Building the future of Sovereign AI and decision superiority_
Request a ConversationFounded in 2015, Whitespace is the UK's sovereign AI company, helping organisations build AI capabilities that improve decision-making in the world's most demanding environments.
From our headquarters in Belfast, we help Defence, Government, and regulated industries deploy sovereign AI where trust, governance, resilience, and accountability are mission critical.
[ What We Do ]
A sovereign AI company built for the world's most demanding environments. We help organisations operationalise AI that delivers smarter decisions and lasting advantage.
We build AI systems that can operate where most cannot: in classified environments, at the edge, offline, and under regulatory and operational scrutiny. Our work is shaped by the demands of Defence and National Security, where trust must be engineered, assurance is mandatory, and failure is not an option.
This focus led us to develop Collective, our Sovereign AI operating system, alongside a structured adoption model that ensures AI can be delivered safely, quickly, and with measurable impact. Today, that same approach is being applied beyond Defence, into other high-risk, regulated sectors.
Collective provides the sovereign AI operating system. Solutions Engineering provides the proven pathway to adoption. Together, they help organisations securely deploy AI, connect organisational knowledge, and continuously improve decision-making across complex, regulated environments.
[ Our Ethos ]
Sovereign AI is not just about where AI runs. It is about how decisions are made.
We believe competitive advantage will not come from AI alone. It will come from combining human expertise, organisational knowledge, and AI to improve decision-making continuously. That means organisations retain control of their data, models, and governance while building AI capabilities that learn from experience, adapt over time, and support smarter decisions in the environments that matter most.
[ Our Vision ]
Engineering the Future of Decision Superiority.
We believe the organisations that outperform tomorrow will not simply have access to more AI. They will continuously improve decision-making by combining human expertise, organisational knowledge, and sovereign AI.
- AI that understands organisational context
- AI that supports rapid decision-making
- AI that continuously learns from experiance
- AI that operates with human oversight and accountability
Because the future belongs to organisations that can learn faster, adapt faster, and continuously improve how decisions are made.
Leadership with accountability_
Whitespace is led by a multidisciplinary leadership team with deep experience across Defence, Government, AI, engineering, commercial growth, and operational delivery.
Founder & Chief Exec Officer
Paul Jenkinson
Leads Whitespace's strategic vision and growth, helping organisations operationalise sovereign AI across Defence, Government, and regulated industries. Paul is a recognised voice on trusted AI, decision superiority, and the future of sovereign technology.
Co-Founder & Evangelist
Andy McCartney
Shapes Whitespace's long-term technology vision and industry engagement, helping customers understand how sovereign AI can strengthen decision-making in complex operational environments.
Chief Partnerships Officer
Andrew Webber
Leads strategic partnerships across Defence, Government, and industry, building trusted relationships that accelerate the adoption of sovereign AI across mission-critical sectors.
Chief Operating Officer
Dan Astbury
Leads operational delivery across Whitespace, ensuring products, programmes, and teams work together to deliver AI capabilities that are scalable, secure, and ready for real-world deployment.
Chief Financial Officer
Ruth Hengari
Leads Whitespace's financial strategy and governance, supporting sustainable growth as the business scales. Ensures the company is well positioned for long-term investment and commercial success.
Chief Technology Officer
Chris Lewis
Leads Whitespace's product and engineering strategy, overseeing the evolution of Collective and the development of secure, sovereign AI capabilities for complex, regulated, and mission-critical environments.
Chief Commercial Officer
Paul Gudonis
Leads Whitespace's commercial strategy, helping customers adopt sovereign AI to solve operational challenges and deliver measurable outcomes. He works closely with organisations to translate strategic priorities into deployable AI capabilities.
Head of Defence and National Security
Richard 'Bertie' Bassett
Leads Whitespace's Defence and National Security strategy, bringing deep operational experience to the development of sovereign AI. Works closely with customers and product teams to ensure real mission requirements shape AI capabilities.
Founder & Chief Exec Officer
Paul Jenkinson
Leads Whitespace's strategic vision and growth, helping organisations operationalise sovereign AI across Defence, Government, and regulated industries. Paul is a recognised voice on trusted AI, decision superiority, and the future of sovereign technology.
Co-Founder & Evangelist
Andy McCartney
Shapes Whitespace's long-term technology vision and industry engagement, helping customers understand how sovereign AI can strengthen decision-making in complex operational environments.
