Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Edinburgh based Chairman operating in the Software space. If you think a Chairman is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Judith Halkerston
Chairman of Symphonic
Judith is a senior industry figure in the IT sector with over three decades of executive sales, marketing and operational experience in major IT, services delivery and consulting companies. She is now a non-executive and adviser to a number of IT and consulting companies in both Scotland and England. Previously, Judith held positions at BT as VP Global Health, at Logica as MD of their Energy, Utilities and Telecoms sector, and at Xansa where she worked in the UK, Europe, the US and India.
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About Symphonic: Symphonic is the provider of Intelligent Authorization.
Neil Heywood
Executive Chairman of Two Big Ears Ltd
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About Two Big Ears Ltd: Two Big Ears is a Scottish company specialising in creating efficient audio toolkits for game and virtual reality developers.
Richard Tipper
Executive Chairman of Ecometrica
Richard is a champion of evidence-based environmental action. He has worked as an adviser on climate change issues for many government, business and international organisations. After studying Agricultural Science (Edinburgh University) Richard worked in Mexico as an advisor to farmers’ organisations. He later took an MSc in Technology Management, then doctoral research on the economics of contemporary Mayan farmers. Following his PhD he obtained research funding to develop the Plan Vivo system for payments for ecosystem services, and subsequently commercial investment to put theory into practice in Mexico, India, Uganda and Mozambique. With commercial interest growing in this area Richard founded the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), and built a team of experts on land use and GHG accounting. While at ECCM Richard was appointed to the UK Roster of Experts on Climate Change and was Lead Author on two IPCC reports. In 2007 his work on the IPCC was recognised as a contribution to the Nobel Peace Prize. Richard also advised on numerous standards and methodologies for accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, including the WBCSD-WRI GHG Protocol, European standards for biofuels and PAS 2060. Since co-founding Ecometrica in 2008 Richard has focused on developing the Earth Observation and spatial data platform side of the business. He has retained an interest in measurement and evaluation of land use interventions as a senior evaluator of Norway’s international climate and forests initiative (NICFI), and an advisor to the UK government’s investments in forests under the International Climate Fund.
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About : Ecometrica is an end-to-end environmental software-as-a-service that helps businesses and governments identify risks and opportunities.
Martin Burke
Founding Member of the Board of Directors & Chairman of the Board of Directors of Exception
Martin is a founding director of Exception and also serves as chairman. His responsibilities include strategic development of the business, consulting services, digital, and technology delivery. Martin is also responsible for Waracle, an Exception Group company, who provide mobile app solutions and services. Having worked on both the client and service side of the industry throughout his career, Martin has extensive experience of technology transformation across a number of sectors.
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About : Exception is an IT Consultancy and Services company that collaborates with many of the UK’s largest companies and Government organisations.
Julie Ashworth
Chairman of Clear Returns
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About : Clear Returns is predictive analytics technology helping enterprise retailers protect profits by tackling returns.
Julie Ashworth
Chairman of Clear Returns
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About : Clear Returns is predictive analytics technology helping enterprise retailers protect profits by tackling returns.
