Why 1Pacent
One percent, compounded.
The name is not a flourish. It is the method, and it is the reason this practice exists.
The name comes from an idea in James Clear's Atomic Habits. Improving by one percent is almost imperceptible on the day. Sustained, it compounds into a different organisation within a year.
Governance works exactly that way. Boards rarely fail because of a single catastrophic decision. They fail because small disciplines were not kept: the register nobody updated, the policy nobody read, the supplier nobody assessed, the question nobody asked because it felt premature.
AI governance is not a program you complete. It is a set of small, repeatable habits, each one modest on its own, that together give a board a defensible position. One percent at a time, held consistently, is what makes the difference.
That idea is why this practice exists, and it is why the work is designed to be sustainable rather than impressive.
A board rarely fails on the big decision. It fails on the small disciplines nobody kept.
Who you would be working with
Mark McNamaraPrincipal · GAICD · AIGP
I am Mark McNamara. I have spent more than twenty years in governance, risk and technology assurance, almost all of it inside large and heavily regulated organisations.
Most of that work has involved advising people with real decisions in front of them: chief executives, boards, and ministers weighing technology risk and investment where the consequences were public and the scrutiny was genuine. Building assurance frameworks where none existed, and leading reform under external review, teaches you quickly which governance holds up and which only looks like it does.
I have also served as a Non-Executive Director, which matters more than it sounds. I have sat on both sides of the table: the executive preparing the board paper, and the director trying to work out whether that paper says what the board actually needs to know. Very few advisers have done both, and it changes how you write, what you leave out, and which question you ask next.
That is the perspective I bring. We are not a law firm and not an audit firm. We help boards turn a fast-moving regulatory picture into something they can act on this quarter, and evidence next quarter.
I work with a small number of clients at a time, which keeps the advice senior and the scope honest.
Services are provided in a personal capacity through 1Pacent and are independent of any employer. Nothing on this site is an endorsement by any current or former employer.
Happy to talk, whether or not it leads anywhere.
If you are weighing up whether AI governance is a live issue for your board yet, that is a better conversation to have early than late.