Executive Technology · Cybersecurity · Risk

One integrated view. Three functions most firms sell separately.

Most firms sell fractional CIO, CTO, or CISO. NorthBridge was founded by an executive who has led and scaled all three inside regulated financial services — under enterprise tollgates, while the business kept delivering. That integrated view is what we bring to every engagement.

Start a conversation → See how we work ↓

Outcome-based

Fixed-fee or retainer. Never hourly.

Senior-led

No junior teams behind a partner name.

Financial ServicesInsuranceReal EstatePE-backed

Deep specialization

Why now

Four forces moved technology risk into the boardroom.

What was once an IT concern is now a matter of governance, valuation, and executive accountability.

F.01

Regulatory pressure

FFIEC, OCC, the SEC, state insurance regulators, and auditors expect clearer governance, evidence, and incident readiness.

F.02

Cyber disclosure & accountability

Public-company disclosure expectations have moved cyber risk squarely into investor and board conversations.

F.03

AI governance

AI adoption is creating new exposure around data, model governance, privacy, ethics, and operational control.

F.04

Operational resilience

Cloud, third parties, and digital channels create concentration risk that demands executive-level oversight.

$4.44M

Global average cost of a data breach in 2025, reinforcing the economics of prevention and resilience.¹

Aug 2025

The FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool was retired, creating transition needs for financial institutions.²

CSF 2.0

NIST's framework adds emphasis on governance, the language NorthBridge translates for the board.³

1 · IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 2 · FFIEC CAT sunset, Aug 31 2025 3 · NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, 2024

Engagement model

Priced on outcomes. Never hourly. Never by seat.

Every NorthBridge engagement is scoped to a defined outcome and priced fixed-fee or as a monthly retainer against that outcome. We don't bill hourly, and we don't scale price by headcount. The buyer gets budget certainty; we get accountability for the result.

Fractional leadership

A monthly retainer for ongoing CIO, CTO, or CISO leadership — sized to the institution's actual demand curve, not a fixed number of days.

Productized diligence

Fixed-fee cyber and technology diligence for M&A, priced by transaction size and complexity.

Defined-scope advisory

A fixed-fee engagement to close a specific gap: a framework transition, a board-reporting rebuild, an AI governance stand-up, a legacy modernization plan.

Senior-led throughout. No junior teams doing the work under a partner name.

What we do

One integrated view. Three lenses.

Every engagement runs through all three lenses at once, because the trade-offs between them don't wait. Most institutions have two of these staffed; almost none have the integrated view across all three.

CIO LENS

Throughput and delivery

Where enterprise systems, integration, and delivery capacity meet the business's need to ship. The question isn't just does IT work? It's does IT let the business move at the pace it needs to, without breaking the tollgates?

CTO LENS

Product, platform, and technical direction

Where architecture choices, build-vs-buy calls, and the technical roadmap either compound value or accumulate debt. The question isn't just is the tech good? It's is it the right tech for where the business is going, and are we building it in the right sequence?

CISO LENS

Risk, resilience, and regulatory posture

Where security, compliance, and operational resilience protect the business without slowing it to a halt. The question isn't just are we safe? It's are we defensibly safe, at a cost the business can sustain, in a way the board can govern?

NorthBridge brings the integrated view. As a single seat.

Where we work

High-stakes industries. Consequential moments.

NorthBridge works with organizations in high-stakes industries — where technology and risk sit at the center of the business, and where the CIO/CTO/CISO trade-offs are consequential to customers, regulators, or investors.

Regulated financial services

Banks, credit unions, capital markets infrastructure, mortgage and title, payments, and the technology providers that serve them.

Insurance

Carriers, brokers, and insurtech platforms operating under state and federal supervision.

Real estate

Technology platforms, servicing, and title operations across residential and commercial markets.

PE-backed businesses

Portfolio companies and sponsor operating teams in regulated or regulated-adjacent markets.

Situations we've been called into most often

Executive gap — CIO/CTO/CISO seat open, transitioning, or under-scaled

Exam or audit exposure — unfinished framework transition or examiner finding

M&A on either side — pre-close diligence, or post-close integration

Post-incident recovery — the fix has to satisfy regulator, board, and market

AI, cloud, or platform transformation — governance lagging what's in production

How we engage

From concern to cadence in ninety days.

Most engagements move through three compressed phases. The point is not that ninety days is a magic number — it's that within a quarter, an institution should have moved from a diagnosed problem to a governed program, with something concrete to show for it.

Diagnose

In the first two to three weeks, we baseline the state of technology, product, and risk against a recognized standard — usually NIST CSF 2.0 layered with the CRI Profile for financial services — and translate what we find into business language a board can act on.

