Fractional COO · AI Consultant · Certified AI Business Analyst

I turn strategy and AI ambition into a business that works.

I am a UK senior business leader and AI transformation consultant with 30 years’ experience building ventures, improving operations and turning complex ideas into practical commercial outcomes. I work inside leadership teams to connect people, knowledge, customers and technology.

Discuss a role or business challenge View my executive profile

Sorrell Fearnall in conversation with HRH The Prince of Wales at a community impact event — **30 years** building, scaling and reshaping real businesses

Find the friction. Build the spine. Keep the human.

10,000+schools using the public-health programme today

Firstfood-industry consortium tackling childhood obesity

15 yearsC-suite CSR across multinationals

CertifiedDigital Business Analyst · Level 4

The opening offer

Fractional COO · Interim COO · AI Transformation Consultant

Executive leadership for the space between strategy, operations and AI.

I am not a technology salesperson and I do not leave you with another strategy document. I step inside the business as an experienced operator: listening across the organisation, challenging assumptions and taking responsibility for turning opportunity into a working system.

As a fractional or interim COO and AI consultant, I bring C-level judgement without the delay of a lengthy executive search—combining 30 years of commercial experience, structured business analysis and hands-on AI implementation.

See the whole business

Expose operational friction, trapped knowledge, customer gaps and overlooked commercial value.

Set the AI direction

Choose the few opportunities worth pursuing, with a baseline, accountable owner and measure of success.

Build the operating spine

Connect knowledge, workflows, agents, automation and reporting around how the business actually works.

Lead responsible adoption

Bring people with you, install guardrails and keep human judgement where the business needs it most.

Best suited to

CEOs and founders in growth, transition or operational complexity who know AI matters—but need an experienced leader to decide what to do, bring stakeholders together and make it happen.

The proposition

AI should fit the business.
The business should not bend around AI.

Most transformation begins with a tool. Mine begins with the truth of the business: how decisions are made, where knowledge lives, what customers experience and what talented people are being asked to tolerate.

I identify where value is being lost, where growth is constrained and where AI can make a measurable difference—without automating away the judgement and relationships the business depends on.

The ROOTS framework

A business-first method for intelligent transformation.

R
Reveal the reality
Clarify the commercial goal and what is really happening beneath the reporting.
O
Observe the operation
Follow the people, processes, information and customer journey to locate friction.
O
Outline the opportunity
Prioritise the few AI opportunities capable of creating meaningful value.
T
Thread the technology
Connect knowledge, workflows and tools into one usable operating spine.
S
Strengthen and scale
Build team confidence, human controls and measures that support lasting adoption.

Pioneering, proven

Recognised nationally before transformation became a fashionable word.

By her mid-30s, Sorrell’s work had received national recognition through Business in the Community. The young company she co-founded was named among the country’s leading organisations for community impact, in a national top three alongside Manchester Airport and Ernst & Young.

That pioneering work grew into 15 years operating at C-suite level across corporate social responsibility, bringing multinationals, communities and delivery partners together around programmes designed to create measurable, lasting impact.

Through PhunkyFoods, Sorrell developed the UK’s first food-industry consortium dedicated to tackling rising rates of childhood obesity, bringing together Nestlé Global, Cargill PLC, McCain and 2 Sisters Food Group. She also developed strategic partnerships and worked at C-suite level with McDonald’s, Marks & Spencer, Alton Towers, Merlin Entertainments, Madame Tussauds, Wasabi, SMA Nutrition and Findus.

“The PhunkyFoods Healthy Kids Programme is one of the highest-quality initiatives of its kind I have come across anywhere in the world.” Dr Miriam Stoppard

“We truly believe this type of education is a powerful tool to help children understand the values of healthy eating, nutrition and physical activity, enabling them to lead healthier lifestyles today and in the future.”

