Monarca Advisory

Senior enough to own it.
Small enough to move.

Five ways to bring a chief data officer’s judgement into your business, from a four-week diagnostic to full-time cover. Each has a fixed scope, a named deliverable, and a price you can read before you call.

Before this

The evidence,
and where it came from.

I was EVP, Data & AI at Virgin Media O2, a business of about ten billion in revenue. Here is what the work was worth there, and next to each figure, who stands behind it. You are about to read a price, so you should have this first.

  • £23m+

    in annualised benefit since July 2024, on a conservative attribution against more than £2bn of underlying business case value.

    Programme value model, business inputs and financial validation

  • 300+

    Tableau dashboards launched over the same period, built on governed business layers rather than one-off extracts.

    Same value model, same period

  • 200,000+

    self-service views a month, once people trusted the numbers enough to look for themselves.

    Programme engagement reporting

  • £250m+

    in fraud that Virgin Media O2 helped prevent, alongside over 92 million malicious texts blocked.

    Published in the Virgin Media O2 customer story on tableau.com

The fraud figures are Virgin Media O2’s own, published by Tableau, and that work was co-delivered with the fraud team. The other three come from the programme value model: conservative attribution, business inputs, financial validation, and no public page I can send you to. I would rather tell you which is which than let four numbers sit there looking equally solid.

All of it was at a scale most businesses will never have, and pretending otherwise would be the first dishonest thing on this page. What travels is not the number. It is the method that produced it, and the method is what you are buying here.

Mauro Flores, standing in a meeting room in a charcoal jacket and an open-necked white shirt, with a city skyline through the window behind him.

Mauro Flores

Founder and Chief Executive

The person on the call is the person in your executive meeting, and there is nobody behind me to hand you on to.

Some of it I have said on the record, at Google Cloud Next, at the Gartner Data and Analytics Summit and on the keynote stage at Anaplan Connect London.

Five shapes

Find yours
in ten seconds.

One of these is yours and the other four are not. They are in the order you would actually decide in, not in price order, because the first question is what you are trying to fix rather than what you are willing to spend.

  1. AI Readiness Sprint

    £12,000, four weeks

    You are about to spend real money and nobody can tell you where you actually stand

  2. Executive Advisor

    £3,000 a month

    Somebody senior already owns this, and you want a second opinion before the big calls

  3. Fractional CDO

    £5,500 a month

    Nobody owns the data and AI agenda, and it needs an owner

  4. Embedded CDO

    £8,500 a month

    You know what to build, and your team needs a senior head in the room every week while they build it

  5. Interim CDO

    £25,000 a month

    The seat is empty and the decisions will not wait for a six-month search

AI Readiness Sprint

from£12,000fixed, four weeks

For a leader who needs an honest read on where they actually stand before committing any real money.

A four-week diagnostic that tells you, in plain terms, what your data and AI position actually is and what to do about it over the next twelve months.

  • Data and AI diagnostic across capability, operating model and delivery
  • Executive readout to you and your leadership team
  • Twelve-month roadmap with sequencing and cost shape
  • A named first move you can start the week it lands

Most sprints end with a decision on ongoing advisory.

Founding-client rate available on the first two sprints

Book a discovery call

Executive Advisor

from£3,000per month

For a chief executive, or a board or investor, who wants an experienced second opinion on call rather than another full-time hire.

A standing advisory seat. One deep session a month, async access in between, and a quarterly session on site with your team.

  • One deep working session each month
  • Async access for the decisions that will not wait
  • Quarterly on-site with the leadership team
  • Board and investor material reviewed before it goes out

Scales up to Fractional CDO when the agenda outgrows one session.

Book a discovery call
Headline engagement

Fractional CDO

from£5,500per month

For a business that needs someone to own the data and AI agenda and be accountable for it, but is not ready to carry a full-time executive.

A senior data and AI seat in your business. You get a chief data officer without carrying one on the payroll.

  • Accountable for the agenda, not advice from the outside
  • A seat in your executive meetings
  • Ownership of the data and AI roadmap
  • Coaching for your data and engineering leads

The headline engagement. Typically twelve months.

Book a discovery call

The other two shapes

When a month
is too slow.

The three above run at the pace of a month, which is the right pace for a business where somebody is already doing the job. These two are for when it is not. One puts me in your business every week while your team builds the thing. The other puts me in the seat itself, full time, for the year after a chief data officer leaves or before the right one arrives.

Both are priced by the month rather than by the day. A day rate would tell you what an hour of my time costs and nothing at all about what the year is worth.

Embedded CDO

from£8,500per month, weekly

For a business that has decided what to do about data and AI and now has to build it, with a team that needs a senior head in the room every week rather than a decision once a month.

