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 London 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.
Bernhard Niesner
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of busuu
Bernhard Niesner is the CEO and Co-Founder of busuu – the world´s largest social network for language learning with more than 35m users. busuu provides language courses in 12 different languages combined with direct interaction with native speakers from the community. The London-based start-up received several awards and was named “Best Education Start-Up in 2011” by TechCrunch. busuu is backed by renown business angels like Martin Varsavsky and received investment from PRO-Founders Capital. Before founding busuu, Bernhard worked at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. In addition to busuu, he is Associated Professor at IE Business School in the area of online marketing. Bernhard graduated summa cum laude in International Business from the University of Vienna and holds an MBA (with honors) from IE Business School. In 2009 he was awarded “Entrepreneur of the year” in Austria.
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About busuu: busuu is a mobile app for language learning with the goal of breaking down language barriers.
Stefan Wisbauer
CEO, President, CFO, and Managing Director of Lecturio
Stefan Wisbauer is the Managing Director of U.K. Preventive Medicine and the Founder and Managing Director of iHealth, a leading UK executive prevention provider. With a decade of experience in healthcare, Stefan previously worked at the World Bank and McKinsey & Co, where he advised health insurance, medical devices and biotech companies. Stefan also worked as a consultant to the National Health Service and with private healthcare operators on Public Private Partnerships and on establishing innovative approaches to care delivery. Previous to founding iHealth, Stefan helped build CircleHealth, which build next generation private hospitals in the U.K. based on a Kaiser Permanente style model, in which clinicians are co-owners in the business. Prior to that, Stefan was Bid Manager for Nations Healthcare, which won the largest share – valued at more than £400 — of the first wave of private day surgery contracts to treat NHS patients issued by the British government under Tony Blair’s leadership. Stefan also serves on the board of the Center for NonViolent Communication, a global charity promoting innovative solutions to trauma, conflict, restorative justice and communication. Stefan holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, Diploma in Mathematics from University of Bonn and a ‘Part III’ in Mathematics from Cambridge University.
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About iHealth, Lecturio: The Next Generation Learning Platform for Medicine
Martin Higginson
Co-founder & CEO of Immotion Group plc
Martin is recognised as a seasoned Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) entrepreneur, and was awarded North West Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002. He has started, sold, and listed numerous businesses. His first business was sold to IPC Magazines in 1982. Following three years with IPC he left to set up his own publishing and telecoms business, this was subsequently sold to Scottish Power plc. During his time with Scottish Power he joined their subsidiary Scottish Telecom, as Managing Director of their Internet and Interactive division, including Internet ISP Demon Internet. Following the flotation of Thus plc (formerly Scottish Telecom) he left to start Monstermob, a company he went on to list on AIM in 2003; growing it to a Top 50 AIM listed business. Monstermob Group plc was sold to Zed Worldwide in 2006. Martin has subsequently founded Cityblock plc, a luxury student accommodation business, and NetPlayTV plc, an interactive TV gaming business where he formed exclusive partnerships with Virgin Media, Channel Five, and ITV. Martin has held Non-Executive Director positions with Legend plc, Cupid plc and CMG Media. Martin is the Founding Partner at M Capital Investment Partners. Formed in 2010, M Capital Investment Partners manages multiple real estate investments across the UK, with a focus on delivering above average returns for investment cash with minimal risk. He also holds the position of Non Executive Director at Digitalbox Group – which was listed in The Sunday Times HISCOX Tech Track 100 in 2015 and 2016, placing it amongst Britain’s top 100 fastest growing private tech companies, and is Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer at Immotion Group Plc – an award-winning animation and multi-directional motion platforms to deliver mind-blowing immersive VR experiences.
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About Crash Media Group, Digitalbox: Immotion combine award-winning content & multi-directional motion platforms to deliver immersive VR solutions for high-traffic destinations.
Shahzad Ali
CEO of Get Licensed
Shahzad is a tenacious problem-solver with over 20 years of experience in: Strategic product development Motivating and leading teams Educating & counselling. Shahzad is currently the CEO of Altech Investments Limited, a pre-seed stage investment and consultancy company where he helps ambitious founders and startups with: Mindset: Vision, Mission and Purpose Product Development: Branding, User-Research, UI/UX, Prototyping. Strategy: Go to market strategy, business model. Technology: Full-stack web and mobile development Growth: SEO, Paid advertising, Social, Growth Hacking, Influencer Talent: Hiring, Organisational Structure, Board. Back Office: Formation, Legal, SHA, Financial Models, Pitch Deck. www.altechinvestments.com Shahzad launched Get Licensed – The Licensing Specialists and grew it to become UK’s number #1 occupational licensing company. www.get-licensed.co.uk Advisory & Trustee Roles: Vice Chair – Social Engagement Network – YPO Member – Conservative Party – Business & Entrepreneurship Forum Board Member – GovTech Alliance Trustee – Edequal Foundation Marketing Officer for Vedanta Institute London Past Roles: Education Chair (2013-14) – YPO London Education & Mentoring Chair (2014-15) – TIE London Education: Harvard Business School’s OPM
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About Altech Investments, Edequal Foundation, Get Licensed, Get Licensed: Security Training and Staffing Platform
Madiha Adil
CEO of Get Licensed
Entrepreneur, proud mother of two girls, my purpose in life is to live a fulfilling and inspired life by being a positive role model and helping others. #GetReference #Hemaa.org #GetLicensed
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About Get Licensed, Get Reference, Hemaa.org: Security Training and Staffing Platform
Priya Lakhani
Founder & CEO of CENTURY Tech
Former libel barrister, Priya founded FMCG business Masala Masala in 2008 successfully launching its products into nationwide supermarket chains and independent retailers. The company’s charitable arm has provided over 1 million meals and 35,000 vaccinations to the underprivileged in India and Africa. In 2014 Priya founded CENTURY Tech, which is set to disrupt the education sector by utilising big data and data mining techniques to improve students’ learning outcomes. Priya has been a member of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills’ Entrepreneurs’ Forum, an advisory board member to several educational/skills organisations, including a founding entrepreneur of Gazelle Group Colleges. Priya was awarded Business Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 and Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2014.