Fiona Kendrick · Chief Executive and Chairman, Nestlé UK & Ireland

Sorrell Fearnall receiving the Royal Society for Public Health Power in Partnership Award from Lord Haslam at the Houses of Parliament — Power in Partnership Award Presented by **Lord Haslam** at the **Houses of Parliament**, Westminster Maverick in her approach. The Royal Society for Public Health

Sorrell Fearnall working with young entrepreneurs in St Lucia during a Hull Chamber of Commerce trade visit — **St Lucia · Entrepreneurship in action**
Working with Hull Chamber of Commerce during a trade visit to St Lucia, developing community initiatives with local youth groups and helping young people connect their skills and ideas with future customers.

A repeated pattern

I find the friction others overlook—and build systems that help people do their best work.

National education & public health

PhunkyFoods ↗

Co-built Purely Nutrition into a business of approximately £1.5m turnover with a 22-person team, before selling a majority stake. Its PhunkyFoods platform turned a complex public-health challenge into a scalable national programme connecting schools, communities and blue-chip partners.

International marketplace

I Do Abroad ↗

The global scouts for destination weddings. I Do Abroad identifies the trust and discovery gap between couples and outstanding international suppliers, then simplifies the journey between them.

Regulated women’s healthcare

Desire Clinic ↗

Developed a discreet digital pathway for an overlooked women’s-health need, bringing together clinical governance, brand and customer experience.

Practical AI adoption

Practical Artificial ↗

Helps founder-led businesses replace disconnected experimentation with an AI spine built around how their people actually work.

Hospitality operations & AI

Rose & Crown Pub Group ↗

Worked with the management team to audit business direction, map the flow beneath daily operations and identify the friction affecting time, cost and visibility. The result is an intelligent operating structure that strengthens management decision-making while protecting the warm, personal customer experience.

Personal brand · practice development

Tereza Škodová

Developing the personal brand and commercial pathway for a Psychology PhD researcher and qualified ADOS-2 administrator. Her research, assessment and teaching expertise is being translated into a focused neurodiversity practice, with a packaged workplace ADHD course that gives employers practical support for their teams.

What I bring to a CEO

An independent view across the whole organisation.

I move between board-level ambition and operational reality. I can see the commercial opportunity, understand the people affected and translate the strategy into something that can actually be used.

Operational friction leadership teams have learned to tolerate

Knowledge trapped inside individuals and disconnected systems

Gaps between strategic intention and daily execution

Commercial opportunities hidden between teams and markets

The work AI should handle—and the decisions humans must retain

Ways to work together

The right role depends on what your organisation needs next.

I work with organisations in the capacity that creates the most value—from AI consultancy or a focused transformation brief to an embedded Fractional COO, Interim COO or permanent executive role. Every engagement begins with understanding the business, its people and the outcome that matters.

Diagnose

Find the operational friction, hidden opportunity and root causes holding performance back.

Shape the strategy

Turn commercial ambition into a clear, practical direction that people can understand and deliver.

Build and implement

Connect people, processes, knowledge and technology into systems that work in the real business.

Lead from within

Work alongside founders, boards and leadership teams to keep change moving and results visible.

Permanent, fractional, advisory or project-based.

Let’s discuss the challenge, the role and where my experience can make the greatest difference.

Contact me to discuss

Commercial experience, structured analysis, practical technology

Business leadership30 years developing, leading and scaling ventures

Skills England Level 4Digital Business Analyst standard—process mapping, stakeholder discovery, data and transformation planning

AI implementationClaude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Manus

Commercial systemsGoHighLevel, Apollo, CRM, customer journeys and intelligent automation

International AI immersionSix months working within Tulum’s international founder and AI community in 2025—learning, testing and building alongside active practitioners

Approachable. Practical. Ready to begin.

Let’s discuss the role, challenge or opportunity.

Whether you are hiring a COO, seeking an AI consultant or need an experienced transformation leader for a defined project, tell me what needs to change and what success should look like.

sorrell@sorrellfearnall.co.uk