Guard the mission.
Wield the strategy.
Cross and Sword LLC is a boutique consultancy for enterprises that refuse to be caught unprepared. We combine the discipline of defense with the decisiveness of action — protecting reputations, assets, and operations across a volatile business landscape.
Two edges. One purpose.
Every engagement blends the Cross — protective structure and ethical governance — with the Sword — decisive execution and measured offense against risk.
Enterprise Risk Shielding
End-to-end risk assessments, threat modeling, and continuity planning that keep your organization operational when the unexpected strikes.
Strategic Advisory
Sharpened decision frameworks for leadership teams navigating mergers, market entry, crises, and competitive combat.
Cyber & Data Defense
Security architecture, incident response, and compliance for cloud-native businesses — from Zero Trust design to SOC 2 readiness.
Forged in Colorado. Trusted nationwide.
Headquartered in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Cross and Sword LLC was founded on the conviction that modern businesses need more than checkboxes and dashboards. They need a partner who thinks like a strategist, plans like an engineer, and moves like a commander.
Our senior consultants have led programs at Fortune 500 firms, federal contractors, and high-growth startups. We keep our roster small on purpose — every client works directly with a principal.
What partners say
"They didn't hand us a binder. They embedded, restructured our security posture, and left us with a team that could defend itself."
"Cross and Sword walked us through a hostile acquisition attempt with clarity and calm. The playbook they built is now standard."
"Discreet, decisive, and refreshingly free of jargon. They translated risk into decisions the board could actually act on."
Services & Capabilities
A curated set of engagements designed for leaders who need real answers, not thicker slide decks.
Enterprise Risk Shielding
Comprehensive assessment of operational, regulatory, financial, and reputational exposure. Deliverables include the Cross & Sword Risk Register™, a heat-mapped priority matrix, and a 90-day mitigation roadmap tailored to your leadership cadence.
Strategic Advisory
Executive-level partnership for pivotal decisions — market entry, capital events, restructuring, and competitive response. We embed into your leadership rhythm and provide independent, board-ready analysis.
Cyber & Data Defense
Zero Trust architecture design, penetration testing coordination, incident response retainers, and compliance uplift for SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS environments.
Threat Intelligence
Continuous monitoring of geopolitical, competitive, and cyber threat signals relevant to your industry. Weekly executive briefings and quarterly deep-dive intelligence products.
Crisis Command
24/7 crisis response coordination for material incidents — from cyber breaches to regulatory investigations to public relations events. Battle-tested playbooks. Immediate on-site or virtual command.
Governance & Compliance
Policy design, board reporting frameworks, ESG posture, and audit preparation. We build governance systems that survive personnel change and scale with growth.
The Cross & Sword Doctrine
Every engagement follows a disciplined four-phase cycle designed to move fast without sacrificing rigor.
Reconnaissance
We map your operational terrain — systems, contracts, people, threats, dependencies. No stone left unturned. This phase produces a shared operating picture that becomes the foundation for every subsequent decision.
Doctrine
Strategy tailored to your posture, risk tolerance, and market position. We articulate the "why" before the "what," ensuring every recommendation ties to a measurable executive objective.
Deployment
Execution shoulder-to-shoulder with your team, or fully managed by ours. We do not throw plans over the wall — we own outcomes with you, from procurement decisions to policy rollout to tabletop exercises.
Vigilance
Continuous review with quarterly recalibration. Threat landscapes shift; so should your defense. Our retainer clients receive priority response, executive briefings, and adaptive strategic support.
Our services are modular. Start with a single engagement or partner with us on a retainer basis for continuous strategic support. Every client receives a dedicated principal — no hand-offs, no juniors leading the room.
Request Engagement BriefIndustries We Serve
Cross and Sword LLC has counseled leadership teams across highly regulated and rapidly evolving sectors. Our doctrine adapts to context without diluting its rigor. Whether your organization is a community bank facing regional consolidation, a healthcare provider navigating HIPAA and cyber-extortion pressure, an energy firm managing operational technology risk, or a fast-scaling SaaS company preparing for institutional capital, our engagement model flexes to match your operational reality. We routinely partner with clients in financial services, healthcare and life sciences, energy and utilities, defense and government contracting, professional services, technology and SaaS, manufacturing and industrial operations, transportation and logistics, non-profit and mission-driven organizations, and family offices requiring discreet strategic counsel. Each industry brings its own regulatory grammar and threat vocabulary — we invest the time to speak both fluently before any recommendation is made. Where useful, we bring subject-matter partners into the engagement — legal, forensic, actuarial, or communications specialists — to ensure the response is not only strategically sound but operationally executable. This is what it means to work with a boutique firm: judgment is not outsourced, and the principal you meet in the first call is the same principal who signs the final report.
