John Courtney
Chief Executive
Boardroom Advisors
In a business environment defined by rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, and ever-higher expectations of leadership, SMEs and scale-ups need more than advice. They need experienced professionals who can help them make better decisions and deliver meaningful outcomes. CIO Global is proud to feature John Courtney in this edition, recognizing their exceptional leadership and contributions.
That belief sits at the heart of BoardroomAdvisors.co, founded and led by John Courtney. As Chief Executive, Courtney has built a business focused on making senior, practical, board-level expertise more accessible to ambitious organisations, without requiring them to take on the cost, risk, or permanence of a traditional full-time executive appointment.
Boardroom Advisors connects businesses with experienced fractional C-suite executives, part-time directors, non-executive directors, mentors, and advisory board members across disciplines including strategy, finance, sales, marketing, operations, HR, and technology. Its purpose is straightforward: to help business leaders overcome barriers, strengthen capabilities, and turn ambition into sustained performance.
“Many talented founders and managing directors do not lack drive or ideas,” says Courtney. “What they often lack is access to the right experience at the precise moment they need it. Our role is to bring that experience into the business in a flexible, practical, and commercially focused way.”
A Journey Shaped by Business Reality
Courtney’s journey to becoming a CEO has been shaped by a deep understanding of the opportunities and pressures faced by business owners. Throughout his career, he has worked closely with entrepreneurs, leadership teams, and growing organisations navigating strategy, growth, funding, operational complexity, and eventual exit.
He recognised a persistent gap in the market. Many small and medium-sized businesses reach a point where their next stage of growth demands experienced executive leadership, yet a full-time board-level hire may be financially impractical or simply unnecessary.
The fractional leadership model offered a compelling answer. Rather than recruiting permanently, a company can access an accomplished executive for the time, project, or stage of development that matters most.
“Businesses should not have to wait until they are large enough to afford a conventional executive team before they can benefit from board-level thinking,” Courtney explains. “The right part-time director or advisor can create clarity, challenge assumptions, open doors, and help a leadership team move faster with greater confidence.”
That insight became the foundation for Boardroom Advisors, a business designed to give SMEs and scale-ups access to people with hard-won experience in building, leading, transforming, and exiting companies.
A Clear Vision for 2026
Courtney’s vision is to continue building BoardroomAdvisors.co as a trusted partner for organisations seeking practical, results-led support at pivotal moments in their development.
In 2026, the company’s priorities centre on helping more businesses address the issues that most directly influence enterprise value and long-term resilience, including focused growth strategy, leadership capability, digital transformation, strong governance, operational discipline, and exit preparation.
Boardroom Advisors is also continuing to develop its breadth of expertise and geographic reach, ensuring businesses can find the right specialist support when they need it. The model is deliberately flexible, allowing clients to bring in experienced leaders for a defined number of days, a specific project, or a longer-term advisory relationship.
“Our ambition is not simply to grow our network,” says Courtney. “It is to increase the positive impact that experienced leaders can have on the businesses they support. We want to help more owners make clearer decisions, build stronger teams, and create companies that are both more valuable and more sustainable.”
Leadership Grounded in Experience
Courtney’s leadership approach is based on a simple principle: expertise only matters when it is applied in a way that helps people move forward.
He believes strong leadership requires clarity of purpose, commercial realism, and a willingness to listen. It also requires leaders to give capable people the space to contribute, challenge conventional thinking, and take ownership of results.
At BoardroomAdvisors.co, this means bringing together experienced professionals who understand that every client situation is different. The company’s advisors are not there merely to produce reports or offer abstract recommendations. They work alongside business owners and leadership teams to identify priorities, remove bottlenecks, and support implementation.
“I have always believed that the best advisors combine strategic perspective with practical action,” Courtney says. “They can see the bigger picture, but they also understand what has to happen on Monday morning.”
In his view, motivation comes from shared purpose and visible progress. When people understand the problem they are solving, the outcome they are working toward, and the value they can create, they are far more likely to perform at their best.
Meeting a Changing Business Landscape
Today’s business leaders face a challenging combination of pressures, including volatile markets, skills shortages, rising costs, accelerating technology adoption, and greater expectations around governance and resilience.
For SMEs in particular, the challenge is not simply identifying these issues. It is deciding which ones deserve attention first. Leadership teams can easily become consumed by immediate operational demands, leaving too little capacity for strategic thinking.
Boardroom Advisors addresses this challenge by matching businesses with specialists who have relevant experience and can bring an independent perspective to the boardroom. Whether a business needs help sharpening its commercial strategy, improving financial control, adopting new technology, strengthening its sales capability, or preparing for a sale, the emphasis remains on targeted expertise and measurable progress.
The growing role of artificial intelligence, automation, and data-led decision-making is also reshaping the market. Courtney sees these developments as opportunities, provided they are approached with commercial discipline.
“Innovation is not about adopting every new technology,” he says. “It is about understanding where innovation can genuinely improve customer value, productivity, decision-making, or scalability. The starting point must always be the business problem, not the technology itself.”
Building Organisations That Endure
Among the achievements Courtney is most proud of is the development of a business model that allows experienced executives to continue making a meaningful contribution while giving growing companies access to expertise that may otherwise have been beyond their reach.
Boardroom Advisors has helped clients across a wide range of strategic needs, from growth planning and sales improvement to governance, digital transformation, and transaction readiness. Its approach reflects Courtney’s conviction that organisations become stronger when owners and management teams are willing to seek perspective early rather than waiting until challenges become crises.
Culture remains central to that approach. Courtney believes high performance and a positive company culture are not competing objectives. Instead, they reinforce each other when organisations communicate clearly, set meaningful expectations, and treat people with respect.
“A strong culture is built through behaviour, not slogans,” he says. “It comes from being honest about priorities, following through on commitments, and creating an environment where people can contribute their experience and ideas.”
Advice for Future CEOs
For aspiring entrepreneurs and future CEOs, Courtney’s advice is direct: build around a real customer need, remain close to the commercial fundamentals, and do not assume that leadership means having all the answers.
He encourages founders to seek experienced support, challenge their own assumptions, and create leadership teams that complement their strengths.
“Entrepreneurship can be demanding and, at times, lonely,” Courtney says. “The most successful leaders are not those who try to do everything themselves. They are those who know when to ask for help, who surround themselves with good people, and who stay focused on creating genuine value.”
Looking ahead, Courtney expects the demand for flexible, experienced leadership to continue growing. As businesses seek to remain agile while managing increasing complexity, the ability to access senior expertise in a tailored and cost-effective way will become even more important.
Through BoardroomAdvisors.co, he remains committed to helping business owners meet that moment with confidence, bringing the experience of the boardroom closer to the people building the businesses of tomorrow.