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 Edinburgh based CEO’ operating in the Information Technology 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.
Duncan Johnston-Watt
CEO & Co-Founder of BTP
Duncan Johnston-Watt co-founded Cloudsoft Corporation Limited in 2008 and serves as its the Chief Executive Officer. Duncan Johnston-Watt co-founded Enigmatec Corporation Ltd. in 2002 and served as its Principal since 2000. He served as the Chief Technology Officer of Enigmatec Corporation Ltd. until December 2008. He is a serial entrepreneur and industry visionary with over twenty years experience in the software industry. He also has experience developing technology for the financial services industry specialising in the development of large-scale systems including the global FX and Money Markets data delivery infrastructure for BNP and the Fixed Income analytics infrastructure at UBS. In April 1998, Duncan Johnston-Watt joined the Reuters Group subsidiary, Instinet Corporation where he led the development of new Fixed Income brokerage platform that was launched in March 2000 and served as Managing Director, Fixed Income Technology since May 2000. At Instinet, he pioneered the use of Java enterprise technologies in Financial Services. He serves as a Director of Cloudsoft Corporation Limited. Duncan Johnston-Watt has been a Non Executive Director of Enigmatec Corporation Ltd., since December 2008 and previously served as its Director until December 2008. In recognition of the work, he was nominated for a Computerworld Smithsonian Award in April 2000. Duncan Johnston-Watt holds MSc in Computation from Oxford University and a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy from Leeds University.
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About BTP: Blockchain Technology Partners is an enterprise blockchain company.
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Alistair Banham
CEO of pureLiFi
Alistair Banham is a global semiconductor industry veteran, with more than 30 years’ experience leading international business units. Prior to taking up the role as CEO at pureLiFi Alistair was Senior Vice President & GM of Customer Solutions Business Unit at Wolfson Microelectronics. At Wolfson Alistair was responsible for chip development, mobile systems strategy and driving strong engagement with tier 1 global accounts Previously he held roles as SVP & General Manager EMEA (Europe Middle East & Africa) at Philips Semiconductors. Alistair was a founding member and President & GM EMEA of ON Semiconductor and played a leading role in the spin out from Motorola semiconductor and subsequent IPO. During his time in the semiconductor industries, Alistair has been based out of key technology hubs from silicon valley (California) through to ASIA. Alistair brings an element of skill to pureLiFi that will lead innovation and release new products to drive increased adoption with their global customers and key growth markets.
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About pureLiFi: pureLiFi develops technology for communication networks that integrates data and lighting utility infrastructures.
John Peebles
CEO of Administrate
Extensive experience designing and implementing complex products and processes across a variety of industries. He is experienced in all aspects of the software and product development lifecycle, growing startups, developing business plans and delivering against those plans.
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About Administrate, Turing Fest: The enterprise training management platform for business results.
Evangelos Pappas
CEO of Ocyan
CEO/Founder of Ocyan. Tech & Blockchain Advisor. More than 10 years of experience in Startups. Strong Technical Background in Software & Platforms Engineering.
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About Ocyan: Financial marketplace for European Expats
Scott McGlinchey
CEO of Exception
Responsible for our customers, finance, business operations and the overall development of the business, Scott has a background spanning Executive and Board level roles in ICL, Fujitsu Services and Newell & Budge. Scott is also a Director of Young Scot as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society for encouragement of Arts and of the IoD. He is a founding member of Generation Science and has previously been a member of the Digital Scotland Task Force, a Director of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, a Director of ScotlandIS and a member of the Council of CBI Scotland.
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About Exception, The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA): Exception is an IT Consultancy and Services company that collaborates with many of the UK’s largest companies and Government organisations.
Andrew Richards
CEO of Codeplay Software
Andrew Richards is founder and CEO of Codeplay Software Ltd, a highly successful business that has evolved since 2002 creating compilers and other software development tools for gaming and mobile phone products. Much of this experience is now being applied to enable heterogeneous processing products for machine learning and vision processing. Andrew also brings strong leadership in open standards definitions, specifically chair of the Khronos SYCL for OpenCL group and chair of Software Working Group for the HSA Foundation. Andrew graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Computer Science and Physics.
