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 United Kingdom based Partner operating in the Telecommunications space. If you think a Partner 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.
Jambu Palaniappan
Managing Partner of OMERS Ventures
Jambu Palaniappan is Managing Partner of OMERS Ventures in Europe. He previously had several executive roles at Uber, where he was among the first 100 employees of the company globally. From 2012 to 2014, he led Uber’s international expansion in EMEA and India. From 2014 to 2016, he served as Regional General Manager for Uber in Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa leading a team of 300 as Uber built and scaled its business in that region. From 2016 to 2018, he was Head of Uber Eats in EMEA. He is also currently a Non-Executive Director of JustEat PLC. Jambu studied Public Policy and Economics at Vanderbilt University.
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About OMERS Ventures: OMERS Ventures is a transatlantic multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies
Henry Gladwyn
Partner of OMERS Ventures
In his role as Principal at OMERS Ventures, located in our London office, Henry is responsible for researching and executing on investment opportunities and supporting portfolio companies post-investment. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Henry was an investor at BGF Ventures where he led several Series A & B investments including the Cybersecurity startup, Garrison Technology, and the biometric identity platform, AimBrain. Before BGF Ventures, Henry was a Lawyer at Slaughter and May, and later served as General Counsel at the late-stage venture capital fund Hedosophia where he led the legal process for all investments. Henry holds a History degree from Christ’s College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) from BBP University.
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About OMERS Ventures: OMERS Ventures is a transatlantic multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies
Harry Briggs
Managing Partner & Founder of OMERS Ventures
Harry is a partner at OMERS Ventures, previously at Balderton Capital & BGF Ventures- and the youngest investor in the inaugural Forbes “Midas List Europe”, thanks to investments such as The Hut Group, GoCardless, Touch Surgery and Revolut. Prior to Balderton, Harry co-founded Firefly Tonics, a healthy energy drink brand that sells in over 30 countries, sold to Private Equity in 2012. Harry started his career at McKinsey & Co., the strategy consultancy, in London and New York.
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About OMERS Ventures: OMERS Ventures is a transatlantic multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies
Stephen Nundy
Partner & Chief Technology Officer of Lakestar
An experienced Technologist and Engineer with a passion for setting strategy and building commercial solutions for complex and ambitious businesses. Collected over 20 years of global experience, leading new technology innovation, building distributed, high-performance teams, driving significant client engagement, within dynamic and highly competitive businesses. Passionate focus on investing and building companies, and their teams, with hyper-growth solutions and technologies to match.
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About Lakestar: Lakestar is a venture capital firm investing in technology companies led by exceptional entrepreneurs.
Immo Rupf
Partner of Cinven
Immo Rupf is a Partner at Cinven and co-leader of its global Portfolio Team. His core focus is on Value Creation Plans and Buy-and- Build support for Cinven’s portfolio companies. Specifically for Cinven’s Fund 5, Immo has led the Value Creation Plan initiatives at Amco, Host Europe, Heidelberger Leben, Synlab, Ceramtec, and HotelBeds. And he has supported all major Buy & Build’s in Cinven’s Fund 5: Mercury-Amdipharm (Amco), Heidelberger Leben – Skandia, Host Europe – Domainfactory – TOS, Labco – Synlab.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Maxim Crewe
Partner of Cinven
Maxim leads the Consumer sector team. He is also a member of the UK and Ireland regional team. He has been involved in a number of transactions, including Allegro, Avolon, Guardian Financial Services, Kurt Geiger, NewDay, Partner in Pet Food, Partnership, Planasa and Premium Credit. Previously he worked at Citigroup where he was involved in corporate finance within the European Retail and Consumer Group. Maxim has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Pontus Pettersson
Partner of Cinven
