About Xirocco

Complex decisions need people who understand how complexity behaves in practice.

Xirocco brings experienced advisers, deep technology expertise and proprietary intelligence platforms together in one model.

Who We Are

Xirocco was created around a simple idea. Organisations make better technology decisions when a defined scope, clear challenge or open question is connected to the business outcomes leaders are accountable for.

We are a UK-based boutique AI and technology strategy consultancy, working with organisations globally through our own team and an approved network of consulting and implementation partners. Our work is deliberately top-down and executive-focused. We help CIOs and IT leaders turn complex AI, digital and technology agendas into strategies that Boards, CFOs, COOs and business leaders can understand, challenge and act on.

People remain at the centre of our work. Our advisers bring experience, structured professional judgement and an understanding of how strategy, leadership and organisational change interact. Xirocco Strategy Suite and Maeros AI support and accelerate that work; they do not replace the judgement, accountability or relationships on which consequential decisions depend.

What makes Xirocco different is what remains after an engagement. We aim to leave more than recommendations: a strategy that can withstand business scrutiny, a clearer rationale for decisions and a living capability that clients can continue to own, use and develop. The team below brings together the strategic, technical, security and operational experience needed to make that possible.

Xirocco

Meet the Team

Kiran Rao

Founder & CEO

Kiran has more than 25 years of experience across enterprise technology leadership, strategy and transformation, including senior roles in global organisations and board-level advisory work with CIOs and technology leadership teams.

His expertise spans business and technology strategy, IT operating models, enterprise architecture, investment prioritisation, transformation, governance and large-scale service delivery. He founded Xirocco to bring these disciplines together in a more connected, evidence-based way, helping leaders make better decisions across AI, technology, risk and investment.

Gordon McMullan

C-Suite Management Consultant & Technology Advisor

Gordon is a senior technology and transformation leader with around 30 years of experience spanning CTO, CDO, CIO and consulting roles across healthcare, life sciences, finance, automotive, government and industry.

He has led enterprise-scale digital, data and AI strategies, operating model change, architecture transformation and complex investment programmes, with a strong track record of bridging strategy and execution. At Xirocco, Gordon typically leads consulting engagements, bringing board-level advisory experience and deep expertise in AI, data, architecture, transformation and technology strategy.

Marcus Robbins

C-Suite Management Consultant & Strategic Advisory

Marcus is a senior strategy and transformation consultant with more than 30 years of experience across consulting, technology, growth and enterprise change.

He has led advisory teams and built transformation propositions spanning AI, business and IT strategy, IT/OT, innovation and cultural change, including senior roles with Fujitsu, Capgemini, Microsoft and IBM. At Xirocco, he focuses on strategic adaptability, leadership alignment and the conditions required for change to succeed.

Santosh Kumar

AI Expert

Technology and software engineering leader with experience spanning enterprise platforms, infrastructure engineering, data platforms, and AI-enabled systems.

Santosh has led the design and engineering of AI agent-based systems capable of executing complex workflow-driven operations, including orchestration, tool integration, state management, and operational decision-making within enterprise environments.

Baba Bedi

CISO & Cybersecurity Advisor

Bedi is a seasoned CISO and cyber risk leader with more than 30 years of experience across information security, privacy, regulatory compliance and enterprise risk.

His background spans senior security roles in financial services, consulting and global enterprises, with deep expertise in cyber governance, data privacy, third-party risk, resilience and regulatory frameworks including NIST, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, GDPR and related standards. At Xirocco, he serves as CISO and resident cybersecurity expert, while also acting as a primary point of contact for clients and partners across the USA and LATAM.

Gopi Malla

Lead Platform Developer

Gopi is a full-stack technology architect and engineering leader with around 12+ years of experience designing and building enterprise and start-up platforms. js, Angular, MongoDB, AWS, application security, performance and scalable product architecture.

He has led distributed engineering teams, overseen production deployments and code quality, and translated business requirements into secure, maintainable technology solutions. At Xirocco, Gopi leads platform development and cloud infrastructure management, bringing strong hands-on engineering capability across modern web, cloud and AI-enabled applications.

Vimmi Khanna

Co-founder & Operations Director

Vimmi is a founding member of Xirocco and leads the non-technical operations that keep the business running smoothly. Her responsibilities span finance, taxation, invoicing and payments, HR, legal administration, customer and partner coordination, and day-to-day company operations.

