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 Chairman operating in the Payments 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.
Ann Cairns
Executive Vice Chairman of Mastercard
As president of International Markets at Mastercard, Ann Cairns is responsible for the management, growth and expansion of all markets and customer-related activities outside of North America. Working across both mature and emerging markets Ann has firsthand insight and experience of how to build a team focused on delivering strong business growth and meaningful global and local partnerships through innovative, sustainable and inclusive business models. Ann has more than 20 years’ experience as a senior leader, having held management positions across Europe and the U.S., and has previously run global retail, commercial and investment banking operations. A mathematician and statistician Ann holds a Pure Mathematics degree from Sheffield University and a M.Sc. from Newcastle University. Among her many accomplishments Ann has been an award-winning research engineer and was the first woman qualified to go offshore in Britain. A champion of inclusion – digital, financial and gender – Ann is a member of the World Food Programme investment committee and the AstraZeneca board.
Follow Ann Cairns:
About Mastercard: Mastercard provides payment processing products and solutions, and related consulting services.
Nick Caplan
Chairman of Fly Now Pay Later
Nick is a Senior Sector Partner of the Athene Capital Group. Nick is a transformation and change advisor helping companies get from point A to point B. As such, he has amassed a wide range of experience, currently holding boarding positions in the following companies: Travel Fund, ANDigital, myCSP, OXAND and Managed Networks. Previously, Nick started his career at EY and rose to become CMO and Group Exec Board Director of Logica.
Follow Nick Caplan:
About Athene Capital: Fly Now Pay Later is a fintech company that helps consumers split the cost of their travel in monthly installments.
Ismail Ahmed
Founder & Executive Chairman of Zepz
Ismail Ahmed, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, founding WorldRemit was the culmination of 20 years’ experience in the money transfer industry – spanning academic, consulting and in-house roles. Before setting-up his own business, he worked for the United Nations Remittance Programme, helping African money transfer companies comply with tough anti-money laundering rules introduced after the 9/11 attacks. Ismail has published widely-cited research on the effect of remittances in Somaliland following the country’s civil war. He holds an MSc and PhD from the University of London and an Executive MBA from London Business School.
Follow Ismail Ahmed:
About Zepz, Zepz: Zepz is a money transfer service that helps migrants send money to their loved ones all over the world.
Marek Fodor
Chairman of Kantox
Marek began his career working in consulting and banking before moving on to internet-related projects. Before joining Kantox he co-founded and was CTO at Atrapalo, largest independent online travel agency in Spain. He is an active business angel investor and mentor for technology startups. He is specialised in marketing and growth strategiHe has a dual university education background in both computer science and in economics.
Follow Marek Fodor:
About 4Founders Capital, Kantox, SeedRocket, Terminis, Toubkal Partners: Kantox is a leader in Currency Management Automation software that enables businesses to automate their end-to-end FX workflow
David Campbell
Chairman of Global Reach Group
With an exceptional career spanning four decades with leading global finance and investment firms, David was appointed Chairman of Global Reach Group in 2016. He joined JP Morgan in 1980, progressing to the role of Managing Director before moving to Deutsche Bank, initially joining as Managing Director and later becoming its Co-Head of European Fixed Income Trading. Moving into the entrepreneurial financial services sector, he was appointed as CEO at Tilney Investment Management, where he led several significant international deals including the £355m sale of the business to Deutsche Bank. Returning to his former employer, he took on responsibility for Global Investment Solutions. In 2013 he was appointed as Chairman of Enterprise Finance which, under his tenure, was ranked as one of the UK’s 50 fastest growing SMEs for three consecutive years.
Follow David Campbell:
About Global Reach Group: Global Reach Group is a leading foreign currency provider for corporates and personal clients.
Paul Townsend
Chairman & Director of Vitesse PSP
Co-founder of Envoy (sold to WorldPay).Paul has over 20 years’ experience in mainstream banking with Warburgs and Bank of New York, plus 15 years in electronic payments with Earthport plc, Neteller, Envoy and Worldpay. Before co-founding Vitesse, Paul was Founder and COO of Envoy Services Ltd. He is also an angel investor.
Follow Paul Townsend:
About Vitesse PSP: Vitesse is the smart way to make secure global money transfers.
Dan Wagner
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Rezolve
Dan Wagner began his career as a junior Account Executive at the advertising agency WCRS. While doing market research, that involved laborious searching of back copies of newspapers, journals, and research reports Dan first generated the concept of an electronic, PC-based information service. In 1985 at the age of 20, he left WCRS to pursue his ambition of creating such a service and established M.A.I.D. Dan was the driving force behind M.A.I.D.’s growth and development, including listings on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Throughout his career he has engineered numerous acquisitions and has been responsible for forging a wide array of strategic alliances. He led M.A.I.D.’s move into the Internet technology and eCommerce markets, being one of the first to understand their huge potential, and conceived the technology which is now Venda, in 1998. He has won a variety of business awards that recognize his achievements including The World Economic Forum’s Global Leader of Tomorrow in 1997 and Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999.
Follow Dan Wagner:
About Bright Station Ltd., Bright Station Ventures, Rezolve, Venda: Rezolve allows any kind of product or media to instantly trigger a highly relevant, contextual engagement between consumer and retailer
Mushegh Tovmasyan
Chairman and Founder of Zenus Bank
Mushegh Tovmasyan is the Founder and Chairman at Zenus Bank.