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About CENTURY Tech: CENTURY is the award-winning artificial intelligence teaching and learning platform for schools, colleges and universities.
Pal Erik Sjatil
Global Managing Partner and CEO of Lightrock
Pal Erik Sjatil is the Global Managing Partner and CEO at Lightrock, a global private equity partnership that seeks to achieve financial as well as societal and environmental returns. Lightrock invests in sustainable businesses built by purpose-driven entrepreneurs committed to innovation for systemic change at scale. The company has one of the largest impact-focused growth portfolios in Europe, Latin America and India. More recently, Lightrock has also started building out a portfolio of investments across Sub-Saharan Africa. It invests in companies that pursue scalable and technology-driven business models around the themes people, planet and productivity/tech for good. Specific investment sectors within these themes include education, healthcare, access to finance, mobility, transportation, renewables and circular-economy transition. Lightrock investments demonstrably contribute to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Lightrock’s portfolio currently encompasses more than 70 high-growth companies, including Infarm, one of the world’s fastest growing urban farming networks with more than 1200 farms installed; PharmEasy, one of the largest omni-channel healthcare platforms in India; DrConsulta, one of the largest healthcare chains in Latin America; and M-Kopa, a global pioneer for pay-as-you-go solar energy services for off-grid customers in rural East Africa. In 2019, CMR Surgical, a developer of surgical robots that will broaden access to keyhole surgery, was the first of Lightrock’s portfolio companies to become a unicorn – followed by several others, such as Lilium, the sustainable aviation company. As an active owner, Lightrock supports its portfolio companies from a board position in their dynamic growth and expansion phase. Prior to joining Lightrock, Pal Erik Sjatil was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, a member of the firm’s Shareholders Council, and the Managing Partner of McKinsey’s offices in Europe. Before assuming that role, he led McKinsey’s office in Norway, was part of the leadership of the Scandinavian offices, led the office complex in Eastern Europe, and was the Managing Partner of McKinsey’s offices in EEMA (Eastern Europe, Russia/CIS, Turkey, the Middle East, and Africa). Pal Erik also held leadership roles in the firm’s Telecommunications, High Tech, and Strategy & Corporate Finance practices. At McKinsey, he served clients in the telecom, high tech, financial services, and oil and gas industries and focused on corporate strategy, operations, and organizational transformations.
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About Lightrock: Lightrock is a global private equity platform that backs purpose-driven entrepreneurs tackling the world’s biggest challenges.
Tom Hooper
Founder and CEO of Third Space Learning
Matr is Tom’s second venture in education technology. In 2009 he founded BrightSpark, an online teaching business he sold to TES in 2012. He graduated with an MA in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Edinburgh, then worked in investment from 2003-9, when his start-up career began.
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About Third Space Learning: Third Space aims to help every student access great quality online tuition to help them succeed in, and love, their learning
Gerard Grech
CEO of Tech Nation
Gerard is CEO of TechCity UK in London.Prior, he headed up global marketing for Blackberry World (e-commerce store for apps music & film), in New York. Before that, he was with Nokia, where, in New York and London, he led the app store’s marketing operations, ran the app strategy and portfolio development team and, most recently, identified and assessed equity investment opportunities for Nokia Growth Partners, Nokia’s venture arm, with $600M under management in the mobile space. At Orange in Paris and London, Gerard was the content division’s group director of strategy and business development, and group head of music and video, launching multiple pioneering content services with Facebook, Universal Music and Sony Pictures, among others. He was EMEA chapter founder and chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum and board director of DDEX, the Digital Data Exchange consortium. Before his MBA, Gerard’s career began as a new-media correspondent, covering the digital revolution in the music industry for Music Week and New Media Age, among others. He also co-founded a music label. He read Acoustics Engineering as his first degree.
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About Tech Nation: Tech Nation is focused on accelerating the growth of digital businesses across the UK.
Bertie Hubbard
Co-Founder and CEO of MyTutor
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About MyTutor: MyTutor offers affordable 1-to-1 tutorials online by connecting tutors from the UK’s best unis with pupils at home and in schools
June Angelides
Founder and CEO of Mums in Technology
Named the 15th most influential woman in tech by Computer Weekly, June Angelides is the founder and CEO of Mums in Technology, which partners with industry to provide an immersive learning experience that encourages new mothers to take their children to school with them while they learn to code. She founded the company in 2015 when on maternity leave from Silicon Valley Bank, where she held roles as an associate for accelerator growth and an associate for entrepreneur banking. Most recently, Angelides joined Samos Investments as a VC and was appointed chair of the Future Skills Programme. She is also the founding ambassador for the FiftyFiftyPledge and mentor and advisor to startups.
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About Mums in Technology, Samos Investments: Mums in Technology is a child-friendly digital skills training company for mums.
