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 CEO’ operating in the Education 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.
Brendan Webb
Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Education Group
Follow Brendan Webb:
About Cambridge Education Group: Cambridge Education Group provides academic, creative, and English language programs in Europe and the United States.
_______
David Shrier
Co-Founder & CEO of Esme Learning Solutions
David is a globally recognized thought leader in technology and educational innovation, serial entrepreneur, and author. The portfolio of digital classes he created for MIT and University of Oxford have engaged more than 15,000 innovators in over 140 countries, and revolutionized the model for university short-course offerings. He is a Professor of Practice (AI and Innovation) with Imperial College Business School, and holds a secondary appointment as Associate Fellow with SaÏd Business School, University of Oxford. David has published five books in the past five years focused on technology disruption, the three most recent of which with MIT Press or Little Brown. His latest book, Augmenting Your Career: How to Win at Work in the Age of AI will be published by Little Brown in spring 2021.
Follow David Shrier:
About Adit EdTech, Colorado School of Mines, Copper, Esme Learning Solutions, FINRA, Imperial College Business School, MIT Press, Riff Analytics, University of Oxford, Visionary Future: Esme Learning is transforming the world’s workforce for the Fourth Industrial Revolution using AI.
Bicheng Han
CEO of BrainCo
Bicheng Han is the founder and CEO of Brainco. He founded the company in 2014. A year after, Han founded BrainRobotics. Han earned his PhD from Harvard University, Center of Brain Science. He is a brain science, medical device expert.
Follow Bicheng Han:
About BrainCo, BrainRobotics, Harvard University: BrainCo strives to apply brain machine interface (BMI) and neurofeedback training to optimize the potential of the human brain.
Sriram Emani
Co-Founder and CEO of IndianRaga
Sriram Emani completed his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, where he was Overall Coordinator of Mood Indigo – India’s leading student festival. After graduating from IIT Bombay, Sriram worked in strategy management consulting in India and USA, and then launched the Marketing and Business Development team at India’s premier performing arts centre, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai. Sriram is currently a final year MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management, and the Co-President of the MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media and Sports (EMS) Club. This summer, Sriram worked as a Strategy Fellow with President Reynold Levy at Lincoln Center, working on media and digital strategy, and new revenue generation opportunities. He also launched the MIT AITI initiative in India to develop mobile technology and entrepreneurship skills in undergraduate students. Sriram is a Siebel Scholar, Class of 2013.
Follow Sriram Emani:
About IndianRaga: IndianRaga is an initiative to promote talented Indian musicians to help them build sustainable careers using technology.
Ned Sahin
Co-Founder & CEO of Brain Power
Follow Ned Sahin:
About Brain Power, Harvard University, Startup Leadership Program: Brain Power builds software and hardware to transform Google Glass™ into an assistive device for people with autism.
Aaron Ralby
CEO and founder of Linguisticator
I am a scholar and linguistic passionate about learning languages and helping others do the same. I hold a PhD in Medieval Studies from Cornell University, an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from Cambridge, and a BA in Modern Language sand English from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. I know 20+ languages to varying degrees of fluency and founded my startup Linguisticator in 2013 in order to share my love of languages with others. The inspiration behind my startup lies with the memory techniques used by medieval monks to recall reams of scripture. Learners who use Linguisticator’s courses are taught how to build a memory palace in which to store the entire grammar of the language they are learning. In 2013, the UK’s Ministry of Defence gave us a grant to develop a scalable English language course for use in North Africa. This was trialled successfully in Tripoli, Libya, and actually performed better than traditional classroom-based instruction. Our English course is currently available free of charge to Arabic-speaking refugees who want to learn English. We have since created courses for Arabic (MSA), French, German, Italian and Spanish. We are working on courses for Farsi, Portuguese and Russian at the moment.
Follow Aaron Ralby:
About Linguisticator, Macunx VR: Linguisticator designs rigorous and intensive online language courses for adult and young adult learners.
Zack Perkins
Co-Founder & CEO of CollegeVine
Follow Zack Perkins:
About CollegeVine: CollegeVine brings data-driven college guidance to families.
