Writing & Publications
A body of work on AI governance and board-level risk, leadership and turnaround, and the building of technology businesses.
This is a complete index of published writing by Bill Lewis, Founding Partner of Linacre Capital Partners. The recent work centres on a single argument: that AI agents are arriving inside the enterprise faster than boards can see, understand, or govern them — and that this is a board-level business risk, not a technology detail.
The papers and articles below set out that argument across registers, from a 22-page board-level risk assessment to plain-language pieces written for non-technical directors. The books span three decades of building, financing, and turning around businesses.
The 22-page foundation of the series. It named the problem of unmanaged AI agents inside the enterprise ten weeks before Gartner described the same phenomenon as agent sprawl. Identifies nine categories of risk and a three-layer governance framework. Full assessment is client IP; a public synopsis is available.
What boards should actually do about AI agents, now that purpose-built agent governance has crystallised as a distinct enterprise software category. Forthcoming.
AI agents are arriving inside the software companies already license and trust, below the threshold that triggers a board or compliance review. The organisation may already carry exposure for capabilities it never approved. Published in Board Agenda and Corporate Compliance Insights.
Why product liability, contract law, and tort each fail to resolve cleanly who is accountable when an agent that arrived through ordinary software channels causes harm.
Use-case inventories describe the AI you could buy, not the AI you already have. The asymmetry between AI as a decision and AI as weather that has already settled.
A data-led assessment of AI search hype. AI has not replaced Google by volume, but it is becoming the layer where trust-dependent decisions are shaped. You cannot own an AI ranking; you can influence the odds.
A plain-language explanation, written for board chairs, of why a major AI cyber-capability development matters — told through a Lego-castle-and-flashlight analogy.
The Microsoft 365 Connected Experiences setting most organisations enabled years ago now governs parts of Copilot and the agents built on it — without fresh consent. A fifteen-minute check for compliance officers.
An entrepreneur’s account of building and making millions — the crazy journey, told plainly.
A methodology for non-technical founders directing the building of complex AI systems they could not code themselves. A public synopsis is available.
For founders and start-up CEOs: an easy-read guide to avoiding the top 100+ mistakes that can derail or kill a business.
On raising capital: mastering the pitch and unlocking investment.
The questions every founder should be ready to answer before they walk into the room.
Contact
Bill Lewis is Founding Partner of Linacre Capital Partners. He provides independent counsel to Chairs, CEOs and Founders on their highest-stakes decisions, on the AI now operating inside their businesses, and on major programmes that are starting to tilt — bill@linacre.net.
Visit Linacre Capital.