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 Creative Agency 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.
Andrew Peake
CEO VCCP London of VCCP Group
Andrew Peake joined VCCP from WFCA in June 2009 as Head of Retail, working predominantly on the O2 account. At WFCA Andrew was Client Services Director gaining extensive retail experience working with Budgens for six years as well as Londis, Bathstore, Carpetright, The Perfume Shop and Multiyork. He has worked on through-the-line campaigns with all these clients, including national and regional above-the-line communications, direct marketing, instore customer journey and tactical POS.
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About VCCP Group, VCCP Group: VCCP Group provides directory for top marketers, agencies, media companies.
Sophie Maunder
CEO, VCCPme of VCCP Group
Sophie started life on the WPP Fellowship sampling the best of PR, advertising and research amongst the WPP family in the UK and abroad. She stayed in Sydney and started her trade as a Strategic Planner before returning to the Motherland and finding her true home at VCCP. As lead planner on O2 for many years, her proudest moments were winning the IPA Effectiveness Award Grand Prix in 2004, the IPA Effectiviness Gold in 2006 and launching Be More Dog in 2013. She became the youngest female partner in 2006, head of planning in 2007, Group Strategy Officer in 2011. She was one of Management Today’s top 35 under 35 in 2009, was listed in the part time power list in 2014, and has served on the IPA Value of Creativity board. Sophie is an active member of WACL and sits on the Executive committee for the Future Leaders Award. Sophie became CEO OF VCCPme in 2014 where she brings her passion for the very best in strategic thinking, and her passion for creative ideas to the fore in data and direct communications.
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About VCCP Group: VCCP Group provides directory for top marketers, agencies, media companies.
Cliff Hall
Founder & CEO of VCCP Group
Cliff began his career in film before joining the Guardian Newspaper Group working in advertising and on editorial features. He then joined the Saatchi Group to handle Marks & Spencer and Ford. After that he joined Clark & Taylor, heading up part of the agency’s integrated offer looking after Sainsbury’s and Whitbread retail and their beer company. He was later appointed as MD of Loewy Integrated working on M&S Simply Food, Ray-Ban and the BAA business before joining the VCCP Partnership where he founded VCCP Blue. Cliff is responsible for comparethemarket.com and the award-winning meerkat campaign, Coors Light, Muller and ASDA.
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About VCCP Group: VCCP Group provides directory for top marketers, agencies, media companies.
Michael Sugden
CEO, VCCP Partnership of VCCP Group
Michael joined VCCP on its first day of business in 2002, becoming Managing Director in 2006 and CEO in 2012. In recent years VCCP has built itself a reputation for business transformation as evidenced by the likes of O2, comparethemarket.com and easyJet. VCCP has been Marketing or Marketing Week’s Agency of the Year for three out of the last four years and has also topped the new business league for the past three years. Michael started his career at Claydon Heeley before moving to HHCL. During his career he’s been privileged to work on brands such as O2, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Telefonica and British Gas amongst others. The proudest part of his career is being part of the team that has built VCCP to a 500 strong agency in 13 short years.
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About VCCP Group: VCCP Group provides directory for top marketers, agencies, media companies.
Denzyl Feigelson
Co-Founder & CEO of Platoon
Denzyl is the co-founder and CEO of Platoon, a platform for exceptional, independent artists. Denzyl has been a special advisor to Apple Inc and iTunes since being recruited by Steve Jobs in 2001. He has had a hand in landmark developments such as iTunes Global, Apple Music, the launch of iTunes in over 17 countries and the establishment and curation of the hugely successful Apple Music festival. Previously, Denzyl was the founder and CEO of Artists Without a Label (AWAL), a pure-play digital music label representing over 20,000 artists and Buzzdeck. An accomplished musician and trained music therapist, Denzyl was originally helped manage Paul Simon’s album “Graceland” and produced the first grand-scale multi-racial “Concert in the Park” in New York City in 1982.
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About Platoon: Platoon discovers emerging talent and provide them with the platform to create, distribute, and commercialise exceptional creative work.
Jeremy Jauncey
Founder, Chief Executive Officer of Beautiful Destinations
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About Beautiful Destinations: Beautiful Destinations is a media company that shares authentic, inspirational, and immersive travel stories.
Martin Adams
Co-Founder & CEO of Codec
Martin is an international keynote speaker on innovation, artificial intelligence and disruptive technologies, and the Founder and CEO of Codec.ai. Codec.ai has raised millions & uses artificial intelligence to identify new target audiences and understand what content and products they want to consume, all before brands have to guess. Codec won ‘the Best Artificial Intelligence Product in Marketing’ award at CognitionX and has been named one of the ‘Hottest AI Businesses in Europe’ by TechCrunch. Martin has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs by Maserati and as an innovation advisor he has worked with some of the most high-profile individuals and organisations in the world on how to use technology to be more innovative and connect more deeply with real people- including companies like Pfizer and Red Bull and governmental organisations like the Royal Marines. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and the Co-Founder of the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council.
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About Ambient Tone, Codec, CognitionX, Digital Leadership Council, London Speaker Bureau, University College London (UCL): We help brands to discover and tap in to the pockets of culture that drive growth. Powered by award-winning AI.
Ivy Cavendish
CEO & Co-Founder of The Science Writing Revolution
Ivy Cavendish is the CEO and co-founder of The Science Writing Revolution.
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About The Science Writing Revolution: The Science Writing Revolution is an academic-led initiative to revolutionize scientific writing.
Charles Thiede
CEO and Co-Founder of Zapnito
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About Zapnito: Zapnito is the SaaS online community platform for intelligence-driven organizations.
Darren Isaac
CEO of TFA
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About TFA, Travark: DesignKarma is a Creative agency providing services in Brand, Strategy, Marketing, Creative, Advertising, Web, Digital, and Video.
Russell Clayton
CEO of Rosie Lee
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About Rosie Lee: Rosie Lee are a hybrid creative agency.
Chris Skitch
Founder & CEO of Didgeroo
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About Didgeroo: DIDGEROO HELPS CREATIVE AGENCIES BUILD INNOVATIVE WEBSITES.
Mario Vassiliades
Chief Executive Officer of Series Eight
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About Series Eight: Award-winning digital product studio specialising in branding, UX, UI and front-end development.
