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 Director operating in the Chemical 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.
Stuart Sawyer
CEO & Director of D3O
Stuart Sawyer is the CEO at D3O
Follow Stuart Sawyer:
About Cornwall Ventures, D3O: D3O is a specialist provider of impact protection solutions & materials.
Arnold Allemang
Member of the Board of Directors of American Chemical Society
Arnold A. Allemang was a member of the Board of Directors for The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan. The Dow Chemical Company – Employee of Dow 1965-2008. Manufacturing General Manager, Dow Benelux N.V. 1992-1993. Regional Vice President, Manufacturing and Administration, Dow Benelux N.V. 1993. Vice President, Manufacturing Operations, Dow Europe GmbH 1993-1995. Dow Vice President and Director of Manufacturing and Engineering 1996-1997. Dow Vice President, Operations 1997-2000. Executive Vice President 2000-2004. Senior Advisor 2004-2008. Member of the Advisory Board for RPM Ventures; the President’s Circle of Sam Houston State University; and the American Chemical Society.
Follow Arnold Allemang:
About : The American Chemical Society is a non-profit scientific society that supports scientific research and inquiry in the field of chemistry.
Julie Taylorson
Procurement Director of INOVYN
Julie has 32 years of experience in the chemical industry, half of which have been spent in senior procurement positions. Julie has worked at INEOS for 13 years and has operated at Procurement Director level since 2007. Julie is a Chartered Accountant and has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Bradford.
Follow Julie Taylorson:
About INOVYN: INOVYN is a vinyls producer that ranks among the top three worldwide.
Paul Daniels
Operations Director of INOVYN
Paul is a chartered chemical engineer, with 29 years‘ experience in the chemical industry, the last 20 years having been in various senior management positions with the chlor-alkali, vinyls and derivatives businesses of ICI and INEOS, which are now part of INOVYN. Paul has spent the vast majority of his career in operations, including the management of INEOS’s Runcorn Site from 2007 to 2011. He subsequently led the integration of the ex Tessenderlo Chemie assets into INEOS and was the INEOS operations lead in the formation of INOVYN. Paul was appointed Operations Director for INOVYN in July 2016, prior to which he led the Manufacturing Excellence organisation, with responsibility for day-to-day performance management through to major project implementation. Paul has a degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
Follow Paul Daniels:
About INOVYN: INOVYN is a vinyls producer that ranks among the top three worldwide.
Ravi Sanganeria
Director – Europe & Americas of Van Aroma
Follow Ravi Sanganeria:
About Van Aroma: VAN AROMA IS THE LEADING SUPPLIER OF INDONESIAN NATURALS IN THE F&F AND AROMATHERAPY INDUSTRY TODAY!
Jolyon Tidmarsh
Co-Founder and Technology Director of Keit
Jolyon has significant experience in establishing technology based start-up businesses and managing technical projects, with previous successes in the fields of online drinks quality measurement, and bio-fuels. With a degree in Applied Physics, Jolyon has a technical background in designing optical systems in the infra-red with particular applications in spectroscopy, telecommunications and optical fibre sensing.
Follow Jolyon Tidmarsh:
About Keit: Keit’s microFTS® design is a Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer that is smaller, lighter and more rugged than any current system.
Benedicte Thiebaut
Technology Director of Medical Components of Johnson Matthey
Benedicte Thiebaut is the Technology Director of Medical Components at Johnson Matthey.
Follow Benedicte Thiebaut:
About Johnson Matthey: Johnson Matthey is an international speciality chemicals company, founded almost 200 years ago in London.
Shash Patel
Director & Information Risk Management & Privacy of Air Products and Chemicals
In this role he is responsible for overall Information Governance, including Risk assessments and response activities which encompass the evaluation, mitigation and reporting of information and privacy risks facing the Company. This includes leading an enterprise wide Information Risk Management (IRM) program covering Intellectual Asset Protection (IAP), Data Privacy (acting as the Data Privacy Officer) and Enterprise Records Management. He is currently Co-Chair of Spectrum Europe (The European chapter of Air Products’ LGBT+ Employee Resource Group) and is on the Tech Partnership Degrees Employer Board. His volunteering activities are focused on STEM related mentoring, education and awareness with Tech Partnership Degrees and charities such as SATRO and TeenTech. Previous business roles include in the Air Products’ Corporate Risk Office, as Director of Intellectual Asset Protection. Prior to that, he has held various IT leadership roles including Global Director of Business Relationship Management and Director of IT Security, Compliance and Risk Management. Over his career he has lived and worked in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States of America.
Follow Shash Patel:
About Air Products and Chemicals: Air Products supplier of industrial gases and equipment, specialty and intermediate chemicals, and environmental and energy systems.
