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 CEO’ operating in the Solar space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Tim Sawyer
Chief Executive Officer of Carnegie Clean Energy
Tim has over 13 years experience in marine surveying, environmental impact assessment, management and mitigation of environmental impacts, permitting and approvals. Tim has an in depth knowledge of offshore renewable energy development including wave, wind and tidal stream energy. As Project Development Officer Tim is responsible for wave energy resource definition and commercial site identification and assessment. Tim’s role also encompasses stakeholder consultation and management of project permits and approvals.
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About Carnegie Clean Energy: Carnegie Clean Energy Limited (ASX: CCE) is an Australian wave energy technology developer
Frans van den Heuvel
CEO of Solarcentury
Frans van den Heuvel is the CEO at Solarcentury.
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About Solarcentury: Solarcentury develops, constructs, owns and operates utility-scale solar and smart technology across Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Nick Boyle
Founder and CEO of Lightsource Renewable Energy
In 2010, Nick founded Lightsource Renewable Energy, then just a six-person start-up, which quickly grew over 5 years to become Europe’s largest solar developer and operator and a recognised global leader. In his role as Group CEO, Nick’s dynamic leadership and vision has driven the company to tremendous success and in December 2017, Lightsource announced a strategic partnership with BP which has committed aggressively to accelerate the low carbon transition. The company has rebranded to Lightsource BP in affirmation of this powerhouse commitment which is set to shape the future of global energy delivery. Nick previously sat at Board and Senior Director level in a number of leading retail financial service companies. Throughout his career, Nick has always been recognised for his entrepreneurial skill and success in pairing retail financial products with low-risk, predictable investments.
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About Lightsource Renewable Energy: Lightsource is a provider of ground and rooftop solar installations in the UK.
Nigel Pocklington
Chief Executive Officer of Good Energy
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About Good Energy: Good Energy is a British renewable electricity company with a difference.
Axel Thiemann
Chief Executive Officer of Sonnedix
Axel Thiemann became CEO of Sonnedix in September 2018 after serving as a member of the senior leadership team and Board of Directors. Since joining Sonnedix in 2011, Axel has played a fundamental role in its evolution, initially based in London, as COO with responsibility for Asset Management, Finance, HR and E&C, and more recently based in Miami, overseeing M&A, integration and strategy during a four year period when the company experienced five-fold growth. Prior to joining Sonnedix, Axel spent seven years in banking and held various senior roles with Barclays Bank in London. Before this he was a consultant with McKinsey and Company in Cologne, Germany. Axel graduated as an Electrical Engineer from Hannover University in Germany and holds an MBA from IESE Business School, Spain. To Axel, the most special thing about Sonnedix is its team of bright and passionate people across four continents that have come together to create a sustainable future for the world.
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About Sonnedix: Sonnedix Solar is a global power producer dedicated to produce low-carbon solar energy for the future.
Miloš Milisavljević
CEO of Strawberry energy
Miloš Milisavljević is a Founder & CEO at Strawberry energy.
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About Serbian Association of Managers, Strawberry energy: Strawberry energy develops smart green urban devices in order to improve our everyday lives in cities.
Frank Averdung
Chief Executive Officer of Oxford PV
Frank P. Averdung joined Oxford PV as Chief Executive Officer in July 2015. He has over 30 years of experience in the Semiconductor industry in leading technology driven organisations, from small startups to large organisations with more than 1000 employees. Prior to joining Oxford PV Frank was President and CEO of SUSS MicroTec AG, a German manufacturer of semiconductor equipment with up to 250 mio US$ of sales. Under his leadership the company became listed in the “TecDAX”, the stock market index for the top 30 publicly traded technology companies in Germany. Having an engineering background (holding the equivalent of a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University Aachen, Germany) Frank spent the first 10 years of his career with semiconductor device companies like Siemens, National Semiconductors and ITT Semiconductors. During this time he held several sales and marketing roles from Key Account Manager, Product Manager to Marketing Director. In 1995 Frank moved to the equipment side of the semiconductor industry and General Manager at Applied Materials and Managing Director of Etec Systems Europe. As CEO of the startup “NawoTec GmbH” he led the successful development and market introduction of semiconductor manufacturing equipment utilising a breakthrough proprietary technology. He sold the company to the German conglomerate Carl Zeiss AG where he became CEO of the enlarged Business Unit and later President and CEO of Carl Zeiss’ US Operations based in Massachusetts. Frank has a proven track record in enhancing companies’ values equally by acquiring and divesting businesses and technologies.
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About Oxford PV: Oxford PV is a provider of perovskite solar cells.
Andrew Nelson
President & CEO of IQE
Andrew Nelson has over 30 years experience in the semiconductor industry in a variety of research and managerial positions. Following a PhD in Semiconductor Physics, he joined BT Research Laboratories in 1981, leading the group responsible for the development of advanced optoelectronic devices for optical fibre communications. He subsequently managed the technology transfer from BT to Agilent for mass production. He co-founded EPI in 1988 (which became IQE in 1999) and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of IQE Plc in April 1999. Andrew has held several Non-Executive Directorship appointments, and served on several Government and Industry bodies. He received an OBE in 2001 for services to the Electronics Industry. He is currently a member of the High Level Group appointed by the EC to oversee the implementation of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) throughout Europe.
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About IQE: IQE is the global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor wafer products.
