Spotlight on: Pauline Norstrom LLB (Hons), FBCS, FRSA, FIoD

Pauline Norstrom LLB (Hons), FBCS, FRSA, FIoD

Founder and CEO

Head and shoulders shot of Pauline Norstrom

Pauline Norstrom is an experienced, award-winning board director and strategist. She is also the founder and CEO of Anekanta®, a globally recognised brand focused on enabling medium and large organisations to unlock the benefits of AI technology underpinned by robust risk and governance practices.

Founded in 2016, Anekanta® partners with boards and senior leaders to embed AI into business strategy, drive innovation, and strengthen positioning for M&A, growth, and market advantage. Services include CPD-certified AI literacy training for boards and senior leaders, strategic advisory, and readiness for the EU AI Act and ISO/IEC 42001 – all designed to elevate decision-making and build confidence in AI at board level. Anekanta® also supports M&A due diligence and AI investment risk assessment, helping boards interrogate value and exposure where AI is present in the deal.

Pauline has been awarded Fellowships with the British Computer Society, Institute of Directors and the Royal Society for the Arts. She is an alumna from the University of Oxford AI Programme and holds a first class honours degree in Law (LLB Hons) (FLK route with research into AI liability, product liability and the EU AI Act).

Experienced Business Leader

Prior to Anekanta® Pauline built over 20 years UK and international commercial board experience, including statutory executive roles such as Global COO, MD, VP, and Chairwoman of a National Association (BSIA) where she is now sits on the board as a non-executive director.

With a focus on data driven and AI based technologies, she has led and supported M&A transactions from £1.3M to £150M, including acquisitions, carve-outs, restructuring, and post-merger integration. She has scaled businesses from zero to £15M+ within three years organically, and delivered multi-million P&L targets through commercial and government contracts across sectors including critical infrastructure, aviation, transport, manufacturing, and retail. In addition to full P & L responsibility, she has developed business unit strategy, funding and re-financing programmes, business model innovation, EBITDA delivery, digital transformation, training, ISO compliance, product commercialisation, IP development, HR development, lease rationalisation, and turnaround planning.

She has led and built teams in the UK, US and the EU and in doing so provided senior mentoring and support to elevate people to achieve their potential. Today, she operates in both executive and non-executive roles, offering rare insight at the intersection of AI, governance, and commercial transformation.

Developing Standards and Guidance for over 25 Years

Alongside her commercial roles, Pauline is an established leader and driver of best practice in the use of technology in high-risk high-stakes environments. For over 25 years she has authored and contributed to numerous guides and standards for the benefit of society and the technology community. These include early stage computer vision based AI technology in defence and security, a standard for the extraction of digital evidence from video surveillance systems incorporating deep fake detection and image quality requirements (BS 8495 incorporated in the BS EN 62676 x suite of standards).

She was the pioneer and lead author of guidance on the ethical use of facial recognition technology in video surveillance with the BSIA, also featured by the Home Office, and the later standard for which she created the structure around the OECD AI principles and co-authored (BS 9347).

Pauline also sits on the national artificial intelligence committee focused on supporting the EU AI Act standardisation request and the development of BS, ISO/IEC standards which underpin the AI system lifecycle including the ISO/IEC 42001 AI Management System and EN 18286 Article 17 QMS for high-risk AI.

Pioneering and Innovative

Additionally, she developed the Anekanta®AI Governance Framework for Boards in 2020 which pre-dated ISO/IEC 42001 and was one of the first commercialised AI governance frameworks in existence in the world at the time. It is embedded in Anekanta®’s AI literacy training workshops, freely adopted by organisations under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, and featured by the OECD. She also pioneered AI governance at the Institute of Directors (IoD) where she is a Fellow and former member of its voluntary Expert’s Advisory Group. Her investment of time into building an informed and competent ecosystem extends from AI into cyber security and data privacy for which she is an advisory board member in the USA at the Security Industry Association focused on the adoption of AI and innovative practices for the protection of public safety, security of infrastructure and commercial property and assets.

Progressive

While committed to driving innovation and commercial outcomes, Pauline advocates for inclusive leadership as a driver of economic performance and innovation, and supports organisations in building diverse, future-ready boards.

Public Speaker

Pauline is a regular public speaker on the subject of AI Strategy and Governance. She has contributed her leadership and expertise to a range of conferences and webinars including: the All Party Parliamentary Group for AI (APPG AI) (Evidence provided for facial recognition software regulation and AI Governance) British Security Industry Association (BSIA) (Facial recognition software governance), Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) (AI Assurance Conference, EU AI Act), BSI (ISO 42001 launch), CNI Security Group (AI in Critical Infrastructure), Passenger Terminal Expo (AI in Aviation), ISACA (AI and Regulation), IoD (Generative AI), Diligent (AI Innovations Visionary Forum), #RISK AI London (Various Panels on AI strategy and risk), TechUK (AI and data assurance and standards with the BSI), Digital Regulators Cooperation Forum (DRCF) (AI Assurance), Bridge AI (AI data quality governance for SMEs), Buckinghamshire New University (Responsible AI in the Aviation Journey), University of Liverpool (Ethical AI and Regulation), and many more.

Engaging Anekanta®

Pauline is the driving force behind Anekanta®, and is instrumental in scoping the client problem and devising Anekanta®’s strategic response delivered through our multi-disciplinary teams. Our services are supported by our AI Governance Framework, AI Risk Intelligence System^TM, ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF and associated de-facto and de jure standards.

Anekanta® partners with boards and senior leaders on a defined project basis to embed AI into business strategy, drive innovation and capability, and strengthen positioning for growth, and market advantage – underpinned by regulatory compliance and best governance practice throughout the AI System Lifecycle.

To discuss your needs please contact us here or explore our services.

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Use of Generative AI: Generative AI tools may be utilised in research and drafting processes. All published materials are subject to substantive human review, professional judgment and oversight prior to release.