Decision Authority Infrastructure for the AI and Cyber Era
Most organizations do not fail because they lack plans. They fail because decision authority collapses when exposure becomes visible. Mind The Gap Advisory exists to close that gap — before disruption forces the issue publicly.
Mind The Gap Advisory is a governance advisory firm that prepares leadership teams, boards, and regulated organizations to exercise decision authority when AI-driven disruption and cyber exposure compress the time between signal and consequence.
Our work sits at the intersection of cyber risk, AI disruption, and public accountability — designing the governance structures that allow organizations to act with clarity, speed, and discipline when leadership authority is tested in real time.
What We Do
Decision Authority Architecture
Designing the escalation structures, authorization thresholds, and cross-functional alignment that allow leadership to act decisively before certainty exists.
Executive Crisis Readiness
Preparing leadership teams for the first 20 minutes of cyber incidents, synthetic media attacks, and AI-driven disruption — when facts are incomplete and scrutiny is immediate.
Governance Stress Testing
Live facilitated simulations that expose where decision authority fractures under pressure — before a real incident reveals the gaps publicly.
Board and Leadership Advisory
Selective advisory engagements for boards and executive leadership teams navigating sustained AI-driven and cyber risk exposure at institutional scale.
Crisis plans don't fail. Decision authority does.
Credibility is not claimed. It is demonstrated through disciplined decisions under pressure.
Readiness is engineered before disruption — not assembled during it.
The first 20 minutes does not reveal your technology. It reveals your governance.
The CrisisOS5™ Framework
CrisisOS5™ is the executive readiness framework underlying all Mind The Gap Advisory engagements. It is the only decision governance architecture built specifically for the compressed timelines of the AI and cyber era.
The framework governs escalation discipline, decision rights, cross-functional coordination, and leadership authority under pressure — ensuring governance performs under velocity rather than fragmenting into hesitation or internal debate.
Who We Work With
Mind The Gap Advisory works with organizations operating in environments where disruption carries operational, regulatory, or public consequence — and where early decisions are scrutinized in real time.
Boards of Directors and Audit Committees
CISOs and Chief Risk Officers
General Counsels and Legal Leadership
Executive Leadership Teams
Communications and Risk Leaders
Global Conferences and Industry Associations
Our engagements are concentrated in regulated, publicly visible, and high-trust environments.
Financial Services
Healthcare
Energy & Critical Infrastructure
Technology
Legal & Professional Services
Government & Public Sector
The Person Behind the Work
Ann Marie van den Hurk
Founder, Mind The Gap Advisory
MSc. · APR · ISA Member
Ann Marie van den Hurk advises executive teams operating at the intersection of AI, cyber, and critical infrastructure risk, where disruption threatens operations, regulatory standing, and public credibility.
Her work focuses on executive readiness, decision authority, and leadership alignment in moments when facts are incomplete, scrutiny is immediate, and missteps compound quickly.
Ann Marie previously led communications at the intersection of engineering, product security, and regulatory disclosure at Schneider Electric, working directly inside executive decision environments during product vulnerability and incident response situations. This experience exposed a consistent governance failure: organizations invest heavily in tools and response plans while leaving executive decision authority unprepared for real-world pressure.
Mind The Gap Advisory was founded to address that gap.
Ann Marie is a member of the International Society of Automation (ISA) and contributor to ICS4ICS, bringing familiarity with the regulatory and operational frameworks governing critical infrastructure, including ISA/IEC 62443, NERC CIP, DOE, and EPA expectations.
Based in Newport, Rhode Island. Engagements are founder-led and available in person in Providence, Boston, Portsmouth, Portland, and Hartford — and across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut — and nationally and globally.
Social Media Crisis Communications
Preparing for, Preventing, and Surviving a Public Relations #Fail — Que, 2013
Before AI-driven crisis became a boardroom conversation, Ann Marie was already mapping how organizations fail under digital pressure. This was the first guide to managing crises in the social media age — the intellectual foundation that would eventually become the CrisisOS5™ Framework.
It is proof that this work has roots, not just relevance.
Read more about the book →SeverityIQ™
In addition to her advisory practice, Ann Marie is the creator of SeverityIQ™ — a decision activation platform built to operationalize the same authority mapping and escalation discipline she advises organizations to design. SeverityIQ transforms incoming risk signals into authorized, traceable action through structured classification, named decision routing, and defensible audit trails.
Learn About SeverityIQ → (opens in new tab)Incoming risk signals are classified by type and severity — with no ambiguity about what requires action
Named decision owners receive structured alerts — so the right person acts, not whoever happens to see it first
Every escalation, acknowledgment, and resolution is recorded — producing a defensible audit trail from signal to close
Next Steps
Engagements are available on a selective basis for boards and executive leadership teams where early decisions carry regulatory, financial, or reputational consequence.
Based in Newport, Rhode Island. Available across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut — and nationally and globally.