Pontus joined Cinven in 2011 and is a member of the Industrials sector team. He has been involved in a number of transactions including CeramTec and Prezioso. Previously, Pontus was a Principal at KKR & Co in London, Tokyo and Menlo Park, where he worked on a number of deals. Prior to this, he worked at Altor Equity Partners in Stockholm. ACO Hud, Ferrosan, and Lindorff Group are among the investments on which Pontus worked. Pontus started his career at Goldman Sachs. Pontus has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Chris Good
Partner of Cinven
Chris joined Cinven in 2006 and is a member of the TMT sector team. He has been involved in a number of investments including Amadeus, CPA Global, Springer and Visma. Previously, Chris worked at Homechoice (Video Networks Ltd) as Senior Manager, Strategy and Planning. Prior to that, he was a consultant at Bain & Company, where he worked across a range of sectors, including business services, retail and telecommunications. Chris has an MSc in Physics from Oxford University.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Thomas Railhac
Partner of Cinven
Thomas co-leads the TMT sector team and is a member of the regional team for France. He has been involved in a number of transactions, including Allegro, Host Europe Group (‘HEG’), Numericable, One.com, RTB House, Ufinet and Ufinet International. Prior to joining Cinven, Thomas worked in the private equity division of Goldman Sachs (Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area (‘PIA’)) in London. Thomas has an MSc in Engineering from the Ecole Centrale Paris. He joined Cinven in 2008.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Lorraine London
Head of Tax and Partnership Services of Cinven
Lorraine is the Head of Tax and Partnership Services and leads the tax team managing Cinven’s carried interest and co-investment schedule. Prior to Cinven, Lorraine was an accountant at the National Coal Board. She is a FCCA certified accountant. She joined Cinven in 1990.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Stuart McAlpine
Managing Partner of Cinven
Stuart leads the Business Services and Industrials sector teams. He is also a member of the Healthcare sector team and the UK and Ireland regional team. He has been involved in a number of transactions, including Amadeus, AMCo, CPA Global, Fitness First, Foseco, Medpace, Phadia, Sebia and Unique Pub Company. Stuart was previously with the Royal Bank of Scotland in its Leveraged Finance Group and before that at Ernst & Young in Boston and London. Stuart has a BAcc in Accountancy from Glasgow University. He joined Cinven in 1996.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Ivan Kwok
Partner of Cinven
Ivan is a member of the Portfolio team and is responsible for the internationalisation strategy for Cinven’s portfolio companies, active across Cinven’s offices. Previously, Ivan worked at Bain Capital Asia as a Senior Vice President of the Portfolio Group. He was involved in the portfolio management and exits of Feixiang Chemicals and GA Pack. Prior to this, he was a Principal with The Boston Consulting Group for 10 years, leading projects across China, Japan and South East Asia. Ivan received an MBA in Finance from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University and an MPhil and a BSc in Sociology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He joined Cinven in 2010.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Chris Roberts
Partner & Alliances Manager, Europe of Megaport
With more than 20 years of experience, Chris fosters an extensive range of expertise in selling directly to the corporate marketplace and through the partner channel.Chris has held senior positions at a number of global solutions and service providers in the past, including Pulsant where he was responsible for building a channel proposition, recruiting partners, and launching the new programme to the market. He also worked at MTI, an international provider of managed services and storage solutions, where he headed up the New Business and Channel sales teams for the Managed Services division.Prior to that, Roberts worked for iomart and Datapipe where he was tasked with building, promoting and delivering indirect programmes and revenues for the channel community, accomplishing several key wins across multiple verticals. At iomart, Chris added significant value in delivering millions of pounds in new annualised revenue for the company and assisted the team in gaining accreditation as an approved Dell managed services provider.
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About Megaport: Megaport is a software defined networking company that directly connects enterprises, networks, and services.
Nick Wilsdon
Consultant – Vodafone Partner Markets of Vodafone
Nick Wilsdon joined Vodafone as Consultant in 2020.
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About Torque Partnership, Vodafone: Vodafone is a mobile telecommunications company that offers voice, messaging, and data services.
