Know Who Decides
Before the Crisis Does.
When cyber or AI disruption hits, we help leadership teams know who can act, what they can decide, and what happens next — before uncertainty becomes an expensive problem.
For CEOs, CISOs, General Counsel, risk leaders, communications leaders, and boards operating under speed and scrutiny.
"Our biggest delay isn't detection — it's who is actually allowed to act in the first 20 minutes." What we hear from leaders. These are not technical failures. They are decision governance failures.
Make the Call Faster. Keep Leadership Aligned.
When cyber, AI, or operational disruption outruns verification, leadership needs more than a plan. It needs clear authority, aligned decision rights, and a defensible path forward.
Who we advise
- Chief Executive Officers
- Chief Information Security Officers
- General Counsel & Legal Leadership
- Chief Risk Officers
- Chief Communications Officers
- Board Chairs & Audit Committee Members
What leadership gains
See where authority, responsibility, and operational reality no longer match
Make consequential decisions faster without functions working at cross-purposes
Defend who decided, when they decided, and the authority behind the decision
Stay in control while facts, pressure, and public scrutiny are still moving
Most Organizations Do Not Fail Because They Lack Plans
They fail because decision authority becomes unclear when pressure rises — quietly, as exceptions accumulate, or suddenly, when an AI or cyber crisis moves faster than leadership can align. The advantage is simple: know who owns the decision before the moment demands it.
Facts move. Narratives harden. Scrutiny escalates. The challenge facing leadership today is not detection. It is the ability to maintain decision authority as signals move faster than verification.
Policies, controls, and leadership structures may exist on paper, but under business pressure, execution often defaults to incentives, hierarchy, customer urgency, and internal politics. Once decisions are replayed under regulatory or shareholder scrutiny, it is too late to retrofit authority.
The first 20 minutes does not test your technology. It tests your governance.
Governance erodes quietly, one operational tradeoff at a time, until leadership discovers that policy and practice no longer match.
Decision ownership is unclear when speed matters most
Security, legal, and communications interpret risk differently under pressure
Early speculation shapes the public narrative before leadership aligns
Mind The Gap Advisory works with executive teams before disruption to engineer the decision structures required for moments like these. This is readiness infrastructure for leadership decision-making when incidents move faster than verification — not traditional crisis response.
Surface where governance has lost ground to operational pressure — before an incident makes it undeniable
Establish clear decision ownership — so teams do not wait for permission that never arrives
Align Security, Legal, Communications, and Leadership in advance — so response does not fracture
Prevent narrative drift while information is still stabilizing — so speculation does not harden into public record
Modern crises unfold faster than leadership governance was designed to handle. Download as PDF → (opens in new tab, PDF)
The CrisisOS5™ Framework
CrisisOS5™ equips leadership teams to make consequential decisions while the facts are still moving. It establishes who decides, when authority escalates, how functions coordinate, and how leadership stays aligned when cyber or AI disruption compresses the decision window.
The framework turns decision governance into an operating discipline: clear decision rights, defined escalation, cross-functional coordination, and leadership authority that can still function when time is short and information is incomplete.
An AI-enabled diagnostic tool that generates a real-time heatmap of authority and alignment gaps across cyber and AI disruption scenarios — giving leaders a clear picture of where governance is most exposed before an incident forces the answer. Access the Readiness Assistant →
Decision Authority That Holds When Pressure Arrives
Mind The Gap Advisory turns governance into usable decision authority, giving leadership teams the clarity to act when cyber risk, AI disruption, and public scrutiny converge.
20 Min
When disruption arrives, it will not wait for internal alignment. The organizations that hold under pressure are the ones that already know who can act, what they can decide, and how authority moves when the first choice is unavailable.
Mind The Gap Advisory engages selectively with boards, C-suites, and executive leadership teams in regulated and high-visibility industries — including critical infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, and legal & professional services.
All engagements are led by Ann Marie van den Hurk, MSc., APR — originator of the CrisisOS5™ Framework, former corporate leader at Schneider Electric in Cybersecurity & Product Security, and global speaker at MIT Sloan, ICMC, ISACA, and PRSA.
All engagements are founder-led.
Based in Newport, Rhode Island. Serving executive teams in Providence, Boston, Portsmouth, Portland, and Hartford — and across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut — and nationally and globally.
You cannot control when disruption arrives. You can control whether leadership knows who decides.
SeverityIQ™
Know what matters. Know who decides. Move to action.
SeverityIQ makes sense of incoming signals, determines what requires attention, and routes consequential decisions to the people authorized to act, creating a clear, traceable path from signal to decision.
Turn an uncertain signal into a clear severity level so teams know what requires attention now
Route the decision to the person who is actually authorized to act, with backup authority already defined
Preserve what was known, who had authority, what was decided, and when — without rebuilding the story later
Know Who Decides Before You Lose Time.
Three ways to strengthen decision authority, from a focused diagnostic to a deeper governance engagement. Choose the entry point that fits where your organization is right now.
Engagements are founder-led. Availability is limited.
Based in Newport, Rhode Island. Available across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut — and nationally and globally.