Forged in Colorado.
Trusted Everywhere.
A boutique consultancy built by operators who have led through breaches, buyouts, and boardroom battles.
Why Cross and Sword?
The name is deliberate. The Cross represents the enduring structures a business needs to survive — governance, integrity, protection, ethical clarity. The Sword represents what leadership must actually do with those structures — decide, cut through noise, defend the mission, and, when necessary, advance against a live threat. Most consulting firms hand clients one without the other. Cross and Sword LLC was founded to hand them both.
Our founder built the firm after fifteen years advising Fortune 500 boards and government agencies through incidents that never made the news — the ones that get resolved because someone brought discipline and decisiveness in the same conversation. Wheat Ridge, Colorado is our home base, but our clients span the country and, increasingly, the continent.
We stay boutique on purpose. Every client engagement is led by a principal — never routed through a delivery model that dilutes accountability. Our roster is small, our standards are unforgiving, and our word is our contract before it is a document.
What We Stand On
Integrity Above All
We will not compromise ethical clarity for a deliverable. If the answer a client wants is not the answer the situation demands, we say so — clearly, privately, and on the record.
Decisive Rigor
Rigor without decisiveness is theater. Decisiveness without rigor is recklessness. We insist on both — every engagement, every deliverable, every recommendation.
Discretion by Default
Our best work is invisible. Client relationships are held in confidence, matters are compartmentalized by design, and our reference conversations happen only with explicit permission.
Our Approach in Depth
Cross and Sword LLC operates as an extension of your executive team rather than a vendor waiting on a scope-of-work. From the first conversation, we work to understand the pressures your leadership is actually facing — not the sanitized version prepared for a discovery call, but the real one: the regulatory letter no one wants to talk about, the customer contract that quietly ties you to unacceptable liability, the executive whose departure is not yet public, the acquisition that looked simple until due diligence uncovered a systems debt no one had budgeted for. Our job is to hear it, to hold it with the appropriate confidentiality, and to help you build a response that is both strategically sound and executable within your organization's real capacity.
We come to every engagement with a bias toward simplicity. The failure mode of most consulting relationships is complexity for its own sake — an escalating series of workstreams, dashboards, and governance layers that create the appearance of progress while the underlying issue drifts. We push in the opposite direction. Our deliverables are shorter than you expect, our recommendations more specific, and our follow-through more relentless. When a decision needs to be made, we frame the three or four options that actually matter, name the trade-offs honestly, and support whichever direction leadership chooses.
This is a firm built for the moments that matter most: the incident response call at 2 a.m., the board meeting where a founder is being asked hard questions about controls, the negotiation with a regulator, the quiet exit from a business relationship that has become dangerous. In each of those moments, our clients do not need a framework. They need a partner who has been through it before, who will tell them the truth, and who will stay in the room until the situation is stable. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and it is the standard by which our clients measure our value.
We also invest heavily in what does not appear on any invoice: research, curation of a trusted specialist network, tabletop exercises with our own team, and continuing education across disciplines. Cybersecurity does not stop at technical controls; strategic advisory does not stop at market analysis; governance does not stop at policy documents. The threats our clients face increasingly cross these traditional lines, and so must our practice. When you retain Cross and Sword LLC, you are retaining a team that has already done the reading, run the simulations, and built the relationships you might need on your worst day.
Finally, we believe deeply in the geography that shaped this firm. Colorado has always attracted people who value clarity, self-reliance, and the discipline required to operate in demanding conditions. We carry that ethos into every engagement — with clients across the country and, increasingly, across the world.
Begin the Conversation
Every engagement begins with a confidential conversation. Reach us directly — you'll speak with a principal, not an intake team.