Charles Wiles
Chief Executive Officer of Zzish
Charles is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zzish, one of Europe’s leading new education technology ventures. Zzish is currently raising a new funding round. Zzish was selected as one of the “Future 30” at the Bett show and “EdTech 20” at EdTech Europe. Our own Quizalize app was ranked as the No.1 new app for schools by preeminent US EdTech site, EdSurge, last year. 15,000 teachers from more than 100 countries have signed up to use it so far! Our mission at Zzish is to enable almost anyone to create state-of-the-art education applications that have a real impact on student achievement. We help them do this far faster, better and cheaper than ever before. Our Zzish APIs let developers add important data driven features to their education applications in hours that would take them many months to implement themselves. Our templated app builder lets teachers create rich applications without writing any code at all. More broadly, Charles is an internet and mobile technology entrepreneur and angel investor with a passion for creating and investing in deep technology businesses that have a strong social impact. As part of this Charles is a Venture Partner at Emerge Venture Lab, Europe’s leading accelerator for education technology companies and runs the monthly London based EdTech Developers meetup. As Google’s first Product Manager hired outside the United States, Charles co-led the mobile browser team in London that built the HTML5 APIs for the Android browser. Then as Managing Director at VisualDNA he reinvented the company to focus it on personalised advertising taking revenues from zero to $3m annual in just two years and helping to grow staff from 25 to 100. He’s an expert in mobile platforms, personalisation, big data and edtech. With a PhD in Computer Science and Robotics from Oxford and and an MBA from London Business School, he’s equally at home working on big data algorithms for deep learning or financial spreadsheets and strategy.
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About Zzish: Zzish is a valuable classroom digital teaching tool for teachers that provides real-time feedback on the progress of their students.
Neil Saada
CEO of Teech App Ltd.
Neil Saada is the Co-Founder at Dropdaze .
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About Dropdaze, NASASEASONS, Teech App Ltd.: Teech is an app that connects students to vetted mentors as soon as they have a question.
Vassili Philippov
Founder & CEO of MEL Science
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About MEL Science: MEL Science develops up to date chemistry kit subscription and VR software for learning chemistry
Farid Haque
Co-Founder ,CEO & Chairman of Erly Stage Studios
Farid Haque is the Co-Founder ,CEO & Chairman of Erly Stage Studios.He attended to the University of Toronto.
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About AssetVault, DataKiwi, Erly Stage Studios: An Education Venture Studio and digital publishing business, our mission is to make learning fun through engaging content and technology.
Ranbir Arora
Co-Founder, CEO of Dorm
Ranbir Arora is the CEO and Co-Founder at Dorm.
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About Dorm: Dorm is an audio learning app that aggregates and curates the world’s podcasting content.
Joshua Wohle
CEO & Co-Founder of Mindstone
Joshua Wohle is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mindstone. In 2013, when Joshua co-founded SuperAwesome — a digital media ecosystem designed for children.
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About Emerge Education, Mindstone: Organise, share and take notes on web pages, PDFs, videos & podcasts so you can learn faster, remember more and get things done.
Charlie Redmayne
CEO, HarperCollins UK of HarperCollins
Charlie is CEO of HarperCollins UK. He reports to Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide Charlie returned to HarperCollins UK after successfully launching J.K. Rowling’s revolutionary digital publishing business, Pottermore. As CEO, he oversaw its birth in 2011 when sales topped £3m in the first month, formed a social gaming partnership with Sony, and won Digital Strategy of the Year at the 2013 Bookseller Industry Awards. He joined HarperCollins in 2008 as Group Digital Director of HarperCollins UK, a role in which he pioneered HarperCollins’ industry-leading digital activity across a range of activities. During this time, the author community website authonomy.com won a Bookseller Industry Award for Digital Innovation in 2010. In 2009, he was promoted to run the global digital programme as Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer, based in HarperCollins’ head office in New York. Charlie joined HarperCollins from News Corp’s BSkyB, where he was Head of Commercial Partnerships for the Sky Online Business Unit. Prior to that, he worked in advertising and marketing, founding and running the media buying company RCL Communications and big screen entertainment business Blink TV, before launching leading UK teen Internet company Mykindaplace Ltd in 2000, which he sold to BSkyB in 2006.
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About HarperCollins: HarperCollins is an English language publisher that offers a range of Bibles, atlases, dictionaries, and reissued classics.
Dave Sherwood
Co-Founder & CEO of BibliU
Dave Sherwood co-founder and CEO of Bibliotech, a core etextbooks platform that provides academic libraries and students with unlimited access. He is the co-founder and Chairman of Teach Learn Grow Inc. Dave earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Western Straya, coming to Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship shortly afterwards. Dave dropped out to found Bibliotech.
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About BibliU: An EdTech innovator, BibliU’s platform enables colleges and universities with digital content management, automation, and analytics.
David Bainbridge
Founder & CEO of boclips
David has deep experience in marketing and sales within corporates and bringing new media products to market. Prior to Knowledgemotion, David was the CEO of Elvis Communications, the Launch CMO for Intel’s IPTV offering in the US and was responsible for bringing the BBC iPlayer to market in the UK. He has sat on the Executive Boards of Freeview and Digital UK and was part of the original Channel 5 launch team. Knowledgemotion is his second start-up after successfully launching and exiting an interactive TV business in 2005. David has a BA in American Studies from Manchester University.
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About boclips: boclips is an online platform that enables its users to find, watch, and learn through educational video clips.
Diego Fanara
Co-Founder and CEO of Unibuddy
Diego Fanara is the co-founder and CEO of Unibuddy.
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About Unibuddy: Unibuddy helping universities and students to attract, engage and convert prospects through peer interactions.