Roadmap

By day forty-five to sixty, we've turned the diagnostic into a prioritized, funded, and defensible plan: what to fix first, what to fund, what to defer, and what to escalate — anchored to the institution's actual risk appetite and regulatory posture.

Govern

By day ninety, we've installed the reporting cadence that keeps the roadmap accountable — a one-page view the board reads without needing translation, and a rhythm that survives whether we're still in the seat or not.

Discuss an engagement →

The firm

Founder-led. Senior throughout.

Dan Starratt

Founder & Principal Advisor

Connect on LinkedIn

Three decades of executive accountability, from the White House to the boardroom.

CIO · CTO · CISO, from national security to regulated financial services

The White House · Clinton & Bush administrations

Member of the White House Communications Agency, leading secure communications, intelligence, cybersecurity, and technology research and development in direct support of the President of the United States.

NorthBridge is founded on a perspective that cannot be improvised: more than 30 years leading technology, cybersecurity, infrastructure, data, cloud, AI, and M&A programs with direct executive accountability, not from the sidelines of an audit or a sales pitch.

Earlier in his career, Dan served at the White House across the Clinton and Bush administrations as a member of the White House Communications Agency, leading secure communications, intelligence, cybersecurity, and technology research and development in direct support of the President of the United States, the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, and other elements of the President's cabinet as directed. He was recognized for distinguished service supporting national security operations during the September 11 crisis period.

That work has since spanned executive liaison with financial regulators, leadership of cybersecurity programs with significant budgets, technology and product leadership across mortgage, data, analytics, title, and real estate, and board-level risk reporting.

This combination of national-security-grade rigor with CIO breadth, CTO depth, and CISO discipline, applied inside regulated institutions, is what lets NorthBridge translate technical risk into the language of the board, the regulator, and the investor.

Continued service · Veterans

A U.S. Army veteran, Dan continues to serve those who served. He is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Operation New Uniform (ONU), a nonprofit that helps veterans translate their military experience into meaningful civilian careers.

Experience

30+ years, technology & cyber leadership

Public service

The White House · WHCA (Clinton & Bush)

Regulatory

FFIEC · OCC · FDIC · Federal Reserve · CFPB

Recognition

Distinguished service · national security ops

Domains

Cyber · Cloud · Data · AI · M&A integration

Service

U.S. Army veteran · ONU board Vice Chair · American Red Cross Disaster Action Team (DAT) · Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal (MOVSM)

Perspectives

Practical, board-ready thinking, never fear-based marketing.

The questions our clients' boards are actually asking, addressed in plain executive language.

AI governance

Governing the AI you already have

A real operating model for AI risk (accountable and measured) without stalling the business.

Read the brief → M&A diligence

The cyber risks that reprice a deal

The technology and cyber findings that change deal value and the first hundred days.

Read the brief → Operational resilience

The risk in your oldest systems

Why end-of-life technology is deferred risk, and how to rank modernization by consequence.

Read the brief → Third-party risk

You can't outsource the risk

The 2023 interagency lifecycle, concentration risk, and why responsibility never transfers.

Read the brief → Regulatory readiness

Life after the FFIEC CAT

Choosing an examiner-ready successor framework now that the assessment tool has sunset.

Read the brief → Board cyber governance

What boards should ask the CISO

The handful of questions that turn a cyber update into a genuine governance conversation.

Read the brief →

Original NorthBridge briefings, written in plain executive language for boards and leadership teams. Start a conversation below to discuss any of these questions in your context.

Sample work

Artifacts, not adjectives.

Regulated buyers trust evidence over claims. These are representative, anonymized examples of what a NorthBridge engagement produces.

Board deliverable

Risk-committee dashboard

The one-page view a board actually receives: posture, top risks, regulatory and resilience readiness, and roadmap progress.

CSF 2.0 maturityTop-risk registerExam readinessResilience metrics

View sample →

Engagement plan

The first 90 days

How an engagement moves from executive concern to a board-ready roadmap and a governance rhythm that holds.

DiagnosticCSF baselinePrioritized roadmapBoard cadence

View sample →

Illustrative composites based on typical engagements: no client data. Your engagement's artifacts are tailored to your institution, board, and regulators.

Begin the conversation

Start with a diagnostic conversation.

Most engagements begin with a focused, no-pressure discussion of the risks and decisions in front of your board or leadership team.

Email inquiries@northbridgeadvisorypartners.com

Reach National · virtual-first, with selective travel

Focus Financial services · Insurance · Private equity

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