About Daniel Lee Knight

I make advanced technology procurable. I have owned complex customer accounts for 25 years, across defence, maritime, technology and financial markets. My work at C level is building the case a capability owner can defend and procurement will approve.

Career

I spent seven years at IHS Markit and S&P Global as Executive Director, Strategic Accounts, where I owned C level relationships at leading asset managers, hedge funds and insurers across every product division. Earlier roles include Debtwire, Mergermarket and Ruesch International. I founded RapidRise in 2024.

Defence

My grandfathers and uncles served in the armed forces. Their service inspired me and left a lasting commitment to defence. I have worked with technology since my computing studies in 2000 and with defence firms for more than 20 years. I am a former Royal Engineer Army Reservist.

Unmanned systems and maritime intelligence

I have analysed military air and sea drones since 2020, and studied how strategy, tactics and weapon systems have evolved at speed in the war in Ukraine. I follow counter drone systems, undersea sensing, sensor fusion and electronic warfare.

At IHS Markit and S&P Global I sold the full maritime suite of ten products, covering vessel tracking, ship and ownership data, dark vessel detection, sanctions screening and real time zone monitoring, alongside Janes defence and security intelligence.

AI and advanced analytics

Buyers of model driven products need defensible answers from tools that produce distributions. Building that case is the same discipline for a credit model or an autonomy stack. I sold S&P data science solutions, Kensho machine learning tools and enterprise data management to client data science teams. I also built the commercial operation for Tenokonda, a Bayesian risk analytics software company, on a six month contract as Fractional Chief Revenue Officer.

How I work

I originate at C level and sell top down. I lead teams of product heads, legal and technical specialists by influence. I plan to board standard and apply the British Army Combat Estimate to campaigns, with MEDDPICC for qualification and insight led selling using the Challenger method.

Based in London. Available to travel across the UK, Europe and the USA.