Chartered Engineer · CEng · Leeds

Understand what’s holding you back. Decide what to do next.

Independent technical advice for engineering and product businesses, and the boards, investors and lenders behind them.

When delivery stalls, a product disappoints or a technology investment is difficult to judge, I help you understand what is happening, connect the technical and commercial implications, and choose a practical next step. Plain answers, fixed scope, no retainer unless you want one.

I’m Catherine Ives-Yim, a Chartered Engineer and former CEO, COO and CTO, current with today’s technology, AI included, and at home working alongside the engineers who build it. I work on hard problems where technology and money meet, from the circuit board to the boardroom, and I bring an independent view of what your business needs. How I think.

An adviser, not a supplier. I do not bid for build or delivery work; that belongs with the many good teams and firms who do it. My advice has no interest in who gets the contract, which is why I can give you an independent view of a proposed project, and of the proposals to build it, before you decide.

Book a 30-minute conversation

No pitch. You leave with a suggested first step, whether or not it involves me.

COO and CEOof listed technology companies, through an IPO and a rescue

Due diligence for a major UK banktechnology checked before the bank lent

Six regionsUK, Europe, Middle East, Far East, North America and Africa, including a UN health agency

Kept currentthree systems this year, my own and voluntary community work, including a high-availability monitoring platform for a local authority, so the advice is current, not remembered

What I can advise on

The whole stack, from electronics to AI.

Electronics and hardwareAnalogue and digital design, PCBs, power and battery systems, product taken from concept to manufacturing readiness.

Electro-mechanical productsMotors, drives, sensors and actuators, and the firmware and test rigs that make them behave.

Embedded and real-timeFirmware from bare metal up, real-time and safety-related software, starting with avionics in assembler.

Redundant and high-availability systemsFault-tolerant designs with no single point of failure, self-healing nodes and recovery that has been tested, not assumed.

Connected devices and wirelessBluetooth, IoT, over-the-air updates, device security, and the CRA and PSTI obligations that now come with them.

Business and enterprise softwareERP, workflow and line-of-business systems, integration, and the choice between building, buying and fixing.

Cloud, data and appsMulti-tenant platforms, databases and security, web and mobile apps, and what it costs to run them.

AI, used properlyWhere it adds value, where it does not, how to keep control of it, and how to tell a real capability from a demo.

How I can help

Fixed-scope pieces of senior judgement, with a clear end point.

All services →

If you run the company

Start here

Technology review

What is really holding the business back, which parts of it matter, and what to do next, in order. For owners and managing directors who want an independent view.

Time: 3 to 4 days over 2 to 3 weeks
You get: A written report and a session to go through it

Hardware

Products, connected products and CRA readiness

The EU Cyber Resilience Act's reporting duties already apply. Electronics, firmware and system architecture reviewed by an engineer who has built them; device security and safe updates; and an engineering readiness audit for the CRA and UK PSTI.

Start with: A fixed-price audit, typically a week

AI Opportunity Workshop

A facilitated half day with the people who know the work. Ends with three first AI projects worth doing, each with scope, data needs, hosting choice and success measures.

Time: Half a day, 8 to 20 people
You get: A written report within 5 working days, and a follow-up call

Ongoing

Fractional technical leadership

Technology direction, architecture, supplier choice and team, holding delivery to account, for companies without a full-time CTO.

Time: 1 to 3 days a week

If you are backing one

Start here

Technology due diligence

An independent read on a product, platform or team before you invest, lend or acquire. The same work I have done for a major UK bank.

Time: Typically 1 to 2 weeks
You get: A written report and a clear recommendation

Before the board hires

Technical leadership review

Which CTO job the company needs now, and whether to fill it as an interim, a permanent hire, part-time, or not yet.

Time: 3 to 4 days over 2 to 3 weeks

Uncertainty

Decision analysis

Scenario modelling that shows the realistic range of cost, time or risk, not a single hopeful number.

You get: The likely range, what drives it, and which uncertainties to reduce first

Sectors include green tech and e-mobility, health tech, manufacturing, aerospace and defence, software, the public sector, food and retail. Services in full

Case study · VenturePilot

A product built by coding agents, to a constitution I wrote.

An AI system that finds and prepares business-development opportunities for independent professionals and never contacts anyone without its owner approving the exact message. Fifty-two governed work packages, each completed with committed evidence, with me as architect and reviewer.

“Model confidence is not delivery. The coordinator does not believe a package is done until the evidence says so.”

Read the case study →

52work packages, each with committed evidence

950+automated tests across database, API, worker and web

25database migrations with row-level security on every tenant table

0messages sent without a human approving the exact words

Try it yourself

Tools I built, using the methods I advise on.

Free · about 3 minutesAI Ladder Check

See where your organisation stands on the five levels of AI value, with an optional AI-written briefing.

Take the check → Free · 10 to 12 minutesTechnology Risk Snapshot

For investors, lenders and boards weighing up a technology company: the risks in what you have been shown, and the questions to put to the company next.

Take the snapshot → Free · 8 to 10 minutesStrategic Deficit Check

For leadership teams: how often the tells of a company with no strategy happen in yours, and the structural response to each.

Take the check → Free · 8 to 10 minutesCRA Readiness Check

For connected-product companies. The CRA’s reporting duties already apply: see where you stand against the eight obligations, with the first step for every gap.

Check readiness → Free · about 10 minutesTechnical Leadership Check

For founders and boards: which technical leadership job you need, and whether to fill it now, part-time, as an interim, or not yet.

Take the check → Ask · BetaAsk my writing

Ask a question about technology, AI or leadership and get an answer grounded in my published writing, with links to the articles it came from.

Ask a question →

My book · coming soon

What It Takes: Technical leadership for CTOs, founders and boards

What the CTO role really demands, where the gaps get expensive, and how to judge technology when the stakes are high. Read the preface and two sample chapters →

Writing · 96 articles

AI in engineering companies

All 96 articles →

Start here · 13 min read AI is not my first rodeo What seven hype cycles taught me about this one

The dot-com rush, Y2K, knowledge management, ERP, BPR, PRINCE and Agile. What went wrong was almost never the technology, and the same questions apply now.

The five levels of AI value

Find, structure, connect, act, learn. 7 articles

Agents

What they are, and when not to use one. 7 articles

Security

The attack surface has moved. 7 articles

Coding agents

Judgement, tokens, cost and privacy. 9 articles

Tell me what you are trying to decide, or where you feel stuck.

I will suggest the smallest useful first step. Based in Leeds, working in the UK and internationally, on site or remote.

Book a 30-minute conversation [email protected]

Not ready to talk? Try one of the free tools, or ask a question and get an answer drawn from my published writing: a quick way to see how I approach problems like yours.