David Walters - Principal Consultant
The operational experience most consultants read about. David Walters lived it.
Forged in Environments Where Failure Is Not an Option
David Walters brings to AI consulting a credential stack that no MBA program, no strategy firm, and no technology vendor can replicate — decades of leadership in the most demanding, high-consequence operational environments on earth.
His career began in the Royal Navy submarine service, where he served as Deputy Weapons Engineering Officer onboard HMS Tireless before being awarded the Head of Department Certificate of Competency — one of the most rigorous technical qualifications in the British military. He subsequently qualified as a Chartered Engineer (MIET) through the Institution of Engineering and Technology — a recognition reserved for engineers who meet the highest standards of technical competence and professional practice.
He then served as Weapons Engineering Head of Department aboard HMS Opportune — a Special Operations unit — before taking the role of Executive Officer of the Nuclear Submarine Disposal Group at Devonport, responsible for the decommissioning of nuclear submarines at one of the most complex and sensitive facilities in the United Kingdom.
His expertise was subsequently sought by the Canadian Forces, where he served on two submarines — HMCS Ojibwa and HMCS Okanagan — as Combat Systems Engineering Officer, before advancing to Squadron Technical Officer for Combat Systems and ultimately Submarine Equipment Trials and Weapons Certification Officer for Maritime Forces Atlantic.
In every one of these roles, the margin for error was zero. Systems worked, or people died.
Processes were documented, or missions failed. Governance existed, or catastrophe followed.
That is the standard David Walters brings to AI transformation.
From Nuclear Operations to the Boardroom
David's post-military career has been defined by the same discipline — applied across increasingly complex civilian environments.
As Toronto Area Manager for SAIC Canada, he worked embedded in Ontario Power's nuclear power generation industry as an emergency management and security consultant — bringing military-grade risk frameworks into civilian critical infrastructure.
In the aftermath of 9/11, David was appointed CEO of the only company in Canada certified to provide armed security inside nuclear power plants — a national critical infrastructure responsibility established in direct response to the most significant security event of the modern era.
He subsequently built a reputation as one of Canada's leading corporate crisis management consultants, advising major institutions including Sears Canada, Sun Life, and PwC on resilience, governance, and operational continuity. A regular participant at the World Conference on Disaster Management and the Canadian representative on the Disaster Management Council of the American Society of Industrial Security.
Returning to the engineering sector, he joined a multinational engineering company in the oil and gas industry as Head of Market Support for the small gas turbine fleet across the Americas. Recognizing deeper operational dysfunction, he established the Field Service Support Organization (Small Gas Turbines) for the energy division's North American operations — reducing non-conformance costs from 7% to 1.3% and improving Net Promoter Score from +7 to +35 within 18 months.
He subsequently became Global Excellence Lead for the company's field service group, where he delivered two major global IT rollouts — including a global project management platform deployed across the entire project management function. His program was the only one of three initiatives, out of a $50 million investment, to be delivered successfully.
He then served as COO of a multimillion-dollar telecommunications provider before founding his own consultancy — initially in digital marketing - and recognizing that the most consequential challenge facing industrial organizations was not their marketing, but their readiness for the AI transformation about to reshape their entire operating environment, set up Steam Powered Consulting.
Why Most AI Consultancies Get It Wrong
The AI consulting market is crowded with firms that lead with technology — platforms, tools, vendors, and implementations sold before the client organization has any idea whether it is ready to absorb them.
David Walters has spent a career in environments where that approach gets people killed.
In nuclear submarine operations, you don't deploy a new weapons system into an unprepared crew. You assess readiness first. You build the governance infrastructure. You train the people. You document the processes. You certify the equipment. And only then — with full situational awareness of what you are working with — do you execute.
That is precisely the methodology Steam Powered Consulting brings to AI transformation.
SONAR™ — our proprietary diagnostic framework — was not named arbitrarily. Sonar is the submarine's primary tool for situational awareness. It tells you what is ahead before you move. It detects threats before they become catastrophic. It gives Command the intelligence to make decisions with confidence rather than hope.
That is what the SONAR™ diagnostic does for industrial organizations navigating AI adoption.
And CATS™ — the Corporate AI Transformation System — provides the structured implementation sequence that turns diagnostic intelligence into operational reality, built on the same change management principles that have governed successful large-scale transformation for decades.
Principal-led. Vendor-neutral. No junior consultants. No platform commissions. No slide decks that gather dust.
Every engagement is led personally by David Walters. Every recommendation is independent. Every delivery is held to the standard of environments where getting it wrong was never an option.
Qualifications & Credentials
CEng (MIET) Chartered Engineer — Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK
Royal Navy Head of Department Certificate of Competency
David Walters is a Chartered Engineer (CEng MIET) registered in the United Kingdom. He is not licensed to practice engineering in the United States and does not provide Professional Engineering services in the USA.
Work Directly With David
Steam Powered Consulting is a boutique practice. David works with a select number of clients at any one time — ensuring every engagement receives his direct, personal attention from diagnostic through to delivery.
If your organization is navigating the AI transformation challenge and you want a principal-led, vendor-neutral partner who has operated at the sharp end of mission-critical systems, the conversation starts here.
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