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 Surrey based Director operating in the Financial Services space. If you think a Director 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.
Andrew Elphick
Director – Open Innovation Internal Programmes of Barclays
Andrew Elphick is the Head of Delivery Group Innovation Office for Barclays. He is responsible for brining Open Innovation into Barclays through Rise, which operates in London, New York City, Tel Aviv, Cape Town, Mumbai, Vilnius and Manchester. He has worked with Barclays for 10 years starting in HR in Barclays Wealth before moving into Technology and then to the Design and Digital Office where he operated as the Chief of Staff before joining Rise.
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About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Ted O’Byrne
Managing Director and Co-head of Aviation of The Carlyle Group
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About The Carlyle Group: The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm that caters to early and later stage companies.
Mark Adorian
Member of the Board of Directors of Statpro
Mark was previously Managing Director of Standard & Poor’s Fund Services. Mark co-founded Micropal, the global fund performance analysis company in 1986, becoming their Sales & Marketing Director in 1987. In 1992 he became Managing Director of Micropal, and subsequently in 1997 negotiated the sale of Micropal to Standard & Poor´s, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies. Between 1999 and 2001, Mark was Managing Director of Standard & Poor’s Fund Services. Mark chairs the Group’s Nominations Committee. Mark’s career in the asset management industry and experience in business growth adds value to the StatPro Board. His understanding of market data in this industry supports the business and strategy.
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About : StatPro is a business that helps investors combine data on performance and risk analytics together to streamline asset management.
Nicholas Shapland
Managing Director of Affiniti Finance
Nicholas Shapland is the Managing Director at Affiniti Finance Limited.
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About Affiniti Finance: Affiniti Finance specializes in providing financial support to individuals and companies who are pursuing meritorious legal claims.
David Mitchell
Director of 24 Haymarket
David is the founder and former chief executive officer of Astron. David led the company’s sale to RR Donnelley and has extensive experience in Business Process Outsourcing.
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About 24 Haymarket: 24 Haymarket is an investment network of highly experienced investors and senior operators.
Robert Boot
Director of JLG Group
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About JLG Group: JLG Group entered the alternative finance sector with the aim of providing a real alternative to business banking.
Robert Boot
Director of JLG Group
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About JLG Group: JLG Group entered the alternative finance sector with the aim of providing a real alternative to business banking.
Barry Sage
Global Service Operations Director of CUBE
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About CUBE: CUBE is a global RegTech provider empowering regulated financial institutions to meet compliance challenges head on.
Rob West
Delivery and Operations Director of CUBE
Rob has led several business streams within The Content Group. Over many years, he has built deep experience in working with highly complex global customers, managing delivery and operations. Rob is focused on leading his experienced team of regulatory experts and technical specialists to meet ever-changing customer challenges. Building upon his knowledge of technology and operations, Rob’s teams support customers, enabling them to deliver on their regulatory transformation goals.
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About CUBE: CUBE is a global RegTech provider empowering regulated financial institutions to meet compliance challenges head on.
Gloria Benson
Director of Consult Hyperion
Gloria is a Director of Consult Hyperion who, prior to joining Consult Hyperion in 1987, has worked for a range of companies dealing with business administration and human resource management. She graduated with a Management MBA from City University Business School. Gloria brings a wealth of business and people knowledge to Consult Hyperion, having had many years experience in the IT industry. Gloria also represents the social commitment of Consult Hyperion to the local and wider community, and is Chair of the Industrial Advisory Board at the Department of Computing at the University of Surrey, where she has been a member of the Board for nearly 10 years and is now a Visiting Professor.
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About Consult Hyperion: Consult Hyperion is an independent strategic and technical consultancy.
David Birch
Director of Consult Hyperion
David G.W Birch is Director of Consult Hyperion, the secure electronic transactions consultancy. He is an internationally-recognised thought leader in digital identity and digital money; named one of the global top 15 favourite sources of business information (Wired magazine) and one of the top ten most influential voices in banking (Financial Brand); listed in the top 10 Twitter accounts followed by innovators, along with Bill Gates and Richard Branson (PR Daily); named one of the “Fintech Titans” (NextBank), voted one of the European “Power 50” people in digital financial services (FinTech Awards) and ranked Europe’s most influential commentator on emerging payments (Total Payments magazine).