Elizabeth Varley
Founder & CEO of TechHub
Elizabeth is a serial entrepreneur and founded TechHub, the community for high-growth tech companies. TechHub has worked with thousands of companies to help them scale. TechHub member companies have been acquired by Google, Facebook, Twitter, Oracle and Microsoft among others, and have raised over $1billion in funding. TechHub also helps corporates like Google and BT access innovation culture and to work with startups to solve business challenges or develop new products. Previously Elizabeth ran an editorial and content agency, and built communities. She’s been selected for Computer Weekly’s UKtech50 top influencers, the Debrett’s 500, and Vogue UK’s Generation Tech among others. Elizabeth also sits on the board of the Digital City Exchange smart cities programme at Imperial College, the Open Data Institute’s Data Pitch technology innovation board, and the Silicon Valley Bank early-stage advisory board. @evarley @TechHub
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About TechHub: TechHub is the home of technology entrepreneurs and startup teams
Franz-Josef Schrepf
Co-Founder & CEO of Tick. Done.
Co-founder & CEO of Tick. Done. Experienced entrepreneur, growth hacker, and TEDx speaker on a mission to empower a billion people with a million new skills. Awarded Tech London Advocates 25 under 25 for his contribution to the London Tech Community. After dark, he is a talk show host, public speaker, and stand up comedian.
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About Tick. Done.: Tick. Done. is a micro-video platform for instant knowledge sharing on a mission to empower a billion people with a million new skills.
Fadl Al Tarzi
Founder & CEO of Nexford University
+15 years of experience in media & technology-related businesses. Hands-on experience building successful strategies, growing companies, raising VC funds, building & managing teams. Founded and played pivotal role in growing several successful businesses,
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About Nexford University: A next generation online university providing students with access to quality, affordable, dynamic education.
Leon Mueller
Co-Founder & CEO of PLAYBOOK
Leon Mueller is the Co-Founder and CEO at Bloom.
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About PLAYBOOK: Mobile Video Micro-Learning for professional education
Akif Yaldir
Founder, CEO of Case Future
I have strong experience in developing successful products and managing effective teams. My core strengths are fast-learning and following an output-oriented approach mainly for mobile products.
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About Case Future: Work on what you love! Find what you can learn easily with better efficiency, learn on mobile and grow your future.
Riaz moola
Founder & CEO of CoGrammar
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About CoGrammar, HyperionDev: CoGrammar scales human mentorship and code review 10 times more affordably.
Toby Mather
Co-founder,CEO of Lingumi
Toby is an English teacher and education technologist. He studied languages at Oxford before becoming an English teacher for children abroad.
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About Lingumi: Lingumi is an edtech startup that teaches English to kids aged 2 to 6 using an app and a range of physical products.
Paul Howarth
CEO of Times Higher Education
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About Times Higher Education: The most respected and up-to-date higher education ranking organisation in the UK
Justin Hsu
CEO / Founder of MarcoPolo Learning
Justin Hsu is one of the founders of Marco Polo Learning.
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About MarcoPolo Learning: MarcoPolo Learning is an award-winning digital curriculum developer for early learners.
Xavier Louis
Co-founder & CEO of Peak
Xavier is a former social gaming specialist (Playfish / Electronic Arts) turned into mobile product entrepreneur. Xavier recently started brainbow, building the #1 social mobile knowledge games – helping people to get smarter through games.
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About Peak: Peak’s mission is to help the world spend their time better using tools and technique borrowed from education, neuroscience and gaming.
Flavius Plesu
CEO & Founder of OutThink
A cyber security leader with almost 20 years industry experience, Flavius is the Founder and CEO of OutThink. As a former CISO, he has led complex cyber security transformation programmes across large, global organisations. It is his passion for security that motivated Flavius to challenge the status quo and start OutThink, to solve the People challenge. Flavius holds a GCHQ-certified Information Security Masters degree from Royal Holloway, University of London. Strategic thinker, strong decision-making abilities, result oriented and collaborative leadership style. His primary focus is enabling organisations understand their cyber security risk exposure to make well informed business decisions. Having a strong technical background and a good understanding of business processes, he is naturally proficient at explaining the technical concepts surrounding the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and supporting IT systems to all levels of management. Extensive expertise across a wide range of information security disciplines – Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), information security policies, ISMS, ISO 27001, ISF Standard of Good Practice, Data Privacy, legal and regulatory compliance – SOX, PCI DSS, GDPR, NHS IGTA, computer security, network security, web application security, secure business architectures and security technologies, with a strong emphasis on information risk management. CISSP, CRISC, CISM, SABSA SCF, SCP, QSA, ISO 27001 LI/LA
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About OutThink: Cybersecurity human risk management platform (SaaS)
Jesse Lozano
Co-Founder & CEO of Pi-Top
Jesse Lozano is CEO and co-founder of pi-top. Since launching in 2014, with Ryan Dunwoody, pi-top has grown into a world leading maker platform built for students and teachers across the world. pi-top has now released their 3rd generation device and is used by over 2,000 schools and Code Clubs world wide. pi-top’s purpose is to give every learner the opportunity to be inspired by STEAM education.
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About Pi-Top: Pi-Top is a creative learning company and their mission is to inspire a generation of makers, fixers & problem solvers.
Damian Kimmelman
Founder and CEO of Batelle
Founder of Batelle, Co-founder of Founders Pledge, Rho.co and DueDil
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About Batelle, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL): Batelle is a modern childcare company that uses high-tech solutions to support mental, emotional, and physical development.
John Yeo
Co-Founder & CEO of Codebashing
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About Codebashing: Codebashing | Train, Refresh and Validate your development teams’ Application Security knowledge using our cloud-based e-learning platform.