She also supports Xirocco's sales, marketing and outreach activity, bringing a practical, hands-on understanding of how to turn strategy into disciplined execution across the business.

Maeros AI

Enterprise Intelligence Colleague

Maeros AI is Xirocco's enterprise intelligence colleague and an active part of our consulting team. It helps advisers interrogate connected organisational context, surface relationships, implications, priorities and potential root causes, and explore follow-up questions in natural language.

Maeros AI accelerates the work without replacing professional judgement. Xirocco advisers remain accountable for interpreting evidence, challenging assumptions and making recommendations, while Maeros AI helps them work more systematically, preserve what has been learned and bring clearer, better-supported insight to clients.

Our Mission

To help organisations make better strategic decisions by connecting the business, technology and organisational context behind them.

Our Vision

A world where enterprise strategy is a living capability rather than a point-in-time exercise. Where leaders can understand how business priorities, technology, investment, risk and transformation connect. And where the knowledge created through important work remains available to support the decisions that come next.

Our Values

Start With What Matters

Focus first on the problem, decision or difference the organisation is trying to make.

Make Complexity Understandable

Complexity should be understood, not hidden behind jargon.

Follow the Evidence

Recommendations should be grounded in connected organisational context.

Keep People at the Centre

Technology should support expert judgement and accountable decision-making.

Build Lasting Value

The work should leave the organisation with more than a static deliverable.

Challenge Constructively

Good strategy requires assumptions to be tested, not simply accepted.

What We Believe

Begin With the Difference You Want to Make

Strategy should begin with what the organisation is trying to achieve. Then work backwards into the strategy, operating model, capabilities, investment and technology needed to make it real.

Start With a Question or Defined Challenge

Come with an open question or a defined challenge. We can act as a sounding board, structure evidence and options, and use the Xirocco Strategy Framework to support a clear, well-reasoned decision and plan for action.

One Enterprise Context. Many Questions.

Enterprise problems are connected. The context established for one question can often help answer another.

Human Judgement Remains Central

Technology can strengthen analysis. It should not replace accountable professional judgement.

Strategy Should Become a Living Capability

The knowledge created through strategic work should remain useful after the initial engagement ends.

What Makes Xirocco Different

Xirocco brings together three elements in one model:

Experienced strategic and technology advisers
The Xirocco enterprise strategy and intelligence platform
Maeros AI

This combination changes the nature of the engagement.

Instead of collecting information for one isolated consulting scope and allowing that context to disappear afterwards, Xirocco can preserve the connected strategic picture created through the work.

That context can then be:

Updated
Extended
Reassessed
Interrogated
Reused

as new questions emerge.

Solve today's problem. Preserve what you learn. Use it to solve tomorrow's problem faster.

Expert-Led. Platform-Enabled.

Our platforms are designed to strengthen professional judgement. They do not replace it. Experienced people remain responsible for:

Interpretation
Challenge
Context
Validation
Recommendations
Accountability

The strongest decisions come from combining:

Enterprise evidence + expert judgement + institutional knowledge + AI-assisted analysis

Built for Lasting Value

The best consulting work should create value beyond the immediate engagement. The context created through Xirocco can remain available to support future questions. That means:

An AI strategy can later inform technology investment
A diagnostic can support transformation
A cost exercise can support application rationalisation
A supplier assessment can inform resilience
A technology strategy can support portfolio prioritisation
A sovereignty assessment can inform architecture and procurement

The work becomes part of an evolving strategic capability rather than an isolated intervention.

Trust Matters

Xirocco is designed for organisations making important enterprise decisions. That requires confidence in:

Evidence
Professional judgement
Security
Governance
Responsible use of AI
Client confidentiality
Data handling
Organisational control

Maeros AI is designed as decision support. It does not replace accountable human judgement. Approved security, GDPR, certification and responsibility information should be accessible through the persistent global footer.

See the Approach in Practice

Our Success Stories show how organisations have used Xirocco to address different starting points across:

AI operating model
Technology strategy
Transformation readiness
IT cost optimisation
Business and technology alignment

Explore Success Stories →

What Challenge Are You Trying to Solve?

Tell us what is getting in the way, what opportunity you want to capture, or what outcome you need to achieve. We’ll help you understand what is really driving it, identify the options, decide what to prioritise and support implementation where needed.

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