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 Leeds 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.
Frank Hester OBE
Founder & CEO of The Phoenix Partnership
Frank has always been at the forefront of IT innovation. In his early career he was instrumental in building technological infrastructure in the finance industry. Frank founded TPP in 1997 and pioneered integrated care – delivering his vision of connected care across all health settings. Today, TPP provides leading software that is transforming healthcare worldwide. Frank is active in all aspects of the company’s business operations, working alongside the teams in the development of TPP’s products and representing the company in the public domain. Frank’s innovative vision is nationally recognised by the NHS, leading journals and healthcare organisations. In 2012, he was elected to the board of TechUK as a spokesperson for the healthcare IT sector. The following year, he was listed as one of the UK’s top 50 innovators in the national health publication, HSJ. In 2015, Frank was named on the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List to be awarded with an OBE (Order of the British Empire), for his services to healthcare. Frank has been invited on numerous government trade missions, representing the UK health industry around the world. He has visited countries such as China, India and Brazil as part of trade missions led by British Prime Minister, David Cameron and by Kenneth Clarke, QC, MP.
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About The Phoenix Partnership: TPP is a healthcare technology company, dedicated to delivering world class healthcare software in the UK and internationally.
Joshua Gould
Chief Executive Officer of thebigword
Welcome to my Crunchbase page. People refer to me as an entrepreneur and I think that the true test of an entrepreneur is to believe that you really can achieve your dreams, not just once but over and over. I’m now CEO of a $100 million company that I started from scratch but I began my working life as an apprentice and that’s why, throughout my career, I’ve been such a supporter of apprenticeships and training. My company, thebigword, is now one of the world’s largest tech-enabled language services companies. We employ nearly 500 people, based in 12 offices in nine countries, working with more than 10,000 linguists from 73 countries. Every month thebigword interprets over two million minutes of speech in 235 languages over the telephone globally and our linguists carry out 14,500 face-to-face interpreting appointments throughout the US and UK. We also translate 35 million written words every month in hundreds of languages. Technology has truly revolutionised our business with developments we could only have dreamed of 20 years ago. Just a few of the game-changing developments in that time have been: global online selling, over the phone interpreting, machine translation, and translation memory. Our Apprentice programme is one of the most successful in the UK. In just two years we have progressed 82 Apprentices through the scheme and 67 percent of them have gone on to full-time jobs in company. Recently I was proud to accept on behalf of thebigword the award for ‘Large Employer of the Year’ at the UK Apprenticeship Awards. I now divide my time between living in New York and Leeds, England and visiting our many global offices. I continue to be enthused and excited by business and the difference it can make to people’s lives.
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About thebigword, WordSynk: We are technology-driven language communication leaders trusted by the top 100 global brands and organizations. What language barrier?
Tim P. Buchan
Chief Executive Officer of Zenith
Tim manages the corporate direction and strategy for Zenith and is responsible for directing our proposition, our leadership team, our innovative approach and our new business growth. Under Tim’s leadership Zenith has moved 24 places up the Fleet News 50 list of top leasing and fleet management companies, led the company to the successful integration of Zenith and Leasedrive, introduced the organisation into a European market and propelled the company to being placed in The Sunday Times Top 100 companies to work for.
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Andrew Kirby
CEO, Rental of Zenith
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Ian Hughes
CEO – Car & Van division of Zenith
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Paul Roberts
Founder & CEO of Nomify
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About Nomify: Nomify is an app that provides the entire company’s employee engagement with news, events, nominations, and staff holiday planning.
Richard Corner
Director and CEO of Alscient
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About Alscient: Alscient specialise in IT consultancy, software development and systems integration.