Nelson Sivalingam
Founder and CEO of HowNow
Nelson Sivalingam is the Founder and CEO of One Minute City and the co-founder of award-winning production company Barking Mad.
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About HowNow, Wonderush: HowNow is a London-based EdTech startup that connects experts and learners by offering interactive video lessons.
Raza Khan
Chief Executive Officer of Al Najah Education
Raza joined Working Links in February 2016 and is responsible for winning business across our employability and justice markets. Raza comes to us with 12 years’ experience of delivering profitable, multi-million pound business growth in the education and skills, outsourcing and government services sectors. Raza has worked internationally and across the UK in the education, skills and public service sectors, including leading high-growth and turnaround situations in many large companies. He has been CEO of a public service mutual delivering outstanding outcomes for children; Executive Director of one of the UK’s leading skills and employability companies; Managing Director of the Middle East’s fastest growing schools company; and has held executive roles in various highly successful private equity-backed education, outsourcing and services companies. Raza is a graduate of Warwick Business School, and spent several years in postgraduate research before starting his business career.
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About Al Najah Education: Al Najah Education provides top quality education.
Raj Mendhir
CEO and Co-Founder of Wintern
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About Wintern: Wintern is an Assessment Centre service provider and Leadership Education organisation.
Duncan Cheatle
Founder/CEO of Learn Amp
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About Founders Pledge, Learn Amp, Rise To, Supper Club: Learn Amp is an online learning and performance management platform.
William Macpherson
CEO of QA Ltd
William has been leading education and business services groups for over 20 years. He has been the CEO of QA since 2008. He led the development of QA from a value of £25m in 2008 to £700m in 2017 (when a majority stake was acquired by CVC, the leading private equity group). QA now employs over 2,000 staff including more than 700 education professionals. Prior to this, he served as the CEO of Kaplan Professional, Inc. from 2006-2008. He led the management buyout of The Financial Training Company (which became FTC Kaplan) from Wolters Kluwer in 2001 and sold the business to Kaplan in 2003 doubling the value of the business in two years. Between 2004-2008, he led Kaplan’s businesses outside the US, which included operations in six countries. Prior to Kaplan he worked at Bain & Company management consultants and at a corporate finance boutique. William holds an MA in Law from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD.
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About QA Ltd: QA is the UK’s leading training company, providing the complete range of training, talent development and learning services.
Nik Kafka
Founder, Chief Executive Officer of Teach A Man To Fish (TAMTF)
Nik Kafka is the founder and Chief Executive of Teach A Man To Fish. Leaving a successful banking career in the City of London for a local microfinance institution in Paraguay, Nik discovered an innovative school aiming not only to teach the poor how to become rural entrepreneurs, but to do so as a self-financing social enterprise. Having helped transform this school into a replicable model, and realising the huge potential for funding education through enterprise rather than charity, he returned to the UK to found Teach A Man To Fish. Under his stewardship Teach A Man To Fish has grown into an international network whose membership now numbers over 4,500 education institutions and experts in more than 125 countries. Over 50,000 young people have benefited directly from Teach A Man To Fish programmes across Africa, Asia & Latin America. Honoured as a Young Global Leader in 2009 by the World Economic Forum, he was more recently named in 2011 as one of Devex’s 40 Under 40 International Development Leaders in London. He holds a first-class BSc in Chemistry from the University of Bristol, an MSc in International Development from the School of Oriental & African Studies at the University of London, as well as professional qualifications in finance.
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About Teach A Man To Fish (TAMTF): Encouraging and supporting education projects that generate sustainable livelihoods for young people across the developing world.
Guy Riese
Founder & CEO of Up Learn
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About Up Learn: Up Learn is an online education platform.
Elizabeth Tweedale
Founder and CEO of Cypher Coders
Elizabeth Tweedale is the CEO and founder of Cypher Coders
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About Cypher Coders: Cypher inspires children to learn the language of the future through hands-on creative coding camps and courses.
Nick Ross
Founder and CEO of Guider
Nick Ross is the Founder and CEO of Guider.
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About Guider: On a mission to create the best personal-development platform for employees worldwide, with mentoring and coaching at its core.
Jen Lexmond
Founder & CEO of Easy Peasy
Jen Lexmond the founder of EasyPeasy, an app that sends game ideas to parents of pre-school children, to help develop the skills that will prepare them for school, and beyond. She hatched EasyPeasy in 2014 through the Design Council’s Knee High Challenge to come up with ideas improve the health and wellbeing of children under 5.
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About Easy Peasy: EasyPeasy is an app that sends game ideas to parents of young children, to help develop the skills that will prepare children for school.
Vivi Friedgut
Founder & CEO of Blackbullion
Vivi Friedgut is a financial management expert who spent almost a decade managing the wealth of high net worth families and individuals. In 2012 she established Blackbullion, an education technology company committed to helping young people up-skill for the 21st century through better money management, employability and enterprise skills. It is her ambition to ensure that through Blackbullion Online students develop the confidence, knowledge and skill to take control of their financial destiny and create an epic future. Vivi is an author and regular commentator of matters of personal finance and employability. She holds an economics degree from the University of New South Wales in Sydney in her native Australia.
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About Blackbullion: Award winning fintech platform reimagining the student financial stack
Mash Seriki
CEO of Healthcare Learning
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About Healthcare Learning: HLC is an integrated learning provider offering cutting-edge learning solutions predominantly in the dental market.
David Harkin
CEO of 8billionideas
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About 8billionideas: 8billionideas is an early-stage online education firm that teaches what children don’t learn in school.