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About Codeplay Software, The Melting Pot Edinburgh: Enabling AI to be Open, Safe and Accessible to All
Stuart Fraser
CEO of Wallet.Services
Stuart’s role spans technology vision, product architecture, finance, and overall leadership. Stuart successfully founded and built the first Scottish domestic cyber security and cryptography company DNS before its ultimate sale to Dell Corp. He has a wide appreciation of the application of technology and the risk and issues of information security and continues his involvement with the cyber community. Stuart completed his MSc in High Performance Computing at EPCC and was founding CTO at online Identity provider MiiCard, specialising in advance Internet Identity technologies. Over the last few years Stuart has brought his skills to bear on the emerging blockchain technologies which culminated in the creation of Wallet.Services.
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About Wallet.Services: Connecting and protecting business and society.
Leah Hutcheon
Founder & CEO of Appointedd
Leah Hutcheon is the founder and CEO of Appointedd, an Edinburgh-based startup revolutionising the way small businesses sell their timeslot appointments online. From personal trainers to massage therapists, serviced offices to large corporations, Appointedd enables online booking on any device in any timezone. Appointedd offers businesses access to CRM, marketing and business management tools, and fits seamlessly with 25+ two-way integrations. Appointedd has launched the world’s first truly multi-timezone online booking system, enabling people to take bookings across different timezones seamlessly. Leah is a proud Ambassador for Women’s Enterprise Scotland, Director of Future Leaders for Entrepreneurial Scotland and #ScotEDGE Award winner. An Entrepreneurial Spark supported company, Appointedd was featured in BBC documentary, The Entrepreneurs. – See more at: https://leah.appointedd.com/#sthash.9u1vWztJ.dpuf
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About Appointedd: Appointedd is a cutting-edge online booking and scheduling solution that makes it easier for you to connect with your customers.
Christopher Leburn
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chromacity
Dr. Christopher Leburn leads the growth of Chromacity. He is a former Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellow and holds a Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews in ultrafast solid-state lasers. He has previously held research and technical management roles at both Heriot-Watt University and the University of St Andrews, where he was Assistant Director of a £12M EPSRC ultrafast photonics consortium. Christopher submitted his business idea towards the 2012 Converge Challenge, a business competition designed to tease technology out of the research base and into the commercial sector. Having secured 3rd place in this competition, Christopher, along with his co-founders, incorporated Chromacity in early 2013. As the company formed Christopher undertook a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship to enhance his commercial capabilities. Christopher developed a range of skills that has allowed him to successfully secure investment and build a team that can design, manufacture and deliver highly reliable, compact, cost effective ultrafast laser sources for a range of different customers.
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About Chromacity, Chromacity: Chromacity Lasers is a spin-out from Heriot-Watt University, one of the UK’s leading technical universities with a focus on photonics.
Gerry O’Neill
Founder & CEO of Curo Compensation
Gerry O’Neill joined CURO as Co-founder and CEO in 2011.
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About Cognitive Geology, Curo Compensation, Vebnet Holdings: Curo4Comp is a secure SaaS solution that enables you to get maximum impact from your compensation spend.
Matt Little
Founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Insight
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About Blue Ocean Insight, Inquisitive Systems: Blue Ocean Insight helps companies scale up together with a full understanding of their product, team, and technology risks.
Grant MacCusker
CEO of Letting Cloud
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About Letting Cloud: SaaS based proptech platform enabling landlords, agents and tenants to rent property in a modern way.
Stuart Lunn
Founder & CEO of LendingCrowd
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About LendingCrowd: LendingCrowd is a fintech lending platform serving mainland UK.
Julie Grieve
Founder & CEO of Information Apps Ltd
Julie Grieve joined Criton as Founder & CEO in 2015.
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About Information Apps Ltd: Guest engagement platform, helping independent hotels compete with the chains
Jacqui McLaughlin
CEO of Reactec
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About Reactec: Reactec is the market leader in monitoring and management support solutions for hand and arm vibration syndrome
Doug More
CEO of Assure APM
An experienced and successful IT professional, Doug has built and exited two highly regarded IT services business in his entrepreneurial career spanning over the last 15 years.
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About Assure APM: Assure APM provides simple, quickly deployed, cost effective set of ICT security solutions.