Nicolaas Matthijs
CEO, Founder of Fronteer LTD
Follow Nicolaas Matthijs:
About Fronteer LTD: Creating awesome Educational Technology experiences
Nicolaas Matthijs
CEO, Founder of Fronteer LTD
Follow Nicolaas Matthijs:
About Fronteer LTD: Creating awesome Educational Technology experiences
Robert Coughlin
President and CEO of MassBioEd
Robert Coughlin is President and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council He is very familiar with all areas of the Massachusetts life sciences super cluster and is a passionate advocate for research and the biotechnology community. Coughlin has spent his career in both the public and private sectors, most recently serving as Undersecretary of Economic Development within Governor Deval Patrick’s administration. Prior to that, he was elected as State Representative to the 11th Norfolk district for three terms. In the legislature both healthcare and economic development were his priorities. In the world of business he specialized in the environmental services industry and moved on to capital management and venture capital. He has held senior executive positions in both fields He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he majored in Marine Engineering, and is a Lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve. Coughlin has also been active in the community, having served on the boards of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. He has served as the honorary chairman of the Great Strides Cystic Fibrosis Walk since 1996. In years past, he co-chaired the Children’s Hospital Boston signature event, Champions for Children’s.
Follow Robert Coughlin:
About MassBioEd: MassBioEd is a non-profit organization committed to supporting science, technology, engineering, and math education.
Meghan M. Biro
Co-Founder & CEO of TalentCulture LLC
Meghan M. Biro is a globally-recognized leader, talent management and career strategist, and social community catalyst. As founder and CEO of TalentCulture Consulting Group, she has worked with hundreds of companies, from early-stage ventures to global brands like Microsoft, IBM and Google, helping them recruit and empower stellar talent. Meghan believes that, for companies to succeed in the 21st century world of work, they must build dynamic cultures that are hardwired to social media. This creates ongoing real-time communities, not only within an organization, but also with its partners and customers, both current and potential. As an ever-evolving, cross-pollinating, idea-sparking culture takes hold – leadership, unity, morale, flexibility and performance improve. Meghan began her recruiting career while working on a research team at Yale University and then moved into software technology business markets. She is a leader with a passion for sharing ideas – and creating thriving communities that serve both organizations and people. As a humanist, for Meghan it all comes down to people – social media is at heart a human tool. It connects us and takes collaboration to a whole new level. Meghan lives what she preaches about social communities. With vision and passion for the human dynamics that drive business success, she founded TalentCulture, and has grown the community and its flagship #TChat Twitter presence to unparalled popularity. She also co-hosts a weekly #TChat Radio program with TalentCulture co-founder, Kevin W. Grossman, and serves as an advisor to other Twitter interest groups, such as #HRTechChat. Along the way, Meghan’s living metaphors for today’s networked organizations have become standards for best practices in social community engagement and development. She writes about these strategies and principles as a regular contributor at Forbes.com. Her ideas have also been featured in other innovative blogging communities such as CBS MoneyWatch, Dice, SHRM, Monster, Mashable and Glassdoor. While Meghan has her finger on the world’s digital pulse, she also embraces traditional media. She has been a guest on numerous radio and television shows, has been a featured speaker at global leadership conferences and forums.
Follow Meghan M. Biro:
About TalentCulture LLC: TalentCulture is a media outlet and marketing and communications consultancy dedicated to elevating the World of Work.
Robert Abbanat
CEO of GloCoach
EdTech serial entrepreneur/ Designed global cloud-based Learning Management System / “Entrepreneur of the Year” from U.S. Small Business Administration
Follow Robert Abbanat:
About GloCoach: Customized, remote 1-on-1 coaching with most effective coaches via scalable online platform
Yscaira Jimenez
Founder & CEO of Plexx
Yscaira Jimenez, a Dominican immigrant, grew up attending public schools in the Bronx, taught English to students in a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, and has spent most of her professional career working for high-impact tutoring. She founded and ran La Pregunta Arts Cafe, an arts cafe in Harlem, for five years. Yscaira also worked for three New York education startups (Rocket Learning, Learn-It Systems, Platform Learning) in business development, operation, and corporate trainer roles bringing tutoring to more than 10,000 low-income students across the United States. In addition to English, she speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. As a Legatum Fellow, Yscaira is CEO of and has spent the last year working on Plexx, a mobile app that’s reinventing the job search, training, and application process for young people without college degrees. Her focus is on the United States and Brazil. She has partnered with local municipalities, foundations, workforce development agencies, and employers and will be running two pilots this summer in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil and the Bronx, New York. Yscaira received her MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. She also holds a 2003 BA in English and Latin American Studies from Columbia University.
Follow Yscaira Jimenez:
About LaborX, Plexx: Plexx is a mobile application where people can train skills to get a job.
