Mark Cutting
Senior Fractional & Interim CIO & CISO

Mark Cutting is a senior technology and security executive with over 30 years of experience managing material risk within globally regulated financial services.
Most technology leaders provide advice; Mark provides ownership.
With two decades of leadership, including 8 years as both CIO and CISO for a global alternative investment manager, his career has been defined by the commercial consequences of technical decisions. As a practitioner-led executive, Mark operates at the board level while retaining direct architectural oversight.
He doesn't just manage "operational drift" - the gap where visible activity masks actual risk - he remediates it.
The "Material Risk" Distinction
Mark Cutting has been formally designated as an FCA Material Risk Taker.
This status is a regulatory acknowledgement of accountability, reserved for individuals whose professional activity has a material impact on a firm's risk profile.
When you engage Mark, you are deploying a leader trusted by regulators and boards to ensure infrastructure and security withstand the most rigorous supervisory analysis.
The "Unicorn" Duality
Board Strategy meets Engineering Reality.
Mark Cutting bridges the divide between the C-suite and the server room, ensuring that security is not a "tick-box" exercise, but a defensible commercial asset.
| The Boardroom Asset | The Technical Practitioner |
|---|---|
| Audit Expertise: 8 consecutive cycles of SOC 1/2 audits with zero material findings. | Cloud Governance: Managing global hybrid estates (AWS/On-prem) with strict cost discipline. |
| Regulatory Authority: Expertise in FCA SYSC, ICARA, DORA, NIST, and ISO 27001. | Incident Leadership: Improving detection and response times by 50% via telemetry integration. |
| AI Governance: Leading board-level ownership of Enterprise AI deployment and ethical protocols. | Operational Resilience: Designing automated failover for full multi-region data centre switches. |
The Technical Practitioner
- Audit Expertise: 8 consecutive cycles of SOC 1/2 audits with zero material findings.: Cloud Governance: Managing global hybrid estates (AWS/On-prem) with strict cost discipline.
- Regulatory Authority: Expertise in FCA SYSC, ICARA, DORA, NIST, and ISO 27001.: Incident Leadership: Improving detection and response times by 50% via telemetry integration.
- AI Governance: Leading board-level ownership of Enterprise AI deployment and ethical protocols.: Operational Resilience: Designing automated failover for full multi-region data centre switches.
Core Capabilities
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Clinical Engineering Audits: Mark steps into environments where growth has outpaced oversight, reducing outstanding audit observations through structured, senior-led remediation.
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Infrastructure Strategy: He governed a hybrid global estate spanning AWS multi-region VPC deployments, maintaining enterprise-grade performance while managing significant monthly cloud expenditures.
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Defensible Governance: Mark moves organisations beyond "compliance theatre," building GRC models that protect valuation and withstand deep investor due diligence.
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Emerging Tech Leadership: As an expert in Enterprise AI, Mark ensures that "acceptable use" is backed by robust data handling controls and architectural discipline.
The "Senior Asset" Engagement
Mark Cutting designed Phenomlab to bypass the "consultancy bloat" found in traditional agencies. You don't pay for account managers; you pay for direct access to a Senior Asset who can stabilise your delivery and own your risk from day one.
Whether you require a clinical audit of your engineering governance or sustained Fractional oversight, Mark Cutting provides a path to accountability with zero learning curve.
IMMEDIATE ACCOUNTABILITY
Executive leadership for Fractional and Interim mandates.
No recruitment lag. No corporate overhead. One flat rate.