Chief Partnerships Officer
Andrew Webber
Leads strategic partnerships across Defence, Government, and industry, building trusted relationships that accelerate the adoption of sovereign AI across mission-critical sectors.
Chief Operating Officer
Dan Astbury
Leads operational delivery across Whitespace, ensuring products, programmes, and teams work together to deliver AI capabilities that are scalable, secure, and ready for real-world deployment.
Chief Financial Officer
Ruth Hengari
Leads Whitespace's financial strategy and governance, supporting sustainable growth as the business scales. Ensures the company is well positioned for long-term investment and commercial success.
Chief Technology Officer
Chris Lewis
Leads Whitespace's product and engineering strategy, overseeing the evolution of Collective and the development of secure, sovereign AI capabilities for complex, regulated, and mission-critical environments.
Chief Commercial Officer
Paul Gudonis
Leads Whitespace's commercial strategy, helping customers adopt sovereign AI to solve operational challenges and deliver measurable outcomes. He works closely with organisations to translate strategic priorities into deployable AI capabilities.
Head of Defence and National Security
Richard 'Bertie' Bassett
Leads Whitespace's Defence and National Security strategy, bringing deep operational experience to the development of sovereign AI. Works closely with customers and product teams to ensure real mission requirements shape AI capabilities.
Founder & Chief Exec Officer
Paul Jenkinson
Leads Whitespace's strategic vision and growth, helping organisations operationalise sovereign AI across Defence, Government, and regulated industries. Paul is a recognised voice on trusted AI, decision superiority, and the future of sovereign technology.
Co-Founder & Evangelist
Andy McCartney
Shapes Whitespace's long-term technology vision and industry engagement, helping customers understand how sovereign AI can strengthen decision-making in complex operational environments.
Chief Partnerships Officer
Andrew Webber
Leads strategic partnerships across Defence, Government, and industry, building trusted relationships that accelerate the adoption of sovereign AI across mission-critical sectors.
Chief Operating Officer
Dan Astbury
Leads operational delivery across Whitespace, ensuring products, programmes, and teams work together to deliver AI capabilities that are scalable, secure, and ready for real-world deployment.
Chief Financial Officer
Ruth Hengari
Leads Whitespace's financial strategy and governance, supporting sustainable growth as the business scales. Ensures the company is well positioned for long-term investment and commercial success.
Chief Technology Officer
Chris Lewis
Leads Whitespace's product and engineering strategy, overseeing the evolution of Collective and the development of secure, sovereign AI capabilities for complex, regulated, and mission-critical environments.
Chief Commercial Officer
Paul Gudonis
Leads Whitespace's commercial strategy, helping customers adopt sovereign AI to solve operational challenges and deliver measurable outcomes. He works closely with organisations to translate strategic priorities into deployable AI capabilities.
Head of Defence and National Security
Richard 'Bertie' Bassett
Leads Whitespace's Defence and National Security strategy, bringing deep operational experience to the development of sovereign AI. Works closely with customers and product teams to ensure real mission requirements shape AI capabilities.
How We Work_
Engineered for assurance, Whitespace brings together three elements that are rarely combined successfully.
This allows us to work at pace without compromising security, compliance, or control, even in the most constrained environments.
A sovereign AI operating system designed to deploy across cloud, edge, and fully air-gapped environments.
A structured adoption model that removes risk from AI delivery.
Operational AI capabilities that deliver measurable outcomes
Our Team_
Multidisciplinary people, built for delivery.
Whitespace brings together expertise across engineering, product, research, design, security, delivery and commercial leadership.
We believe trusted AI can only be built when technical exellence is combined with operational understanding. Our teams work across disaplines to design systems that are secure, usbale and aligned to the real-world.
As we grow, this multidisciplinary approach remains central to how we build, deploy and support our customers.
Whitespace is headquartered in Belfast, a city with a strong heritage in engineering, resilience, and innovation.
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Whitespace was founded in Northern Ireland and continues to build from Belfast today. The region's heritage in engineering, resilience, and problem-solving has shaped how we approach technology: practical, trusted, and focused on outcomes.
Belfast's growing technology ecosystem, world-class universities, and long-standing connections to Defence and National Security have helped create an environment where innovation and operational reality meet.
As we expand internationally, our commitment remains the same - building sovereign AI that organisations can trust, govern, and deploy with confidence.