Chris Tudor
Founder & CEO of MASSOLIT
Chris Tudor is a Founder & CEO at MASSOLIT.
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About MASSOLIT: MASSOLIT is an online educational platform that hosts short video lectures aimed at secondary/high school students.
Steve Dineen
Founder, Chief Storyteller & CEO of Fuse Universal
Founder and President of Fuse Universal.
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About Fuse Universal: The Fuse learning platform connects people with the knowledge and expertise they need to improve their skills and perform.
Kathryn Parsons
Co-Founder and CEO of Decoded
Kathryn Parsons is co-founder and CEO of Decoded, a technology education company founded in East London in 2011, which launched with the promise to teach anyone Code in a Day. The firm’s accelerated learning experiences have since expanded to include the worlds of code, data, innovation, cyber security and artificial intelligence. In addition to growing and scaling the business, Kathryn is a regular keynote speaker and campaigns globally for code on curriculums and gender diversity in technology. Described by the Evening Standard as “a woman on a mission to teach us all to code”, Kathryn was part of the successful campaign to have code introduced as a mandatory subject to the UK national curriculum in September 2014. In 2016 she was appointed Chairwoman of the UK Government Institute of Coding and received an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list. In 2017 Kathryn joined the London Mayor’s Business Advisory Board, the UK Government Cyber Security Skills Advisory Board and the non-executive board of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She’s a self-confessed language lover, having studied Japanese and Mandarin in her spare time and Latin and Ancient Greek at Cambridge University.For her code is just another language, one used by billions.
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About Decoded: Decoded is the world’s leading Tech Educator, teaching digital skills to whole organisations and business leaders from across all sectors.
Naimish Gohil
CEO & Founder of Team Satchel
Naimish Gohil is Founder & CEO at Show my Homework.
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About Team Satchel: Team Satchel develops a range of school software focusing on homework, behavior, classroom management, and teaching resources.
Nick Bennett
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Fika
Nick Bennett is the Co-CEO and Co-founder of Fika.
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About Fika: Fika is a platform that seeks to promote ‘mental fitness’.
Ahmed Dica
CEO of Examinotes
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About Examinotes: Edtech
Yiorgos Nikoletakis
CEO & Founder of 100mentors
Yiorgos enjoys surrounding himself with his role models: educators & entrepreneurs. After having worked in 4 US states, Spain, Greece & China, “arguing like I am right, listening like I am wrong” is his favorite motto.
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About 100mentors: We empower today’s youth to consciously take their once in a lifetime decisions & prepare them for the workplace of the future.
Dean Jacobs
CEO & Founder of Wibbu
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About University of East London, Wibbu: Wibbu is an award-winning education-entertainment studio specialising in engaging language-learning tools for the classroom.
Simon Gifford
CEO & co-founder of Mashauri Limited
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About Genesis Management Consulting, IE Business School, Mashauri Limited: Providing online acceleration programmes to universities to offer entrepreneurial education and training to their students.
Andy Hancock
Chief Executive Officer of FutureLearn
Andy Hancock is the Chief Executive Officer at FutureLearn. He earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at University of Southampton.
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About FutureLearn: Enjoy learning for life with free, online courses from top UK and international universities.
Andy Agar
Co-Founder and CEO of Music TCHR
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About Music TCHR: Music TCHR is a platform that focuses on music, teaching, songwriting, live events, and the marketplace.
James Weatherill
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arbor Education
Education data evangelist. He co-founded Arbor Education after spending time as an analyst and corporate venture manager, and can’t wait until education has caught up with the digital age.
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About Arbor Education: Arbor helps schools transform the way they work
Germán Bencci
Founder & CEO of CodeYourFuture
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About CodeYourFuture: CodeYourFuture is a non-profit organisation supporting refugees with the dream of becoming developers.
Alice Lacey
CEO and Co-Founder of Now Press Play
Alice is the CEO & co-founder of now>press>play, a multi award-winning social enterprise whose mission is to make the curriculum accessible for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background or academic ability. now>press>play creates immersive audio resources which bring the curriculum to life for over 55,000 primary school children across the UK every week. Before founding now>press>play, Alice worked as a theatre director and assistant director at the Old Vic, National Theatre, and Royal Court.
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About Now Press Play: NPP is a social enterprise that develops wireless technology solutions which provide interactive educational resources for children.
Can Köseoğlu
CEO of Erasmusinn
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About Erasmusinn: Erasmusinn is a housing platform that helps students find off campus housing and make reservations online.
Joachim Horn
Founder & CEO of SAM Labs
Joachim Horn is a Founder at Sam Labs.
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About SAM Labs: SAM Labs is an edtech company that empowers teachers with the most engaging STEAM solution.
Bethany Koby
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Technology Will Save Us
Bethany is a mom, CEO, designer, educator and art director interested in creating brands, businesses and experiences that help imagining a more positive and collaborative future. Bethany has been selected as one of the Designer’s that Matter by Wired Magazine, one of the Top 50 Creative Leaders by Creative Review and has spoken at TED Kids, Resonate and Maker Faire, to name a few.
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About Technology Will Save Us: Technology Will Save Us is a technology startup that offers DIY gadget kits, activities, and online resources for children.
Andrew Ground
Co-Founder & CEO of Tutorfair
Andrew is driven by a desire to find good tutors for his own children, Adam and Sophia, our strongest critics – woe betide a tutor who produces a boring video. Andrew loves good user experience and is totally dedicated to using the Internet to provide choice and transparency to both parents and tutors. He was also UK MD of LOVEFILM, and a school governor.