Headquarters
Wheat Ridge, Colorado — by appointment.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033, US
Cookie Policy
Last updated: July 6, 2026
This Cookie Policy explains how Cross and Sword LLC ("we," "our," or "us") uses cookies and similar tracking technologies when you visit crossandsword.us. By continuing to use our website you consent to the use of cookies as described below.
1. What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files placed on your device by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, and to provide information to site operators. Cookies may be "session" cookies (which expire when you close your browser) or "persistent" cookies (which remain on your device for a defined period).
2. Types of Cookies We Use
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are essential to the operation of our website. They enable core functionality such as page navigation, secure form submission, and preference storage. Without these cookies, services you have asked for cannot be provided.
Performance and Analytics Cookies
These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting anonymized information such as pages viewed, time spent, and traffic sources. We use this information to improve site performance and content.
Functionality Cookies
These cookies allow us to remember choices you make (such as language or region) and provide enhanced, more personalized features.
Advertising and Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set by our advertising partners, including Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads). They are used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. They do not directly store personal information but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device.
3. Third-Party Cookies
We may allow selected third parties to place cookies on your device. These include analytics providers (such as Google Analytics), advertising networks (such as Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads), and embedded content providers (such as Google Maps). These third parties may combine information collected via cookies with other information they have collected from your interactions across their services.
4. Managing Your Preferences
You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse or accept cookies, delete existing cookies, or set notifications when a new cookie is placed. Please note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of our website. For guidance, refer to your browser's help pages.
You may also opt out of interest-based advertising through the Digital Advertising Alliance, the Network Advertising Initiative, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance.
5. Do Not Track
Some browsers offer a "Do Not Track" (DNT) setting. Because there is no consistent industry standard for how to respond to DNT signals, our website does not currently respond to them. We instead honor the preferences you communicate via our cookie banner.
6. Updates to This Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. The revised version will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Material changes will be highlighted at the top of the page.
7. Contact
Questions about this Cookie Policy may be directed to max@crossandsword.us or by mail to Cross and Sword LLC, 10990 W 38th Pl, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033.
Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 6, 2026
Cross and Sword LLC ("we," "our," or "us") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the rights you have. It applies to crossandsword.us and any related services we provide.
1. Information We Collect
Information You Provide
When you contact us, request a consultation, or subscribe to our communications, you may provide us with information such as your name, email address, phone number, company name, and message contents.
Information Collected Automatically
When you visit our website, we automatically collect certain information including IP address, browser type, device identifiers, pages viewed, referring URL, and timestamps. This is collected using cookies and similar technologies described in our Cookie Policy.
Information from Third Parties
We may receive information about you from advertising and analytics partners, service providers, and publicly available sources.
2. How We Use Your Information
- To respond to your inquiries and provide requested services.
- To operate, maintain, and improve our website and communications.
- To send informational materials you have requested.
- To measure and understand the effectiveness of our marketing.
- To comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms.
- To protect the rights, property, and safety of our clients and business.
3. Legal Bases (EEA/UK Users)
Where applicable law requires it, we process personal information based on: your consent; performance of a contract with you; compliance with legal obligations; or our legitimate interests in operating and improving our business, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights.
4. How We Share Information
We do not sell your personal information. We may share it with:
- Service providers who perform functions on our behalf (hosting, analytics, email delivery, advertising).
- Professional advisors such as legal counsel and auditors, under appropriate confidentiality obligations.
- Authorities when required by law, subpoena, or to protect legal rights.
- Successors in the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to standard confidentiality protections.
5. Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When information is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymize it.
6. Security
We implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or alteration. No system, however, is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
7. Your Rights
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to processing of your personal information, as well as rights to data portability and to withdraw consent. California residents have specific rights under the CCPA/CPRA, including the right to know, delete, correct, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at max@crossandsword.us.
8. Children's Privacy
Our services are not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us and we will delete it.
9. International Transfers
We are based in the United States. If you access our services from outside the U.S., your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the U.S. or other countries where our service providers operate. We take steps to ensure that such transfers comply with applicable law.
10. Third-Party Links
Our website may contain links to third-party sites we do not control. This Privacy Policy does not apply to those sites. We encourage you to review their privacy statements before providing any personal information.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date and, where appropriate, provide additional notice.
