About
25 years deciding where money goes, now building the tools that inform it
I started my working life as a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps, leaving as a captain in 1998. After an MBA at London Business School I moved into finance: leveraged finance at Goldman Sachs, mergers and acquisitions at Investec, then managing director at Consensus Business Group reporting directly to the principal.
In 2009 I became a founding partner of Ekistics Property Advisors, a Financial Conduct Authority authorised, 14 person pan European real estate investment business with offices in the United Kingdom and Lithuania. I recruited the team and built the origination, selection and asset management processes. From 2013 to 2023 I was also group chief financial officer of the family office and industrial holding group behind it, responsible for financing, reporting, financial control and risk across shipping, commodities, real estate and asset management.
Alongside that I taught myself to program. Python, data analysis, and enough engineering to build the things I had previously specified for other people to build. That is now the work. Contracts and invoices come from SATAXI Labs, Inc., my company. The work, and the person doing it, is me. Earlier consulting work was done through JP Consulting, which is now dormant.
What I found is that the two halves fit together better than I expected. Most of the difficulty in these projects is not the code. It is knowing what a covenant is, why a variance matters, and how an investment committee actually reaches a decision. That part took 25 years.
John Pedersen
Career
Where this came from
From 2006
Director and founder, JP Consulting
Analytic, financially grounded advice to private principals and the companies they control. The most recent engagement was with a Forbes 100 principal and his sons, working directly with the family. The company is now dormant.
2013 to 2023
Group Chief Financial Officer, single family office and industrial holding group
Financing, financial reporting, financial control and risk management across shipping, commodities, real estate and asset management, for both public and private family interests.
2009 to 2023
Managing and founding partner, Ekistics Property Advisors LLP
Started the London office, recruited every senior hire including the chief investment officer, and obtained authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority. Transaction lead for all major non shipping investments.
2003 to 2006
Managing Director, Consensus Business Group
A single family office whose affiliates controlled around five billion pounds of commercial real estate, at the time the largest private commercial landlord in the United Kingdom. Founded and managed Consensus Growth Capital, and returned the private equity portfolio to profit.
2002 to 2003
Investec Bank (UK), Investment Banking Division
Mergers and acquisitions advisory and business development. Initiated investment banking coverage for the growth industrial sector.
2000 to 2001
Goldman Sachs International, Leveraged Finance
Acquisition finance, leveraged buyout structuring and valuation.
1992 to 1998
United States Marine Corps, commissioned officer
Platoon commander, company commander and staff officer. Left as a captain, consistently rated at the top of my peer group.
Education and other
The rest of it
Education
- London Business School, MBA. Corporate finance tutor, and winner of the India Week case study competition.
- The University of Chicago, BA Economics, on a full Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps scholarship.
- City University of New York. Dean's List, elected to the Student Senate.
- Aiglon College, Villars sur Ollon.
Outside work
- Private pilot.
- Golf, travel and SCUBA diving.
- Basic French, Russian and German.
Questions
The things people ask first
What does John Pedersen do?
I help growing businesses work out where AI is worth using, then build the first working piece. The work replaces something people currently do by hand every week: orders that arrive by email, reporting, customer questions, document review or follow-up. I write the code myself rather than passing it to a delivery team.
Do you build the software yourself?
Yes. The person on the first call is the person who builds it. That is deliberate. It keeps the scope honest, because I cannot promise something I would then have to hand to someone else to work out.
What size of project do you take on?
A narrow first project is usually the right way to start: one recurring problem, one useful output, one clear owner. It tells both of us more than a long discovery exercise does, and it is a cheaper way for you to find out whether the work is any good.
What background do you bring to this?
25 years in finance. Leveraged finance at Goldman Sachs, mergers and acquisitions at Investec, managing director at Consensus Business Group, founding partner of a pan European real estate investment business, and group chief financial officer of a single family office and industrial holding group from 2013 to 2023. Before that, six years as a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Why does a finance background matter for AI work?
Because most of these projects fail on the domain rather than the technology. Knowing what a covenant is, why a budget variance matters, or how an investment committee actually decides means the tool gets built around the real question instead of a description of it.
Where do you work and who do you work with?
Based in the United Arab Emirates, working with businesses in the United Kingdom, the Gulf, Europe and the United States. Remote elsewhere, with site visits agreed per project.
How do projects get priced?
Each one individually, agreed in writing before any work starts. A roadmap, if you want one first, is usually two weeks at a fixed price. We cover it on the first call once the job is clear enough to put a number against.
How do I start?
Book a 30 minute call or send a short description of the problem through the contact form. Either is fine. A rough description is enough to begin with.
Writing
AI for Growth, and the prompts behind it
A publication on using AI to drive growth in your business, your life, and you, with the prompts and tools that go with it. Free to read and to use.
For experienced professionals
If the constraint is your own work, not your team's, the examples are here
They are free and they need no conversation with me.