About Steve

The experience of an insider. The clarity of an outsider.

I work with B2B businesses and FinTech companies that need senior marketing leadership, and someone who can see the problem clearly.

I'm a fractional CMO working with B2B businesses and FinTech companies that need senior marketing leadership without the full-time cost.

I work directly with leadership, as part of the team rather than above it.

Over three decades, my career has spanned senior marketing roles at Microsoft, Workplace from Meta, and Bizagi, across product marketing, category creation, and growth. I led product marketing as intelligent automation moved from niche to mainstream, and later served as CMO of a FinTech company in regulated financial markets. I've built marketing functions from scratch and led them as they scaled. Running alongside that, I've had the opportunity to blend practical experience with formal training at two of the world's leading business schools: Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and INSEAD.

The name is deliberate. Nord for true direction. Peak for the summit, and for what the summit makes possible: seeing what's ahead before anyone else does.

The approach

Every fractional CMO engagement starts with a conversation about what isn't working. Sometimes that's a pipeline problem. Sometimes it's a positioning problem dressed up as a pipeline problem. I go upstream to find out which one it actually is.

I work across the full marketing function: strategy, messaging, team leadership, and board-level reporting. The engagement is senior throughout.

This increasingly includes AI. Most marketing teams are working out where to start, which tools to prioritise, and whether they're ready to use them well. It's the question I'm asked most often right now.

My clients are typically B2B businesses or FinTech companies where an outside perspective can help move things forward. Others come through a leadership transition and need someone senior in place fast.

Explore the services offered
Steve Tassell
"The brief we started with wasn't the problem we ended up solving. That was the point."
— CMO, B2B
How I work

I go upstream to find the real problem.

What a business presents as the issue is rarely the whole picture. Every engagement starts with understanding what's actually going on before recommending anything.

I work inside the team, not above it.

This isn't consultancy at arm's length. I'm in the meetings, across the channels, working alongside the people doing the work.

The work doesn't end with a plan.

A strategy document is not the deliverable. The deliverable is what comes after it: growth in pipeline, clarity in positioning, and a measurable shift in how buyers respond.

Find out what's really wrong.

If your marketing isn't doing what it should, the first step is working out why.

See example engagements

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