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About Consult Hyperion: Consult Hyperion is an independent strategic and technical consultancy.
Dave Birch
Director of Innovation of Consult Hyperion
David G.W Birch is an author, advisor and commentator on digital financial services. He is a Director of Consult Hyperion (the secure electronic transactions consultancy that he helped to found), Technology Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (the London-based think tank), a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey Business School and holds a number of board-level advisory roles. Before helping to found Consult Hyperion (one of the very first companies on the Surrey University Business Park) in 1986, he spent several years working as a consultant in Europe, the Far East and North America. He graduated from the University of Southampton with a B.Sc (Hons.) in Physics. Dave was named one of the global top 15 favourite sources of business information (Wired magazine) and one of the top ten most influential voices in banking (Financial Brand); created one of the top 25 “must read’ financial IT blogs; was found to be one of the top ten Twitter accounts followed by innovators, along with Bill Gates and Richard Branson (PR Daily); was ranked in the top three most influential people in London’s FinTech community (City A.M.), was voted one of the European “Top 40” people in digital financial services (Financial News), was listed of the world’s top 100 most influential FinTech leaders (Hot Topics) and rated Europe’s most influential commentator on emerging payments (Total Payments).
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About Consult Hyperion: Consult Hyperion is an independent strategic and technical consultancy.
Andrew Muir
Investment Director of Midven
Andrew joined Midven in 2004. He is a Director of the Company and Fund Principal of the Rainbow Seed Fund and the Early Advantage fund. After an initial scientific career at Zeneca he went on to roles in research and business development at the medical device company Biocompatibles and then Vice President of Technology for a US start-up in disinfection of medical equipment. He started his career in VC with the £4m per annum Invention and Innovation seed capital fund at NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts). He has a degree and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Oxford. Andrew combines a strong scientific and technical grounding with a real commercial pragmatism developed from his operational roles.
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About Midven, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund: Midven is a specialist venture capital company providing investment to fast growing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), run by an
Richard Berry
Managing Director of Good Broker Guide
Richard has been a broker for 20 years most recently at Investors Intelligence and previously acting as multi asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial). Richard started his career working as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson) after interning on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2000.
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About Good Broker Guide: Good Broker Guide is a London based guide to trading brokers and investment accounts for clients based in the UK, Europe.
Neil Berkett
Non Executive Director of Bank of Queensland
Neil joined the Board in July 2013. He is Chairman of the Guardian Media Group and is on the Board of Trustees for the NSPCC. Neil has over 25 years’ experience in a wide range of highly competitive customer-facing industries. Most recently, Neil was Chief Executive of Virgin Media Group from March 2008 to June 2013, having joined ntl, Virgin Media’s predecessor, as chief operating officer in September 2005. Before joining Virgin Media he was Managing Director, Distribution, at Lloyds TSB plc (UK). His previous roles include: Chief Operating Officer at Prudential Assurance Company Ltd UK; Head of Retail at St George Bank; Senior General Manager at the Australian division of Citibank Limited; Chief Executive at Eastwest Airlines Australia and Financial Controller at ICL Australia.
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About Bank of Queensland, Guardian Media Group: Welcome to our Pinterest! BOQ is one of Australia’s most dynamic and innovative financial institutions.
Peter Kelly
Operations Director of H&t Group
Peter Kelly is the operations director at H&T Group plc.
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About H&t Group: H&t Group provides a range of simple and accessible financial products tailored for a customer base.
Peter Kelly
Operations Director of H&t Group
Peter Kelly is the operations director at H&T Group plc.
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About H&t Group: H&t Group provides a range of simple and accessible financial products tailored for a customer base.
Chris Towner
Director of Chatham Financial Corp
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About Chatham Financial Corp: Independent financial firm, bringing expert advisory and technology solutions to global debt and derivatives markets.
Dale Evans
Marketing Director of My Canada Payday
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About My Canada Payday: Online and storefront payday loans and cheque cashing.
Jeff Woolgar
Chief Relationship Officer and Director of Trustpay Global
Jeff Woolgar is the chief relationship officer and director of Trustpay Global.
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About Trustpay Global: Trustpay Global develops and operates an online payment gateway and payment processor.