Peter Jackson
Director of Redag Crop Protection
Dr. Peter Jackson, also known as Pete, is a Co-Founder of Redx Pharma PLC, RedAg Crop Protection Ltd., ADC Biotechnology Ltd., YProTech Ltd and Reaxa Ltd. Dr. Jackson has over twenty five years’ experience in the sector including the commercialisation of innovative technologies and forming, funding, development and exiting of technology startups. He is a serial life sciences entrepreneur based in the North West of England. He served as Vice President of Piramal Healthcare UK Limited (also known as NPIL Pharmaceuticals (UK) Limited and Avecia Pharmaceuticals Limited) since 2002. He held a series of sales and business management roles in the UK, Europe and Japan with ICI and Zeneca. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Reaxa Ltd. He serves as the Non-Executive Chairman at BiVictriX Therapeutics Ltd. He serves as the Chairman of YProTech Ltd. He provides YProTech with valuable strategic guidance and commercial support. He served as the Chairman of the Board at Redx Pharma Plc. He serves as a Director of Blackley Holdings Ltd, ADC Biotechnology Ltd. and Yorkshire Process Technology Ltd. He served as a Non Executive Director of Redx Pharma Plc since September 2014 until March 31, 2017. Dr. Jackson is a Graduate of the Universities of East Anglia, UK and Massachusetts USA, Dr. Jackson gained his PhD at Durham University, UK before joining ICI Fine Chemicals in 1989.
Follow Peter Jackson:
About AMR Centre, Redag Crop Protection: The engine of discovery for the agrochemical industry.
Lucy Croucher
Managing Director of JSC International
Follow Lucy Croucher:
About JSC International: JSC International is an independent consultants providing expert regulatory and environmental risk assessment services to government.
Ian Warwick
Director of Liverpool ChiroChem
Ian Warwick is the Managing Partner at Deepbridge Capital LLP.
Follow Ian Warwick:
About AlgaeCytes, arbnco Limited, Deepbridge Capital, Liverpool ChiroChem: Liverpool ChiroChem manufactures and supplies specialist building blocks for pharmaceutical research and biotechnology.
Jasbir Singh
Managing Director of HEL LTD
Follow Jasbir Singh:
About HEL LTD: HEL Ltd is a provider of automated and manual tools to clients in the pharmaceutical, and chemical industries.
Andrew Hall-Ponselè
Founder and Director of Operations of Biotangents
Andy designed the Leapfrog Assembly™ technology upon which Biotangents was founded and led the successful project to apply it to the biosynthesis of high-value terpenoids. He now leads operations at Biotangents and is part of an ambitious team that has secured and fulfilled multiple contracts to perform DNA manipulation work for industrial and academic customers. Andy has been involved in synthetic biology since 2008 when, as a student under Professor Chris French, he led the University of Edinburgh iGEM team to a gold medal. He holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford, where he used metabolic engineering approaches to provide new insights into the control of metabolism in plants. On his return to Edinburgh, Andy worked as a Senior Scientist in a University of Edinburgh-based start-up, delivering collaborative projects as varied as synthetic promoter design and polysaccharide biosynthesis.
Follow Andrew Hall-Ponselè:
About Biotangents: Biotangents develop pen-side diagnostic devices to detect infectious diseases in livestock quickly.
Lina Gasiūnaitė
Founder and Director of Science of Biotangents
As the Director of Science at Biotangents, Lina is leading delivery of Moduleic Sensing™ for the diagnosis of infectious diseases in livestock. Lina completed her undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at Vilnius University and holds an MSc in Biotechnology from the University of Edinburgh. As part of her dissertation, she incorporated standardisation into a proprietary combinatorial DNA assembly technology, making it compatible with the widely used BioBrick™ standard. Lina also acted as an advisor to the University of Edinburgh’s 2013 gold medal-winning iGEM team. After graduation, Lina continued to work in DNA manipulation and metabolic engineering of bacteria, delivering varied projects with local SMEs and multinational partners.
Follow Lina Gasiūnaitė:
About Biotangents: Biotangents develop pen-side diagnostic devices to detect infectious diseases in livestock quickly.
Erik Smyth
Founder and Director of Insignia Technologies
Follow Erik Smyth:
About Insignia Technologies: Insignia Technologies develops smart pigments and ink-based sensing technologies for the food packaging industry.
Matt Wilson
Managing Director of Intelligent Gels
Matt Wilson is responsible for the development and growth of the company having extensive experience in finding creating and finding new opportunities for existing or innovative products. Also responsible for product development, regulatory compliance, business development and operations during the Company’s start-up phase. Matt Wilson started life at ICI gaining valuable experience operating a wide range of chemical plants before moving into the special project handling team to develop niche products. After gaining a degree in Chemical Engineering, Matt joined Tracerco in 1997, specialising in Oil and Gas diagnostics. Tracerco’s diagnostic techniques were applied to all onshore and offshore processing streams. After spending a number of years in the field, Matt then moved into project management, operations management and subsequently a number of specialist business development roles, latterly focused on subsea pipeline technologies. The roles included the management of 35 engineers, a team of 20 regional managers plus direct links to R&D and sales of £14m.
Follow Matt Wilson:
About Intelligent Gels: Intelligent Gels creates risk free, environmentally sound, pipeline cleaning gels for Oil & Gas and water sectors.
Mike Beale
Managing Director of TeamUltra Ltd.
Follow Mike Beale:
About TeamUltra Ltd.: TeamUltra is the ServiceNow Gold partner.
