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 Cambridgeshire based Director operating in the Education 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.
William H. Janeway
Director of O’Reilly
William H. Janeway is a board member of Magnet Systems, Inc. Currently, Mr. Janeway is a senior advisor at Warburg Pincus. Mr. Janeway received his doctorate in Economics from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He was valedictorian of the class of 1965 at Princeton University. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus in 1988, where he was responsible for building the information technology practice, he was executive vice president and director at Eberstadt Fleming. Mr. Janeway is a director of Fortent Corp., NYFIX Inc., O’Reilly Media, Nuance Communications, and Wall Street Systems, and a member of the board of managers of Roubini Global Economics. He is also chairman of the board of trustees of Cambridge in America, University of Cambridge, co-chair of Cambridge’s 800th Anniversary Capital Campaign, and a founder member of the board of managers of the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance (CERF). Mr. Janeway is a member of the board of directors of the Social Science Research Council.
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About Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance, Cambridge in America, Fortent, Nuance Communications, Roubini Global Economics, LLC, Social Science Research Council, Wall Street Systems: O’Reilly provides technology and business training, knowledge, and insight to help companies succeed.
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.
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.
Marta Piekarska
Director of Ecosystem, Hyperledger of Linux Foundation
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About Cambridge Blockchain Society, Hyperledger, Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation builds sustainable ecosystems around open source projects to accelerate technology development and industry adoption.
Ed Goodman
Director of Cambridge Grind of Startup Grind
Ed Goodman is a business start-up mentor who’s worked with over 10,000 start-ups to successfully build their knowledge of financial management, social media, networking and more. He has also delivered keynote presentations and workshops at large-scale seminars and exhibitions, including the MADE Festival, Business Start-Up Show, and other events at Earls Court, ExCel London and The National Space Centre. Through independent consultancy and mentoring, along with aligned partnerships, he has worked with multinational corporations including Barclays, Google, Sage, Intuit and more. In 2012, Ed co-founded the Cambridge Business Lounge, a co-working space and support hub for start-ups and small businesses. He also regularly blogs on small business topics, including ‘The A–Z Guide to Starting a Business’, as well as being a contributor on the BBC, podcasts as well as other established business blogs. January 2015 sees the release of Ed’s first book “New Business, Next Steps – The All In One Guide to Managing, Marketing and Growing Your Small Business”, published by Pearson.
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About Startup Grind: Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs.
Ed Goodman
Director of Cambridge Grind of Startup Grind
Ed Goodman is a business start-up mentor who’s worked with over 10,000 start-ups to successfully build their knowledge of financial management, social media, networking and more. He has also delivered keynote presentations and workshops at large-scale seminars and exhibitions, including the MADE Festival, Business Start-Up Show, and other events at Earls Court, ExCel London and The National Space Centre. Through independent consultancy and mentoring, along with aligned partnerships, he has worked with multinational corporations including Barclays, Google, Sage, Intuit and more. In 2012, Ed co-founded the Cambridge Business Lounge, a co-working space and support hub for start-ups and small businesses. He also regularly blogs on small business topics, including ‘The A–Z Guide to Starting a Business’, as well as being a contributor on the BBC, podcasts as well as other established business blogs. January 2015 sees the release of Ed’s first book “New Business, Next Steps – The All In One Guide to Managing, Marketing and Growing Your Small Business”, published by Pearson.
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About Startup Grind: Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs.
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.
Gemma Cranston
Director of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
Gemma Cranston works within the Natural Capital Leaders Platform at CISL, which brings together influential companies with a global reach to work on addressing the impacts of natural capital loss and degradation on business, their customers and wider society. She is leading projects focusing upon externality valuation and water risk. Gemma’s valuation work has culminated in a suite of resources, including practical guidance around how to undertake an evaluation of the un-costed environmental impacts from business. This resulted in an online Tool, the first of its kind, that guides users through the evaluation process for environmental externalities. Prior to CISL, Gemma was the Lead Scientist at Global Footprint Network leading projects out of the Geneva office as well as supporting the organisation’s Research and Standards Department by contributing to research on the Ecological Footprint methodology and applications. Gemma has co-authored and shaped a variety of innovative projects, including ‘E.Valu.A.Te’: the Externality Valuation Assessment Tool; the ‘E-RISC’ project on the inclusion of environmental risk in sovereign bond assessment; and ‘Innovation through Collaboration’ on water stewardship. Gemma completed her Ph.D. focusing upon Ecological Footprints in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, UK. She also holds a Masters of Aerospace Engineering from the same institution.
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About Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership: CISL is a globally influential Institute developing leadership and solutions for a sustainable economy.
Gillian Davis
Commercialisation Director of University of Cambridge Enterprise
Gillian joined Cambridge Enterprise in February 2009 to work as part of the Physical Sciences team. She holds a BA in Natural Sciences from Oxford University and a doctorate in laser applications. Having spent 10 years as an R&D engineer, she moved into Hi-Tech business development in 1997, obtaining an MBA with the Open University in 1998. After running the subsidiary of the US company Noise Cancellation Technologies for 10 years, she took up the post of Commercial Director at Dolomite Microfluidics in 2007.
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About University of Cambridge Enterprise: Cambridge Enterprise helps the University of Cambridge’s researchers & academics to commercialise their ideas for the benefit of society.
Paul Seabright
Deputy Director of University of Cambridge Enterprise
Paul joined Cambridge Enterprise in April 2009 to take up the post as head of consultancy services and is responsible for both IT and business support. In 2010 he was a board member and director of Cambridge University Technical Services Limited (CUTS), a consultancy company wholly owned by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd. He has considerable experience of technology transfer in both the biotech and medtech sectors, a degree in biochemistry and a PhD in chemistry from Manchester. Paul was previously head of business development at Health Enterprise East where he was instrumental in building a successful technology transfer and consultancy organisation for the NHS in this region. Before this he was a technology manager at Cambridge Enterprise for more than 3 years and led its life science team. Paul also spent 5 years as a senior scientist with a Cambridge biotech company developing the its medtech business and has been a postdoctoral researcher with the MRC and the University of Cambridge.
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About University of Cambridge Enterprise: Cambridge Enterprise helps the University of Cambridge’s researchers & academics to commercialise their ideas for the benefit of society.
Daniel Watts
Founder & Managing Director of Aluminati Network Group
Daniel leads the Aluminati team and has overall responsibility for defining the company’s technical and business strategies and with his deep sector knowledge he leads product innovation. Daniel founded the company in 2002 when he graduated from Oxford with an honours degree in Computation. An expert in online engagement, Daniel is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences and is in regular attendance at multiple CASE events per year. In his spare time Daniel enjoys the physical and mental challenges of basketball and has also coached the Darwin College ladies team to Cambridge championship titles for 4 consecutive years.
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About Aluminati Network Group: Aluminati Network Group provide online services and platforms to unite alumni, student and member networks.
