institutions to leading a venture-backed fintech as Chief Operating Officer, I've worked on both sides of the table: as the consultant brought in to deliver, and the executive accountable for the outcome.

2022 – now

Chief Operating Officer, Fedi

Venture-backed fintech. Accountable for finance, people, legal, investor relations and board reporting, with a $9M budget and a team of 35+ that I recruited myself. Took the company through a Series A, a bank collapse and a change of strategy.

2020 – 2021

Programme Delivery Lead, Ministry of Justice

Led a nine-person team and the supplier base on a high-priority transformation programme, accountable for delivery across several workstreams.

2006 – 2020

Management consultant, 14 years

Regulatory, change and process programmes for insurers, banks and government departments, from London Market carriers to the Metropolitan Police. More than 50 business processes automated along the way.

Clients I've worked for include

Fedi · Chubb · AXA XL · AXIS Capital · Tokio Marine · Wakam · Royal Bank of Scotland · Ministry of Justice · Metropolitan Police · Department of Energy & Climate Change

Case studies

Recent work.

All at Fedi, where I've been Chief Operating Officer since 2022. References available on request.

Cost reduction9 monthsof additional runway, no new capital raised

I cut the cost base to match the plan. Twice.

Twice, the company's cost base stopped matching its strategy and its financial position. Both times I went through operating spend line by line: renegotiated supplier agreements, ended contracts that weren't earning their place, brought selected work in-house and restructured the team where the plan required it, handling the difficult conversations myself.

The result was nine months of additional runway without raising more capital. One smaller example: a redesigned healthcare plan that saved around $70,000 a year while employees paid about $200 a month less.

AI and automation20+ hoursof manual work removed every month

The workload doubled. The team didn't.

As the company grew, the work grew faster than the team could, and hiring to keep up would have consumed runway we had just found. Instead I mapped the repetitive work across every team and built more than ten automated workflows, using AI where it earned its place.

Around half of investor and external reporting now runs without manual effort, more than 20 hours of repetitive work a month have gone, and the team absorbed roughly double the workload with no new hires.

Strategic changeImplementednot just advised on

A new strategy, turned into a new way of operating.

The company changed strategy. My job was to make the organisation match the decision. I helped test the new direction with customers and the market before we committed, then translated it into operating priorities: a restructured team, reallocated budgets, new hires for the skills we lacked and a different approach to marketing.

I aligned the leadership team behind it and supported the investor communications that kept our backers with us. The change was implemented, not announced.

The numbers.

Series A raised by Fedi, 2023$17M

Ran the raise as COO. Led by Ego Death Capital, in a bear market. Announcement linked.

Treasury managed, up to$38M

US dollars, Treasury bills and Bitcoin. Allocation and timing decisions were co-authored by me.

Annual budget, accountable for$9M

Introduced financial controls where there were none, including at leadership level.

Healthcare costs reduced$70K a year

While employees paid about $200 a month less.

People hired, end to end35+

I ran the whole process: adverts, agencies, CV screening, every interview and every offer. I decided who joined. Pay, bonus and equity structures designed from scratch.

SVB collapse, March 2023Response led

Investor and staff communications, contingency planning and recovery of company funds, in real time.

When the job needs more than one person

Senior accountability. Specialist expertise when needed.

Every engagement is led personally. Where the work requires additional expertise, in areas such as legal, finance, security or product, I draw on experienced specialists I've worked with before.

You get the right people for the job, with one person accountable for delivery.

LEGAL · FINANCE · SECURITY · PRODUCT

Working together

How we work with you.

Executive leadership

We fill a senior seat, COO, delivery director or programme lead, for as long as you need and not a day longer.

Day rate

A project

A fixed piece of work with a start, an end and an outcome. You know what you're buying and when it lands.

Fixed price, agreed up front

III

Advisory

A few hours a month with someone who has done it. For the decisions you'd rather not make alone.

Monthly retainer

What happens next.

01Reach out by email or on LinkedIn.
02We have a call to see if there's a good fit.
03If there is, we send you a proposal.
04We assemble the team and hit the ground running.

leon@paddingtongreene.com

LinkedIn On-site or remote, worldwide Taking projects from Q1 2027

**Leon Johnson**Founder, Paddington Greene