We work with leaders to turn technology ambition into measurable business performance.
Who we are.
BRAID Partners works with executive teams on the decisions and structures that determine whether AI and data investments create real business value.
Our backgrounds span management consulting and senior operating roles in strategy, transformation, product, and technology. We advise from experience, with direct accountability for outcomes.
While our work starts at leadership level, it does not stay there. We engage across the organisation and work closely with business and technology teams, inside and outside the company, to ensure decisions translate into execution and measurable performance change.
The people.
Real-world experience, executive accountability, and hands-on, data-driven work grounded in technical reality define how we operate.
Anna Bärlund
Founding Partner
Anna's background combines analytical depth, commercial leadership, and executive responsibility at the intersection of data, AI, and business performance.
She began her career in analytics and commercial roles, including work in data science and business control, before joining McKinsey, where she advised retail and consumer clients on data and AI strategy through implementation.
She later held senior product and executive roles. At H&M Group, she led customer-facing AI product teams of 40+ people responsible for in-house AI applications at scale. At Axel Johnson, she served as Head of New Digital Business, working with group companies — including Axfood, Dustin, and Martin & Servera — to create measurable value from data, retail media, and AI.
Her experience spans strategy, product leadership, operating model design, and large-scale AI deployment. She has advised on transformation and owned delivery in complex organisations.
She brings the perspective of someone who has worked from analytical foundations to executive leadership — with direct accountability for performance.
Anders Bärlund
Founding Partner
Anders spent over fifteen years at McKinsey, rising to Partner and leading the firm's retail and commercial transformation work across Scandinavia and Asia Pacific.
He went on to become Chief Strategy Officer at ICA Gruppen, sitting on the Group Executive Management Team with responsibility for group strategy, the digital and AI agenda, new business innovation, and the joint loyalty and customer experience programme across operating companies.
His career spans management consulting, executive leadership, and large-scale transformation in complex consumer businesses — bridging strategy, digital, and AI not as isolated initiatives, but as part of how a company competes.
He brings the perspective of someone who has both advised on and owned these agendas at scale.
How we work.
We work directly with senior leadership — typically CEOs, COOs, and their immediate teams. Our engagements start with clarity: understanding which problems actually matter before discussing solutions.
We focus on end-to-end business impact, not isolated workstreams. That means crossing functional boundaries, challenging assumptions about ownership and governance, and ensuring that AI investment connects to outcomes the board cares about.
We do not sell methodologies or scale teams. We bring judgment, pattern recognition, and a willingness to say what others in the room will not. We stay close enough to implementation to know whether things are actually working.