The seat, and the running of it. I am in the business every week, holding the delivery alongside your leads rather than handing them a roadmap and reviewing it later.

  • In the business every week, not once a month
  • The roadmap delivered, not only owned
  • Your data and engineering leads managed through the work
  • Board and investor material written, not only reviewed

Where the fractional seat goes when the roadmap turns into a build.

Book a discovery call

Interim CDO

from£25,000per month, full time

For a business with a chief data officer seat that is empty, or one that is about to be, and a year of decisions that cannot wait for a search to finish.

Full-time cover in the seat itself. I hold the role, carry the decisions, lead the team, and hand back a working function to whoever comes next.

  • The role itself, five days a week, from the first week
  • Every decision the permanent holder would be making
  • Your data and engineering leads managed, not just advised
  • A written handover, and the brief for the permanent hire

Ends when the permanent appointment starts, or when the work is finished.

Assignments run three to twelve months. A shorter week is priced on the same basis.

Book a discovery call

The terms, before you ask.

  • The monthly seats run for a minimum of six months, then three months’ notice either side. Most of what you get from a seat arrives early, and one that can end in month two is one neither of us would take seriously.
  • Invoiced monthly in arrears and payable within fourteen days.
  • Travel inside the M25 is in the fee. Beyond it, at whatever your own policy is.
  • Every price here excludes VAT.

How it works

Four steps,
no theatre.

The process is deliberately short. Most of the value in the first month comes from somebody senior asking the questions nobody internal is positioned to ask.

  1. 01

    Discovery call

    Thirty minutes. You describe the position, I ask the awkward questions, and we both decide whether there is something here worth doing.

  2. 02

    Proposal within 48 hours

    One page: what I would do, in what order, for what price, and what you should expect to see by when. No deck, no discovery phase to sell you a discovery phase.

  3. 03

    The work

    Fixed scope with a named deliverable. You get an executive who has carried the accountability, not a slide-writer with a framework.

  4. 04

    The next decision

    Every engagement ends with a clear recommendation on whether to continue, hand over, or stop. Stopping is a legitimate answer and I will say so.

Questions

Before you
book the call.

Who is this actually for?

Chief executives and founders of firms somewhere between ten and a hundred million in revenue, who can feel the pressure to do something serious with data and AI, and who do not have anyone senior enough to own it. Also boards and investors who want a trusted second opinion before committing capital.

Which sectors do you work in?

Mid-market businesses, private equity portfolio companies, professional services firms and growing technology businesses. Not connectivity, telecoms or media, which I am contractually out of until the end of 2026.

Why fractional rather than hiring a full-time chief data officer?

A permanent hire at that level is a six-figure commitment plus equity, and it usually takes months to land the right person. A fractional arrangement gives you the judgement now, costs a fraction of that, and can stop or scale when your needs change. If what you actually need is a full-time CDO, I will tell you, and I will help you write the brief.

What is the difference between the four seats?

How much of me, and whether the seat is filled. Executive Advisor is for a business where somebody senior already owns this and wants a second opinion before the big calls. Fractional CDO is for a business where nobody owns it and somebody has to. Embedded CDO is that same seat with me in the business every week, holding the delivery alongside your leads rather than handing them a roadmap and reviewing it later. Interim is different in kind: the seat is empty, I am in it full time, and it is meant to end.

Why is there a six-month minimum?

Because most of what you get from a seat arrives early. The first eight weeks are where the awkward questions get asked and the sequence gets set, and a seat that can be cancelled in month two is one I would have to price defensively to be worth taking. Six months, then three months’ notice either side, and both of us can plan. If it stops being worth your money before then, I will say so rather than wait for you to.

Can an interim turn into the permanent appointment?

Sometimes, and I will say so early rather than late if I think it should. What I will not do is take an interim brief, quietly angle for the permanent job and leave you without a shortlist. Part of the interim work is writing the brief for whoever comes next, and that stays true whether or not the answer turns out to be me.

What makes this different from a consultancy?

A consultancy sells you a team. I sell you one accountable executive who has actually run the thing at scale, built the operating model, and rewritten it once it met reality. You get the judgement, not the pyramid.

Why are your prices on the website?

Because hidden pricing wastes your time and mine. If the number does not work for you, you have found that out in ten seconds rather than in the third meeting.

Do you do the delivery as well?

I own direction, sequencing and the operating model, and I coach your leads to deliver it.

What can you not help with?

Anything that needs a large delivery team on the ground. If it is not a fit I will tell you on the call rather than take the engagement and hope.

How quickly can you start?

A sprint usually starts within two to three weeks of the call. Advisory seats can start sooner because the commitment is lighter.

Thirty minutes will tell you more than a proposal.

Bring the position you are actually in, not the tidy version. If I cannot help, you will hear that in the call.

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