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Leah Davis

Founder and Principal, FWD.OS

Leah Davis is the founder of FWD.OS, an independent consulting practice that helps leadership teams build the AI operating model their company needs to get real business value from AI. FWD.OS works with companies that have bought AI tools or started pilots but aren't seeing results in the P&L. Leah spent seven years at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Denver, from 2017 to 2024, before going independent.

FWD.OS is built on the Forward Operating System, Leah's framework of three pillars and one foundation: the Human Operating System, the Use-Case Factory, the Governance & Value Spine and the Data & Access Layer underneath them.

What Leah Does

Leah works with CEOs and executive teams on the organizational side of AI: who owns it, how work changes, how ideas move from pilot to production and how leadership knows whether the spend is paying off. In practice that means:

  • Diagnosing where a company's AI investment is stalling, through surveys, executive interviews and a review of current tools, pilots and spend
  • Designing the roles, incentives and career paths that make employees want to use AI instead of quietly avoiding it
  • Building the stage-gate process that moves AI use cases from idea to pilot to production, or kills them early
  • Setting up decision rights, guardrails and value tracking so leadership can see what AI is returning

She does not build AI models, configure software or select vendors. FWD.OS designs the operating model and the client's team runs it.

Background

  • FWD.OS (founded 2026): Founder and principal. AI operating model design for leadership teams.
  • Independent practice (2024 to present): Leah also runs 1749 Ventures, a separate independent transformation advisory practice.
  • Boston Consulting Group, Denver (2017 to 2024): Principal. Large-scale transformations for consumer goods, retail and industrial companies.
  • Before BCG: Procurement at BP.
  • Education: Master of Engineering in Supply Chain Management, MIT (2017). Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain and Information Systems, Penn State (2014).

Why FWD.OS

At BCG, Leah saw the same pattern across large change programs: The strategy was usually sound, and the work stalled when it reached the people who had to change how they worked. AI is the same problem at a faster pace. Companies adopted AI before they built the operating model to turn it into value, so tasks get faster and the margin stays flat.

Two beliefs shape how FWD.OS works:

  • A faster task is not ROI. AI productivity reaches the P&L only when leadership decides what happens to the time it frees up: Remove the cost, move people to growth work or absorb growth without adding headcount. Most AI programs never make that decision.
  • Employees decide whether AI pays off. If people think AI threatens their job, they protect themselves and adoption stalls. That is a rational response, so the fix is role design and incentives, not more training.

How Leah Works

  • Senior-led. Leah leads every FWD.OS engagement herself. There is no handoff to a junior team.
  • Design, not staff augmentation. FWD.OS designs the operating model. The client's team owns execution, so the system still runs after the engagement ends.
  • Evidence over opinion. Diagnostics start with a structured survey and a review of real artifacts (tool spend, pilot lists, org charts) before interviews, so findings rest on what is in place, not what people intend.
  • Flat fees. Every offer is a fixed fee, never priced per seat.
  • Remote or on-site. Working sessions and readouts happen wherever the client prefers.

Work With Leah

Take the free AI Readiness Score to see where your organization stands across the Forward Operating System, or email Leah at leah@fwd-os.com.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leahsdavis