12. Contact Us
To exercise your rights or ask questions about this policy, contact us at max@crossandsword.us, by phone at +1 (970) 338-9529, or by mail at Cross and Sword LLC, 10990 W 38th Pl, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033.
Advertising Policy
Last updated: July 6, 2026
This Advertising Policy explains the standards Cross and Sword LLC follows in its digital advertising activities, including campaigns operated through Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads), Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and other approved networks. It is intended to ensure our advertising is transparent, accurate, compliant, and consistent with the professional standards our clients expect.
1. Scope
This policy applies to all paid digital advertising placed by or on behalf of Cross and Sword LLC, including search advertising, display and native placements, social media promotion, retargeting campaigns, and any partnerships involving sponsored content.
2. Truthful and Accurate Advertising
All advertisements we publish must be truthful, substantiated, and free from misleading claims. We do not overstate our capabilities, guarantee outcomes we cannot deliver, or use deceptive imagery. Statements referring to industry recognition, client outcomes, or credentials are made only where they can be substantiated with documentation on request.
3. Prohibited Content
Our advertising will not promote:
- Deceptive, fraudulent, or misleading services.
- Content that infringes intellectual property, publicity, or privacy rights of third parties.
- Discriminatory content targeting protected classes.
- Illegal products or services, or activities that violate the laws or advertising standards of the jurisdictions where the advertising is served.
- Sensational or unverifiable claims about client outcomes, financial returns, or risk elimination.
4. Compliance with Platform Policies
We comply with the advertising policies of every platform on which we place campaigns, including but not limited to the Microsoft Advertising Policies, Google Ads Policies, and LinkedIn Advertising Guidelines. Where platform policies differ from local law, we apply the stricter standard.
5. Landing Pages and User Experience
All landing pages linked from our advertising accurately reflect the ad content, load reliably, function on standard devices, and provide clear disclosures about our identity and how to contact us. Each landing page includes accessible links to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. We do not use interstitials, auto-play audio, or deceptive layouts designed to trap the visitor.
6. Data Use in Advertising
We may use cookies, pixels, and similar tracking technologies (including the Microsoft Universal Event Tracking tag and Google conversion tags) to measure campaign performance and remarket to visitors who have previously interacted with our website. This activity is described in our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy. Where required, we obtain consent before deploying advertising cookies.
We do not upload sensitive personal information — such as health, financial account, or protected class data — to advertising platforms for targeting purposes. Any first-party data used for lookalike or matched-audience targeting is handled in accordance with the applicable platform's data use terms.
7. Targeting Standards
Our audience targeting is limited to legitimate business criteria such as industry, job function, seniority, geographic region, and expressed interest in professional services. We do not use targeting criteria that would result in unlawful discrimination or that violate the personalized advertising restrictions of the platforms we use.
8. Testimonials and Endorsements
Any testimonial, endorsement, or client reference used in advertising is provided with the client's express written permission, reflects the client's genuine experience, and is not materially edited to change its meaning. Where a testimonial describes an outcome, we clearly indicate that individual results depend on specific facts and circumstances.
9. Sponsored Content and Disclosures
When we place sponsored content, native advertising, or partnership content, it is clearly labeled so that a reasonable reader can distinguish it from editorial material. We follow the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides and equivalent regional guidance.
10. Complaints and Corrections
If you believe an advertisement placed by Cross and Sword LLC is inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise violates this policy, please contact us at max@crossandsword.us. We investigate every complaint promptly, pause the campaign where warranted, and issue corrections where appropriate. Repeated violations by any team member or vendor result in remedial action, including termination of the relationship.
11. Vendor and Partner Standards
Any agency, freelancer, or partner producing or placing advertising on our behalf is contractually required to comply with this policy, applicable law, and the relevant platform terms. We reserve the right to audit their work and to require modifications or removal of any content that falls short of our standards.
12. Updates
We review this policy at least annually and update it in response to changes in law, platform requirements, or our own practices. The most current version is always available at this URL.
13. Contact
Questions, concerns, or complaints regarding our advertising practices may be sent to max@crossandsword.us or by mail to Cross and Sword LLC, 10990 W 38th Pl, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033.