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About Tutorfair: Tutorfair is a marketplace for tutors that makes great tutors available to all
Victor Der Megreditchian
CEO of MyStudies
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About Bonnenote.fr, MyStudies: MyStudies.com is an online solution for students and parents that need academic help for homework, exam revisions, etc.
Christophe Mallet
CEO & Co-Founder of Bodyswaps
Innovation Strategist with 10 years experience across social media, digital and immersive technologies (VR/AR). Chris got his Masters from HEC and started his career as Employee #1 (Head of Strategy) of social consultancy Carve that later got sold to a large advertising group. After co-founding Immersive Tech agency Somewhere Else with Julien and running it for over 3 years, Christophe co-founded BODYSWAPS with one mission: unlock human potential in the workplace with the help of immersive technologies. Christophe is an industry thought leader, international speaker and regular podcaster on VR and learning. He has recently delivered talks for the International Labor Organisation, the European Training Foundation and the European Immersive Computing Summit.
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About Bodyswaps: Bodyswaps is a B2B immersive learning platform (VR SaaS) designed to deliver effective and scalable soft skills training.
Milenko Pilic
CEO of HeySuccess
CEO of HeySuccess.
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About HeySuccess, One Young World: The default platform for international student mobility.
Igor Cenar
CEO of JollyDeck
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About JollyDeck: Great e-learning for your people. Better analytics for your business.
Phillip Snalune
CEO & Co-founder of Codio
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About Codio: The evidence-based learning platform for Computer Science & tech skills education.
Jack Rivlin
CEO of Tab Media
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About Tab Media: Tab Media is a global youth media startup for people under 25. It publishes The Tab and babe.
Ivy Cavendish
CEO & Co-Founder of The Science Writing Revolution
Ivy Cavendish is the CEO and co-founder of The Science Writing Revolution.
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About The Science Writing Revolution: The Science Writing Revolution is an academic-led initiative to revolutionize scientific writing.
Norbert Morawetz
CEO of Potential.ly
Norbert is founder and CEO of lifelong learning platform Potential.ly, which is used at 50+ institutions to develop professional competences, employability and career readiness. Potential.ly is supported by the Young Foundation for its social impact on widening participation, diversity and inclusion. Norbert also designed and launched open educational resource team-match.com, which helped create more cognitive diverse learning teams at 100+ universities and was selected and has been awarded by the highly prestigious wayra.org tech accelerator programme. Norbert is als Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Learning at Henley Business School, where he leads flagship modules in entrepreneurship and digital leadership at UG, PG and MBA levels. He has extensive experience in learning and programme design, and is Programme Director for the BA in Entrepreneurship, and BA Entrepreneurship and Management. He is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and has been recognized for his innovative work with the UK National Enterprise Educator of the Year Award. Norbert’s research interests are at the intersection of creativity, management and technology – key drivers of entrepreneurship and learning. He has used his expertise in psychometrics to consult with o2 and YSC on situational judgement tests, and is the creator of the pi psychometric Indicator, which has been completed by 60,000+ students in the UK. Prior to joining Henley, Norbert built up and ran the UK’s largest entrepreneurship programme at the University of Hertfordshire, which received the Times Higher Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award. Norbert holds an MA in Business Administration and Economics from the Karl Franzens University Graz (Austria) with distinction, and a PhD in Creative Industries Economics from the University of Hertfordshire. Norbert started his career in radio and film production, winning Filmmaker of the Year from ScreenEast in 2012.
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About Henley Business School, Potential.ly: The smart lifelong learning platform
Edward Hall
CEO of Qualification Check
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About Qualification Check: Qualification Check is an online, automated, and professional qualification checking solution.
Alex Braga
CEO and Founder of Visionalia ltd
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About Visionalia ltd: A NEW KIND OF A.I. TO START A MUSIC REVOLUTION
Flore Wang
CEO of Jellynote
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About Jellynote: Jellynote is an EdTech startup offering an innovative way to learn music through its proprietary AI-technology
Lucy Stonehill
Co-Founder and CEO of BridgeU
Lucy grew up in the UK and the USA, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College, where she studied Literature and Psychology. Upon graduation, Lucy worked for the law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, before leaving to launch her first business, an educational consulting firm tailored to the unique needs of international students and schools. In 2013, Lucy founded BridgeU to focus on the next challenge – fixing the broken transition between secondary and higher education. Lucy has been labelled an ‘Entrepreneur Role Model’ by the European Commission, and won Techpreneur of the Year in a 2015 at a ceremony hosted at the House of Commons celebrating leading female entrepreneurs. In 2016, Lucy was selected by Forbes as a ‘Top 30 under 30” European technology innovator.
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About BridgeU: BridgeU provides a market leading guidance platform that connects universities with international schools in 130 countries.
Justin Short
CEO and Founder of Nous
Before founding NOUS® Justin worked at a number of investment banks over a period of 14 years, building fully automated trading strategies including Market Making Engines; Smart Order Routers; Agency Benchmark Algorithms and Options Pricing Engines. He also ran regional teams to determine the product strategy and directly influenced the global product, organised the necessary quantitative research, designed and tested fully automated low-latency trading strategies, and coded or provided input to the development team.
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About Nous: Nous designs and develops virtual trading platform for financial market.
Sarah Howell
Chief Executive Officer of Arecor
Sarah Howell joined Arecor Limited as Chief Executive Officer in 2015.
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About Arecor: Arecor is a leader in developing superior biopharmaceuticals through the application of its innovative formulation technology platform.
Douglas Lloyd
CEO & Co-Founder of Macademia
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About Macademia: Macademia is an award-winning global EdTech company providing educational programming and games for children.