Sanchit Vir Gogia
Chief Futurist, Founder & CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group
Sanchit is the Chief Futurist, Founder & CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group, a Global, Award-Winning, Digital Transformation Research & Advisory Group. He also serves as Chief Analyst & CEO of Greyhound Research, an Award-Winning, Global, Independent Technology Transformation Research & Advisory firm. Given his expertise and passion for Digital Transformation, Sanchit also doubles up as the CIO for Greyhound Knowledge Group companies. In his another avatar, Sanchit is an Advisor To The Board (for Digital Transformation decisions) of a US$100 Million+ organisation in the Metal Industry. Sanchit is a globally recognised and reputed IT analyst, consultant and advisor. Known for his passion for Digital Transformation, Sanchit has gained repute by authoring numerous thought-provoking reports that have been rated in Global Top 5. He is also the author of the famous Digital Transformation insights portal, As Disruptive As IT Gets, that has readership from over 150,000 CXOs and 15 million+ individuals from across 125 countries. The portal has been rated at number 10 in the top 20 global resources for Business IT leaders in 2014 and as one of the 50 Must-Read IT Blogs of 2013 across the globe.
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About Greyhound Knowledge Group: Greyhound Knowledge Group is a Global, Award-Winning, Digital Transformation Research & Advisory Group.
Bryn Sage
CEO of Inhealthcare
Bryn Sage has more than 30 years’ experience in the technology industry, beginning as a computer engineer in 1981. In 1986, he joined Storm and progressed through the company to become sales director in 1994. He was appointed to the board of Inhealthcare’s parent company Intechnology plc in 2000. Over the last decade he has driven various innovation projects specifically for the NHS. He became chief executive of Inhealthcare in January 2014.
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About Inhealthcare: Inhealthcare’s national digital health platform provides the infrastructure to radically change the NHS.
Gav Winter
CEO of RapidSpike
Gav has been in the technology industry for over 20 years and founder of The Test People, the Leeds based Technical Testing Consultancy, one of the fastest growing tech companies in the UK and fastest growing in Yorkshire & the North East from 2013 to 2015. He won Yorkshire Overall & SME Director of the Year in 2014 and 2015, alongside multiple company awards like Deloitte Fast50, and the Sunday Times TechTrack100 before architecting a merger (£27 million) to create Ten10 in 2015, the UKs largest independent testing consultancy. He is a non-exec director at Ten10. He is a CEO who loves building people focused companies with passion & purpose and his experience working as a fast growth director, in client facing roles and a programme manager has also given him skills as an advisor in strategy, people, communications and marketing along with technical skills in testing, performance and automation, agile and qualified scrum master.
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About RapidSpike, Wintervention Properties: Digital Experience Monitoring SaaS Platform (Magecart Detection, Website Performance Improvement, Customer Interaction Monitoring and More)
Gav Winter
CEO of RapidSpike
Gav has been in the technology industry for over 20 years and founder of The Test People, the Leeds based Technical Testing Consultancy, one of the fastest growing tech companies in the UK and fastest growing in Yorkshire & the North East from 2013 to 2015. He won Yorkshire Overall & SME Director of the Year in 2014 and 2015, alongside multiple company awards like Deloitte Fast50, and the Sunday Times TechTrack100 before architecting a merger (£27 million) to create Ten10 in 2015, the UKs largest independent testing consultancy. He is a non-exec director at Ten10. He is a CEO who loves building people focused companies with passion & purpose and his experience working as a fast growth director, in client facing roles and a programme manager has also given him skills as an advisor in strategy, people, communications and marketing along with technical skills in testing, performance and automation, agile and qualified scrum master.
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About RapidSpike, Wintervention Properties: Digital Experience Monitoring SaaS Platform (Magecart Detection, Website Performance Improvement, Customer Interaction Monitoring and More)
Jonathan Marsden
Co-Founder and CEO of The Technology Group
Jonathan Marsden is the co-founder and CEO of The Technology Group. Prior to joining The Technology Group, Jonathan served as a director at Admiral.
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About The Technology Group: The Technology Group is a managed communications provider that specializes in voice over IP, video, chat, and collaboration technologies.
Chris Kiaie
Managing Director/ CEO of Oriium Consulting
In 2007 Chris Kiaie started ORIIUM from his home in Harrogate. The business quickly took off, and following a period of significant growth the company’s turnover rose from 740k in 2011 to 2.4 million in just two short years. Regarded as an expert in his field and frequently called on by the IT press for comment on technology matters, he also ensures ORIIUM is highly active in charity fund raising and sponsorship activities.
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About Oriium Consulting: Oriium Consulting provide innovative IT Solutions along with first class customer service.