Oluyemi Jegede
CEO and Co-Founder of Big Pot
Oluyemi is a whole energy systems specialist. His interests cut across the multiple energy vectors and the interactions between energy supply, demand and the wider economy. More importantly, he is an ardent believer in the promise of a thriving Nigeria and his passion has seen him birth the Bigpot initiative.
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About Big Pot: Big Pot is a power utility company which will provide energy to small and medium-sized residences.
Mansoor Hamayun
Chief Executive Officer of BBOXX
Mansoor is a graduate from Imperial College London where he obtained honours (M.Eng) degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering. He was the founder and the first Chairman of ‘e.quinox’ 2008 and co-founded BBOXX in 2010. Mansoor is responsible for the global strategy of BBOXX which includes HR, new markets and industrial partnerships. Mansoor has professional leadership experience in the Engineering/Customer Service Sector with Rolls-Royce plc in the UK and Hong Kong. Mansoor spends considerable amount of time in the market attempting to create the framework and partnerships necessary to fulfil the social aim of the business i.e. mass electrification.
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About BBOXX: BBOXX designs, manufactures, and distributes plug and play solar systems.
Arthur Hanna
Senior Advisor & CEO of World Energy Council
Board member Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies. Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at Loughborough University. Fellow, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines. Responsible for supporting a number of agendas focusing on the development of strategies to promote energy transition across multiple energy sources. Arthur retired from Accenture in 2016 after 26 years working in the Energy consulting sector. He was a Senior Managing Director, leading the Global Energy Strategy business. Prior to joining Accenture in 1990 he spent 10 years with BP in a variety of international roles spanning the Middle East and Europe.
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About World Energy Council: World Energy Council is a UN-accredited global energy body dedicated to delivering a sustainable energy system worldwide.
Simon Bransfield-Garth
Chief Executive Officer of Azuri Technologies
Simon has 30 years global experience building rapid growth, technology-based businesses in sectors including Semiconductor, Automotive and Mobile Phones. He currently sits on the Governing Council of the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), and his career includes 7 years at Symbian, the phone OS maker, where he was a member of the Leadership Team and VP Global Marketing. Named a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum in 2012, Simon is also founder of Myriad Solutions Ltd, and was previously a Fellow at Cambridge University. He holds a BA and Ph.D in Engineering from St John’s College, Cambridge UK.
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About Azuri Technologies: Azuri brings affordable solar power to off-grid rural africans.
Ashutosh Natraj
CEO & CoFounder of Vidrona
Oxford University Researcher turned entrepreneur with 9 years of experience in academia and industry across the world such as IBM Research. Ash holds a PhD in Robotics and Computer Vision for UAVs(Distinction), Erasmus Mundus (ViBOT) scholar with 3 Masters in Robotics and Computer Vision.
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About Vidrona, Vine Rangers: Vidrona is a British AI Based Predictive Prescriptive Analytics Company for the Utilities. It helps utilities to increase RoI.
Hamish Watson
CEO of Polysolar
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About Polysolar: Polysolar is a developer and installer of photovoltaic glazing solutions.
Christine Boyle
CEO of Senergy Innovations
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About Senergy Innovations: Senergy Innovations is a smart solar thermal panels designer and manufacturer.
Nick Kitchin
Chief Executive Officer of Cumulus Energy Storage
Nick has 30 years’ experience as a general manager, chartered engineer, MBA and strategy consultant. His operations and management experience includes chemicals and plastics manufacturing with Shell Chemicals, Amalgamated Plastics and as General Manager (300 employees) at polyurethane foam manufacturer Carpenter. Nick’s consulting background includes strategy consulting to over 250 SME’s in the UK across a wide range of industries and growth companies.
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About Cumulus Energy Storage: Developing super-storage grid-level batteries.
Allan ‘Noel-edge’ Okello
CEO & Founder / Director of Plexus Wifi
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About Plexus Wifi: City wide Solar powered payg wifi for African cities
Siten Mandalia
CEO of Solaris Offgrid
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About Solaris Offgrid: Provide sustainable energy in low income communities.
Art Russell
Chief Executive Officer of VivoPower
Art is an experienced CFO with over 25 years of global experience in financial management, business performance improvement and turnaround across a diverse range of industry sectors. He has worked extensively in the private equity investment space, on both sides of the investment transaction. Art was previously CFO of APC Technology Group PLC, a business listed on AIM of the London Stock Exchange, successfully turning around the business following significant loss, near business collapse, and management change. APC provides design, specification, and distribution of specialist electronic components and systems, lighting technologies and connectivity products to the defense, aerospace, industrial, real estate, logistics and healthcare sectors. Prior to joining APC, Art was CFO of a UK based KKR private equity investment in the aviation sector, responsible for financial management of a £250m turnover international business through to successful exit to a FTSE 100 PLC. Previous experience includes ten years as Senior Vice President & CFO of a SME private equity investment firm in North America, responsible for all M&A activity, financing, and portfolio management. Prior to this, Art led finance for a private equity backed international marine and fuel distribution company, joining that business after eight years in audit, tax, and financial advisory services at Deloitte. Art holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta. He is qualified as a Chartered Accountant in both the United Kingdom and Canada.
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About VivoPower: VivoPower provides renewable energy to customers from solar power assets that it builds, finances and operates.