Follow Mushegh Tovmasyan:
About : The first U.S. bank made for people outside the U.S.
David S. Wong
Chairman & CEO, Director of Midpoint
David is a London-based entrepreneur and investor in disruptive technologies and previously Managing Director of Expadis Capital. Prior to becoming an investor, he co-founded a publicly traded technology and media company. David has extensive experience in building, advising technology companies and helping businesses scale internationally. David started out as a client of Midpoint. He subsequently invested in the Company and joined the Board of Directors. David holds a BSc (Hons) in Engineering from the University of Liverpool and MA (Distinction) in Management from the University of Brighton.
Follow David S. Wong:
About Midpoint: Midpoint is a true peer-to-peer international payments platform for any businesses or individual wanting access to fair and transparent FX.
Ken Moss
Executive Chairman of Senit
Ken Moss served as the Chief Executive Officer of mO3 Power Limited. Moss served as the Chief Executive Officer of vzaar Limited. He served as the Chairman of the Board of vzaar Limited and serves as its Non Executive Director. In 2008, Moss founded vzaar Limited. He has a remarkable career record spanning 25 years in leading technology companies throughout Europe. His management skills as both entrepreneur and executive officer have been instrumental in the development and success of many leading technology based firms. In 1985 Moss acquired Technology plc, which became the largest IT reseller in the UK. After successfully restructuring Technology plc, it was sold to Fujitsu in 1992. Moss then joined Accent Technologies Inc., the global leader in system management software, as the European Sales and Marketing director. In 1995, he acquired Bytech Systems Ltd and within 3 years he had transformed Bytech Systems Ltd into the largest European reseller for IBM software. During this period, He was responsible in no small measure for the acquisition of Bytech Systems Ltd ‘s largest competitors in Germany and Italy, as well as developing Avnet into a one billion dollar business. Since 2002, Moss has continued to work for some of the largest VCs in Europe as Executive Chairman, including Balderton and 3i. He has also been a private investor and board member in many new and emerging software businesses.
Follow Ken Moss:
About Senit: Buy, sell and trade digital currencies with Senit
Bill Fitzgerald
Chairman of Featurespace
Bill Fitzgerald is a Co-founder at Featurespace.
Follow Bill Fitzgerald:
About Featurespace, University of Cambridge: Featurespace provides an adaptive behavioral analytics technology and automated deep behavioral networks for risk management.
John Gieve
Chairman of VocaLink
John Gieve is the Chairman of VocaLink, the main provider of payment systems in the UK, and an independent director of CLS which settles most global foreign exchange transactions. He is also a director of the Homerton Hospital Trust and Chair of trustees for the Clore Social Leadership Programme. He was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from January 2006 until February 2009 where he was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee which sets interest rates in the UK and had responsibility for the Bank’s Financial Stability work. He was a member also of the Board of the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator of financial services, and of the Financial Stability Board, which has led on the international response to the financial crisis under the G20.
Follow John Gieve:
About VocaLink: VocaLink develops and operates payments infrastructure solutions in the United Kingdom.
Justin Pike
Founder & Chairman of MYPINPAD
Follow Justin Pike:
About : INVENTORS OF THE WORLD’S FIRST SOFTWARE PAYMENTS TERMINAL
Aaron Ross
Chairman of Cake Technologies
Aaron is founder of Cake and CityHawk, two of London’s fastest growing restaurant applications. With CityHawk diners can discover the best places to eat, with Cake they can pay for their bar and restaurant bills straight from their phones. Aaron is an experienced entrepreneur having co-founded FirstCare, Europe’s largest absence management company in late 2004 and grew it, as Chief Executive, to a £6m turnover in 5 years.
Follow Aaron Ross:
About Cake Technologies, CityHawk, SolarCraft: CAKE is revolutionizing the way restaurants and bars engage with their customers.
Adrian Patten
Co-Founder & Chairman of Cobalt
Adrian Patten is an FX expert and entrepreneur, having founded institutional spot FX brokerage Mako FX and served as CEO from its launch until its sale in 2014. Prior to this, Adrian was chief spot dealer at First National Bank of Chicago and has previously held the position of senior FX dealer at Deutsche Bank, UBS, Hill Samuel and Morgan Grenfell. As Co-Founder & Chairman of Cobalt, Adrian is involved in all areas of the company. The overarching business strategy and governance of the company with a focus on legal work, investment fundraising and product development.
Follow Adrian Patten:
About Cobalt: Cobalt delivers a private peer-to-peer network that significantly reduces post-trade cost and risk for financial market participants.
Richard Dilworth
Vice Chairman of Zapaygo
Follow Richard Dilworth:
About : Zapaygo provides a menu of goods or services and a pre-order and payment facility to consumers.
Marius Bausys
Founder & Chairman of the Board of ArcaPay
Follow Marius Bausys:
About ArcaPay: Cross-border payment, foreign exchange and currency risk management solutions for business.
Malcolm Hughes
Chairman of Smartdebit
Follow Malcolm Hughes:
About Smartdebit: Streamline payment handling, improve your cashflow and increase customer retention with SmartDebit.
Brian Phillips
Chairman of Preoday
Follow Brian Phillips:
About : B2B pre-ordering platform for integrated e-commerce solutions for businesses serving food and beverages