Jon Carter
UK Innovation Scouting Lead, , Group Partnering & Devices of Deutsche Telekom
Jon leads Business Development for Deutsche Telekom’s white label and open connected home platform, with a specific focus on the UK market. Successfully launched in Germany in late 2013, Deutsche Telekom’s open platform is now available internationally, with a principle focus on Europe. Deutsche Telekom’s platform has been designed to move the industry beyond simple control of connected devices, to create a foundation for new revenue generating services. In the UK, Jon’s focus is on establishing partnerships with telcos, utilities, insurers and retailers, as well as third party platform providers and OEMs to enable the realization of innovative new models and revenue generating services. Jon has worked in and around the connected home space since the early 2000s, and has a deep knowledge of the UK and European market, and in particular what will finally drive growth in this market. He has previously consulted for both E.ON Group and RWE UK on their connected home strategies, including the latter’s partnership with Google’s Nest. Prior to joining Deutsche Telekom, Jon worked several years for a boutique innovation consultancy, and before that was 12 years at Orange, where amongst other things he led Orange UK’s R&D initiative on the connected home, as well as being Head of Strategy and subsequently Head of Propositions.
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About Deutsche Telekom: Deutsche Telekom is a telecommunications company that offers a range of fixed-network services.
Luke Ferris
Associate Partner ADAPT of Bain & Company
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About Bain & Company: Bain & Company is a management consulting firm that provides solutions on change in management, strategies, and technology.
Rapheal Azrin
Authorized Technical Partner of MyRepublic
A real nut case whom was voted worst blogger of the year 2006,2007,2008 Non-US by IZEAS / PAYPERPOST community and the Affiliate Summit in London due to his bad attitude and no hands barred commentaries of the people who feeds him. Blogging for money to him must consist of integrity and such a case that comments and write ups must be from a fair point of view, without the censorship.
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About MyRepublic: MyRepublic is a telecom company that provides internet access and broadband-based services to consumers and businesses in Singapore.
Jonathan Lewis
Head of Digital and Partnership Innovation of Channel 4
Jonathan is responsible for driving Channel 4’s industry leading commercial innovation agenda and digital revenue growth through data, sponsorship, product placement, advertiser funded long and digital short form programming, integrated marketing solutions for advertisers – and this year’s launch of Europe’s first programmatic buying option for VOD on All 4. Previously Jonathan was Managing Director at Vevo (UK) and Head of Digital Media and Commercial Development at Five and the Northern & Shell Group’s digital assets (OK!, Star, New, Express Group Newspapers) growing revenues, page impressions and video views. Jonathan also represented Five on the YouView shareholder board and pioneered new strategic partnerships with companies including Google, Facebook, Sony and Samsung..
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About Channel 4: Channel 4 provides public broadcasting services via television.
Sam Evans
Associate Partner of Delta Partners Capital Limited
Sam is an Associate Partner at Delta Partners a leading specialist global TMD Advisory, Corporate Finance and Investment firm headquartered in Dubai. Sam has extensive experience across the telecoms and media sectors both in consulting where he was previously a Partner with Redshift Strategy leading international telecoms engagements as well as working for Spectrum Strategy Consultants, and industry where he was Strategy Director for GSMA and worked for Virgin Media in their commercial team. He has advised clients across North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia including mobile operators, content distributors, network infrastructure providers, device vendors and payments networks. He has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
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About Delta Partners Capital Limited, Redshift Strategy: Delta Partners is a Private Equity arm focuses on the telecoms, and provide funding to fund companies’ growth in emerging markets.
David Leftley
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Bloc Ventures
David has more than 30 years global technology industry experience in start-ups and multi-nationals as an engineer, manager, director and investor. From 1983 he worked as a design engineer in the defence industry, specialising in radar and airborne electronic countermeasures, first at Cossor Electronics and then at Racal Defence. In 1987 he moved into the TV and film industry, working for Abacus Cox and then Vistek on the design of the world’s first digital TV production technology. In this time he progressed to become R&D Manager and later became General Manager. In 1996, as CTO he founded Digital Vision UK for DV AB of Sweden, a world leader in video compression, transmission and post production technology, securing contracts with the BBC, several Hollywood studios and customers as far afield as China. In 1999 DV AB successfully went to an IPO. In 2009 he joined Vodafone’s corporate venture team as head of its European activity, closing numerous investments in Mobile Health, Clean Tech, Infrastructure and Financial Tech services. In this time the fund ranked in the top 5 CVCs, achieved an IRR of 27% and in 2012 received an industry award for its exit of portfolio company Amobee for $321M. In 2010 David was ranked in Wired Magazine’s top 100 innovators’ list. He represented Vodafone on the boards of nine portfolio companies. In April 2013 David departed Vodafone to establish Bloc Ventures with Bruce. He has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Aston Birmingham, and is a Chartered Engineer.