Simon Hay
Co Founder & CEO of Firefly Learning
Simon Hay is the Co-founder and CEO at Firefly.
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About Firefly Learning: Firefly Learning is an edtech company that develops a SaaS learning and teaching support platform for schools.
Giacomo Moiso
Co-Founder & CEO of Fluentify
Giacomo Moiso Co-Founder & CEO at Fluentify
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About Fluentify: Fluentify connects language learners with carefully selected native speakers around the world trough 30-minutes individual live sessions.
Fei Hao
Founder & CEO of MyOffer
Fei Hao is Founder at MyOffer.
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About Learning Without Borders, MyOffer, UVIC: MyOffer is a Shenzhen-based online overseas study application platform.
John Jackson
CEO of London Grid for Learning
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About London Grid for Learning: By working together schools save millions of pounds a year compared to schools purchasing the same services individually.
Rachel Fletcher
CEO and Co-founder of UniQuest
Rachel is an internationally experienced business operations expert with a decade of experience optimizing student recruitment and conversion with higher education institutions in the US, UK, and Australia. Rachel co-founded UniQuest to build a flexible service that could adapt to the rapidly changing needs of colleges and universities in relation to student engagement and conversion operations. Rachel’s always had a passion for international education. Rachel grew up in New Zealand and studied in 5 different countries while in university.
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About UniQuest: UniQuest helps streamline and improve student conversion and delivers great higher education student experiences.
Shiv Rajendran
CEO of Affectively
Founder Affectively Learning
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About Affective Learning, Affectively: Immersive English Language Training
Vishnu Hariharan
CEO & Co-Founder of BlueBook Academy
CEO & Co-Founder of BlueBook Academy.
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About Atelier Technology, BlueBook Academy: BlueBook Academy is a smarter online training platform linking education tracks to jobs.
Suzi Godson
Co-CEO and Founder of MeeTwo Education
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About MeeTwo Education: MeeTwo Education is a safe, fully moderated app, which delivers peer support and expert help to teenagers.
Gabriel Varaljay
CEO of ENVIENTA
CEO / co-founder – Manufacturing and supply chain process engineer at NCR and Sanmina SCI in partnership with IBM, HP and Dell. Marketing manager at Kent Holdings, co-founder and COO at VixT. Responsible for manufacturing partnerships, distribution and communication.
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About ENVIENTA, R6 Security, VixT, VixT: a hardware-developing platform and a decentralized cloud-manufacturing framework
Jon Smith
Co-Founder & CEO of Pobble
Jon Smith is a Co-Founder & CEO at LendMeYourLiteracy.
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About Pobble: Pobble is the platform to find the best teaching resources, give pupils a global audience for their work, and to assess writing.
Mark Orchison
Founder & CEO of 9ine Consulting
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About 9ine Consulting: 9ine exists to help schools use technology to make a strong, positive impact on school performance and educational quality.
Mark McCourt
Founder & CEO of La Salle Education
Mark McCourt has been at the centre of mathematics education improvement for over a decade. He founded La Salle as a company completely focussed on helping maths teachers to continue to improve.
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About La Salle Education: La Salle Education is a UK based company dedicated to improving mathematics education.
Ameen Jan
CEO, Founder of EDeQUAL
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About EDeQUAL: Focused on providing students and schools with international standard education in a blended learning classroom.
Darren Hill
Founder & CEO of Inzite
Founder & CEO, Inzite (inzite.com)
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About Inzite: Smart discovery tools and streamlined scheduling help your customers hold meetings with the right people, at the right time.
Seva Baskin
Founder & CEO of Campusboard
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About Campusboard: Campusboard is an online marketplace for university campuses.
Joseph Black
Co-Founder & CEO of UniTaskr
Joseph Black is a Co-Founder and CEO at UniTaskr.
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About UniTaskr: UniTaskr is a mobile and desktop app that connects households and businesses with a workforce of university students.
Oliver Jacobs
CEO & Co-Founder of UniTaskr
Oliver Jacobs is a CEO and Co-founder of UniTaskr.
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About UniTaskr: UniTaskr is a mobile and desktop app that connects households and businesses with a workforce of university students.
Peter Stephenson
Founder/CEO of Musitude
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About Musitude: A web & app music learning/playing solution for non-musicians
Ritchie Mehta
CEO of School of Marketing
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About School of Marketing, The Marketing Academy: School of Marketing offers digital courses in marketing that inspire and educates marketing leaders.
Spencer Ayres
Founder & CEO of Future Builders
As an entrepreneur, educator & designer he has worked at the cross section of technology, creativity & learning for many years. He is a creative business leader with a successful record of developing innovative solutions in both business and educational settings. For over 12 years his real purpose has been to provide opportunities for people to have transformational learning experiences – helping them find their passion, develop their aptitude and realise their full potential. A real entrepreneurial at heart, Spencer has a bias for creating change, solving big problems and getting things done. Spencer joined Makers Academy to start Makers Apprenticeships – a new venture with the goal to create the leading technology Apprenticeship Programme in the Country. Prior to this he was a digital transformation consultant and learning designer, helping people within large organisations learn about technology and create digital solutions to big problems. Spencer has a Bachelors Degree in Computer & Electronic Systems Engineering and a Masters In Creative & Media Education. He was a teacher of Computer Science & Digital Design for 8 years before working with charities and private sector organisations. Along side starting Makers Apprenticeships, Spencer is also a visiting lecturer and industry advisor to a UK University.
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About Future Builders: Making meaningful learning as impactful and easy to access as possible, with the goal of maximising personal and professional productivity
