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 Cambridge based Director operating in the Universities 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.
Brian Subirana
Director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Prof. Brian Subirana is Director of the MIT Auto-ID lab (where the term Internet of Things was coined) and Visiting Scientist in MIT’s Office of Digital Learning. He has also taught at programs in several Business Schools (Harvard, Stanford, IESE and INSEAD). Before becoming academic, he worked at BCG. He obtained his PhD in AI at MIT CSAIL, an MBA from MIT Sloan and his research is focused in three areas: digital learning, SCM, and IoT/AI.
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT is a research university that conducts research and offers educational courses in science, technology, and engineering.
Sanjay Sarma
Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Director of Digital Learning of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sanjay Sarma is the Fred Fort Flowers (1941) and Daniel Fort Flowers (1941) Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He is the first Director of Digital Learning at MIT. He co-founded the Auto-ID Center at MIT and developed many of the key technologies behind the EPC suite of RFID standards now used worldwide. He was also the the founder and CTO of OATSystems, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems (NYSE: CKP) in 2008. He serves on the boards of GS1, EPCglobal and several startup companies including Senaya and ESSESS. He received his Bachelors from the Indian Institute of Technology, his Masters from Carnegie Mellon University and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Sarma also worked at Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Aberdeen, UK, and at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in Berkeley, California. He has authored over 75 academic papers in computational geometry, sensing, RFID, automation and CAD, and is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and research including the MacVicar Fellowship, the Business Week eBiz Award and Informationweek’s Innovators and Influencers Award. He advises several national governments and global companies.
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Top Flight Technologies: MIT is a research university that conducts research and offers educational courses in science, technology, and engineering.
Josue Velázquez-Martínez
Executive Director, Supply Chain Management of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT is a research university that conducts research and offers educational courses in science, technology, and engineering.
Jeff Freilich
Associate Director, CSAIL Alliances of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT is a research university that conducts research and offers educational courses in science, technology, and engineering.
Jeff Freilich
Associate Director, CSAIL Alliances of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT is a research university that conducts research and offers educational courses in science, technology, and engineering.
Erik Brynjolfsson
Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor; Director, Digital Economy Lab of Stanford University
Erik Brynjolfsson serves as the schussel family professor at the [MIT Sloan School](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-sloan-school-of-management). He co-founded FlexPlay Technologies, a tech company that develops and supplies limited-life DVDs. Brynjolfsson has been an independent director at the Computer Sciences Corporation since December 2010. He also served as a co-director at BaseSix; a director at CSK Corporation from 2006 to 2008; the director of the MIT Center for Digital Business; and the chairman of the MIT Sloan Management Review. He lectures worldwide on technology strategy, productivity, and intangible assets. Brynjolfsson is the co-author of Wired for Innovation: How IT is Reshaping the Economy. He is on the academic advisory board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and he is also co-principal investigator on several grants by the National Science Foundation to study information technology, organizational transformation, and productivity. He has taught at Harvard and Stanford Universities. Brynjolfsson holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied mathematics and decision sciences from Harvard University and a PhD in managerial economics from MIT.
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About National Bureau of Economic Research, Race Against the Machine, Self-Employed, Stanford University: Stanford University is a teaching and research university that focuses on graduate programs in law, medicine, education, and business.
Ryan Frazier
Managing Director Technology at Harvard Business School Online of Harvard Business School
Managing Director Technology at Harvard Business School Online.
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About Diaper Lab, Harvard Business School: Harvard Business School is an educational institution that offers two-year residential programs leading to an MBA, PhD, and DBA degree.
Stephen Hawking
Director of Research at Center for Theoretical Cosmology of University of Cambridge
Stephen William Hawking is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. He is the director of research at the Department for Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics within the [University of Cambridge](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/university-of-cambridge). Hawking attended St. Albans School when he was eleven. He obtained a first class honors degree in natural science from the Oxford University and a Ph.D. in cosmology from the University of Cambridge. After gaining his Ph.D. Hawking became first a research fellow and later on a professorial fellow at Gonville and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973, he came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in 1979, and held the post of Lucasian professor of mathematics from 1979 until 2009. Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein’s General theory of relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. His publications include The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W Israel. Among the popular books Hawking has published are his best seller A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Grand Design, and My Brief History. Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees. He was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes; is a fellow of The Royal Society; and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Hawking suffers from ALS, a form of motor neuron disease. Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England.