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About Bloc Ventures: Bloc Ventures is an early-stage Deep Tech investment company. Pitch to Bloc here: https://blocventures.com/pitching/
Simon Douglas
Head of Global System Integrator Consulting Partners of Ciena
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About Ciena, Unchainedhouse.com: Ciena collaborates with customers to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and and change the way they perform and compete.
Steve Morris
Managing Partner of Portland Communications
Steve ensures that the right mix of skills from across the agency is available for every client, and personally advises clients on strategic and crisis communications He joined Portland in 2008 after a series of senior roles in government He spent five years in 10 Downing Street, first as an adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair on European issues and later as head of the Strategic Communications Unit He was Director of Communications at Defra, where he led crisis communications on major flooding emergencies and an outbreak of foot and mouth disease He spent five years in Brussels, where he acted as a spokesman for EC President Romano Prodi
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About Portland Communications: We design and deliver communications strategies for some of the world’s highest profile organisations, governments and individuals.
George Watson
Senior Partner of Portland Communications
George advises the leaders of some of Britain’s biggest firms, charities and organisations on their corporate communications and government relations strategies. His work spans a huge range of corporate sectors including FMCG, defence, banking, financial technology, retail, health and pharmaceuticals. George enjoyed a 22-year career on The Sun newspaper. He was the Political Editor for five years, widely regarded as one of the most influential positions in the UK media. He has been a regular panellist on BBC Question Time, Sunday AM, Sky News, BBC News Channel, Any Questions, The Week in Westminster and BBC Radio 5 Live. This experience makes him a sought-after media trainer for some of the UK’s most high profile business leaders. He is a former chairman of Parliamentary Lobby Journalists and is the author of Total Politics’ The Insider column, widely read by Britain’s decision-makers. George advises clients on all aspects of media handling, crisis management and campaigning, providing formidable insight into the political world.
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About Portland Communications: We design and deliver communications strategies for some of the world’s highest profile organisations, governments and individuals.
Indika Samarakoon
Head M2M/IOT Strategy & Partner Management of Dialog Axiata PLC
Indika Samarakoon obtained his BSc in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from University of Moratuwa. Sri Lanka and his MSc. & PhD in Communications Engineering from Lancaster University UK. He has over 20 year experiences in R&D gained through Lancaster University UK, Southampton University UK, Atmel UK & Dialog Axiata PLC. He currently works at Dialog Axiata PLC as Head – M2M/IoT strategy Development and Partner Management, working on IOT platform strategy and solution development.
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About Dialog Axiata PLC: Dialog Axiata PLC is Sri Lanka’s flagship telecommunications service provider.
John Lewis
VP Product Management, Marketing and Partners, and CSO of Telensa
Jon has over 20 years’ experience in leadership and innovation roles at global technology companies including NEC, Toshiba and Motorola. These roles have covered fundamental research, product development and sales. Jon joined Telensa to broaden the company’s application portfolio and open new market segments. He holds a number of patents and has a PhD in engineering.
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About Telensa: Telensa makes wireless smart city control systems, including the worlds most deployed smart streetlight solution.
Simon Turner
Managing Director & Founding Partner of 4Sight Communications
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About 4Sight Communications: 4Sight Communications is one of the leading providers of business telecommunications and managed services for public sector organisations.
Phil Harvey
Vice President, Partner Management – Aviation of Inmarsat Government
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About Inmarsat Government, Sporting Mouth: Inmarsat Government is a Telecommunications Company.
John Shannon
Partner Director of Tiger
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About Tiger: Tiger delivers workplace performance analytics that transforms how enterprises work, collaborate, and perform.
