Every board is being asked the same question by its clients, its staff, and its own directors. What is the plan for AI and digital technology? Most firms answer with a list of tools. 214ID helps boards and CEOs answer with direction. A strategy settles where technology changes how the firm competes and delivers, what the firm will not pursue, and how the board will govern the investment. The firm's two strategy practices are built to be adopted by a board and run without a transformation office.
214ID also advises research universities, Federal contractors, and early-stage ventures on board and governance architecture, research partnerships, Federal pursuit strategy, leadership transitions, and investor readiness. Every engagement is led directly by Matthew Sanfilippo or senior team members. There is no junior team, no staffed pyramid, and no marketing bench. There is only the advisor you hired.
Work with 214ID is confidential by default.
Two Strategies, One Leadership Agenda
A framework management delivers and the board adopts.
A strategy for a market reshaped by technology and AI, built by the executive team and written for the board to adopt. Six lanes, three working sessions, two to six months, sized to the firm. Your leadership team authors it and owns every decision. 214ID guides, challenges, and facilitates, and stays on call as the work is carried out.
For CEOs, executive teams, and boards of privately held firmsGovernance management runs and the board can defend.
Fluency for directors and executives, policy for the staff, decision rights for management, and independent judgment on AI vendors and transactions. Built so a CEO can run it day to day and an audit committee can defend it, starting with a 60-minute briefing.
For CEOs, executive teams, and boardsEngineering Firms and Employee-Owned Companies
Much of 214ID's strategy work lands in architecture, engineering, construction, and inspection firms, and in companies owned by their employees through an ESOP. The two overlap often, and the intersection is where the firm's experience is deepest. That experience is an operating career inside national engineering companies, service on the independent transaction committee that governed a 100 percent ESOP conversion, and current board service at an employee-owned engineering firm.
An AI plan for an engineering firm is a question about judgment formation, the standard of care, and the repurchase obligation as much as about tools. 214ID walks into the room already knowing it.
The sector focusPractice Areas
Digital Transformation Strategy
A board-ready strategic framework for a market reshaped by technology and AI, authored by the leadership team and guided by 214ID, with ongoing counsel as it is carried out.
For CEOs and boards of privately held firms.
AI Governance Strategy
The firm's AI practice for boards and executive teams. Fluency briefings and staff training, governance and policy that stands up to audit, operating discipline, and independent evaluation of AI vendors and transactions.
For boards, CEOs, and executive teams.
Management & Governance Advisory
Board design, governance architecture, and executive alignment for privately held technology and engineering companies navigating growth, leadership transition, or ownership transition, including ESOP conversion.
For CEOs, boards, and ownership groups.
University Research Advisory
Building the corporate, government, and philanthropic partnerships that grow externally funded research portfolios, based on the operating model built at a Tier-1 engineering college.
For Presidents, Provosts, VPRs, and Deans.
Industry Research Advisory
Structuring university research partnerships, Federal co-investment, and IP arrangements that produce results instead of agreements.
For CTOs, Chief Science Officers, and VPs of R&D.
Research & Technology Advisory
Proposal strategy, cross-sector teaming, and program execution for applied research organizations, defense contractors, and Federally funded institutes.
For research institute leaders, BD executives, and program directors.
Startup Advisory
Direct advisory for founding CEOs on company formation, board construction, senior team hiring, market strategy, and investor readiness.
For founding CEOs and their lead investors.
National Expert Network
A curated national panel of senior practitioners, introduced selectively into engagements where specific technical, governance, or regulatory depth is required.
Available across every practice area.
Why 214ID
Unlike traditional consulting firms, 214ID brings operating experience from the inside of the institutions it advises. Matthew Sanfilippo served as the founding Chief Partnership Officer of Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering, where he doubled externally funded research in six years and managed an annual portfolio exceeding $125M. He has also served as an Innovation Director inside a venture capital firm, Managing Director of a national technology consulting division, and on the boards and transaction committees of privately held engineering companies through recapitalization and ESOP conversion. That record is why the firm's strategy work is grounded in how a project-driven company earns its margin and how an employee-owned one protects its balance sheet.