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About University of Cambridge: The University of Cambridge is a public research university based in England.
Robert Wardrop
Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance of University of Cambridge
Robert is an economic sociologist and the Executive Director of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, a research group at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Research Fellow and teaches two MBA courses at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Prior to joining Cambridge, Robert had a 30-year career as a financial investor, most recently as a Managing Director of the Anschutz Investment Company. Robert holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MSc in Social & Cognitive Anthropology from the London School of Economics, and is currently completing his PhD in Economic Sociology at Cambridge.
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About ABS Global, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge: The University of Cambridge is a public research university based in England.
Derek Fray
Director of Research & Emeritus Professor of Materials Chemistry of University of Cambridge
Derek Fray is the Director of Research and Emeritus Professor of Materials Chemistry of University of Cambridge.
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About Camfridge, University of Cambridge: The University of Cambridge is a public research university based in England.
Nick Saville
Director, Thought Leadership of University of Cambridge
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About University of Cambridge: The University of Cambridge is a public research university based in England.
Stephen Cave
Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence of University of Cambridge
Dr Stephen Cave is Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Senior Research Associate in the Faculty of Philosophy, and Fellow of Hughes Hall, all at the University of Cambridge. Stephen earned a PhD in philosophy from Cambridge, then joined the British Foreign Office, where he served as a policy advisor and diplomat. He has subsequently written and spoken on a wide range of philosophical and scientific subjects, including in the New York Times, The Atlantic, and on television and radio around the world. His research interests currently focus on the nature, portrayal and governance of AI.
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About University of Cambridge: The University of Cambridge is a public research university based in England.
Stephen Cave
Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence of University of Cambridge
Dr Stephen Cave is Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Senior Research Associate in the Faculty of Philosophy, and Fellow of Hughes Hall, all at the University of Cambridge. Stephen earned a PhD in philosophy from Cambridge, then joined the British Foreign Office, where he served as a policy advisor and diplomat. He has subsequently written and spoken on a wide range of philosophical and scientific subjects, including in the New York Times, The Atlantic, and on television and radio around the world. His research interests currently focus on the nature, portrayal and governance of AI.
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About University of Cambridge: The University of Cambridge is a public research university based in England.
Urs Gasser
Executive Director of Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society of Harvard University
Urs Gasser is the Executive Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School. His research and teaching activities focus on information law, policy, and society issues and the changing role of academia in the digitally networked age. At Berkman Klein and in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, he co-leads the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Initiative, with a particular interest in global governance issues and the broader implications of next-generation technologies, including questions of human autonomy and inclusion. As a long-term research interest, he studies the patterns of interaction between law and innovation, and innovation with the legal system in the digital age.
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About Harvard Law School, Harvard University, Keio University: Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders who make a difference globally.
Sucheta Nadkarni
Director of Cambridge Judge Business School
Professor Sucheta Nadkarni is Director of the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre, Sinyi Professory of Chinese Management and Head of Strategy & International Business Subject Group at Cambridge Judge Business School. Sucheta’s primary research interests include strategic leadership with a special focus on female rise to corporate boards and executive leadership positions. She has published extensively in leading academic journals in management. She is an associate editor of Academy of Management Journal and Journal of Management. She also sits on the editorial of four other leading academic journals. She has worked on research projects and grants with companies such as Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, Newton Asset Management, BNY Mellon and 30% club. Her research on female rise to boardrooms has been featured in global media outlets including New York Times, Forbes, CNBC, Huffington Post, Reuters, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Scotsman, Economic Times, Times of India, Herald Tribune, Borsen, O Globo, The Times (Kuwait), Business Standard and Folha De Sao Paulo.
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About Cambridge Judge Business School: Cambridge Judge Business School is a business school of University of Cambridge located in the United Kingdom.
Sue Imhoff
Director of Marketing Communication of JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments)
Sue brings over 25 years of experience delivering award-winning products to market in roles from product development, product management and product marketing to marketing communications and sales. Sue holds a BSEE, Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Washington.
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About JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments): Peer-reviewed scientific journal