Ashish Fernando
Founder and CEO of iSchoolConnect
Ashish Fernando is the Founder and CEO at iSchoolConnect.
Follow Ashish Fernando:
About iSchoolConnect: Artificial Intelligence, international student admission, international universities and colleges.
Kin Lo
Founder & CEO of Kaymbu
Founder at Kaymbu
Follow Kin Lo:
About Kaymbu: Kaymbu empowers early childhood educators to make learning visible and strengthen school communities.
Raoul-Gabriel Urma
CEO and Founder of Cambridge Spark
Raoul-Gabriel Urma is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge. His research centers on programming languages and software engineering. He is an author of the upcoming book Java 8 in Action: Lambdas, Streams, and functional-style programming published by Manning. In addition, Raoul has written over 10 peer-reviewed articles and given over 20 technical talks at international conferences. He has worked for large companies such as Google, eBay, Oracle, and Goldman Sachs, as well as for several startup projects.
Follow Raoul-Gabriel Urma:
About Cambridge Coding Academy, Cambridge Spark: Cambridge Spark is a leader in personalised Data Science training.
Flóra Raffai
Chief Executive Officer of The Cambridge Access Validating Agency
Flóra Raffai is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cambridge Access Validating Agency (CAVA), a membership organisation committed to helping adults achieve their aspirations through education. More than 4,000 students undertake a CAVA Access to HE Diploma every year, across CAVA’s 30+ further education college members.
Flóra is the Chair of Trustees at the Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service (CCVS) and she is the Founder and small organisation coach at Rapport Coaching. Flóra has spent her career working with charities and non-profits, with 7 years as Chief Executive. She holds a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and an MSt in Social Innovation from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. She recently published her first book ‘Chief Everything Officer: a field guide for small organisation leaders’.
Follow Flóra Raffai:
About The Cambridge Access Validating Agency: The Cambridge Access Validating Agency creates, validates, certifies, and awards access to Higher Education degrees.
Nancy Traversy
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Barefoot Books
Ever since we took our first steps back in 1993, living Barefoot for me has been about stories — the stories we make, the stories we share, the stories that are in all of us and the stories that connect us. My own story began in Canada where I spent my childhood on the move from army base to army base, living in obscurely named places like Chilliwack and Petawawa. So it was pretty easy for me when I was in my early twenties to pick up and move across the world from Toronto to London when I transferred with my first job at Price Waterhouse. The day in 1985 when I was asked by a male partner in the company to go home and change because I was wearing trousers which “women didn’t wear” was the day I knew my story needed to change. I have always loved numbers and, coming from a family who like to design, paint and create, this made me a bit of a black sheep. So it was a surprise when, in my mid-twenties, I discovered my own passion for colour and design and decided to leave the big corporate world of finance to work in a small design house in Covent Garden in London. I stayed in the design industry for many years, where I learned the ropes of running a creative, entrepreneurial company and was lucky to be able to do business in amazing places like Japan, Korea and Taiwan. I think my willingness to take risks, passion for travel, and real appreciation for stories were born in those early years. When I met Tessa in 1992, my eldest daughter was three weeks old, and I had just started my own company advising small creative start-ups. As a new mum, I was captivated by the idea of starting Barefoot and creating amazing books for children that celebrate diversity and imagination. I didn’t really know much about the publishing industry back then and, in hindsight, that was probably lucky as Barefoot has always strived to be more of a pioneer than a follower. I had three more children over the next few years, and my kids have all grown up Barefoot, actively involved in testing stories, picking artists and generally helping out in our little business. In 1998 we jumped off our first big cliff and decided to set up shop in NYC. And in 2001, my family moved to America, and we made our home in Concord, MA where we now live happily with our ever-expanding menagerie of animals and lots of colour. As we navigate our way through the ever-changing publishing landscape, we have certainly had many twists and turns on our Barefoot journey. I am proud to still be standing to tell the Barefoot story, to continue to create outstanding stories for children and to be part of a global, grassroots community of storytellers.
Follow Nancy Traversy:
About Barefoot Books: Barefoot Books is an award-winning independent publisher of books, gifts and digital content for children, with a focus on multicultural
Mark Dawe
Chief Executive Officer of The Skills Network
Follow Mark Dawe:
About The Skills Network: The Skills Network develop and deliver innovative technology-enabled training and skills solutions to individuals and organisations.
