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 Executive Director operating in the Internet space. If you think a Executive 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.
Ran Janda
Executive Director of Smarter
Ran heads Internal Operations and is the Executive Director at Smarter, London. Ran has visibility of all the departments in the business. She has over five years’ experience in technology startups. Ran is responsible for ensuring that the business has the best working environment and processes in place. To this end, she has grown the business from four to 30 employees, overseen a major office move from Croydon to London. Ran is also responsible for HR, day-to-day internal management and also manages logistics for major exhibitions and conferences the Smarter attends. Before joining Smarter, Ran worked for Xively Ltd, an IoT connected product management platform. She had overall responsibility for the day-to-day financial management as well as supporting the growth of the company in recruitment and HR. Over the course of two years, the company experienced rapid growth and was acquired by Boston-based remote access firm LogMeIn in 2011 for $15M.
Follow Ran Janda:
About Smarter: Smarter develops connected kitchen products that bridge the gap between the traditional and smart kitchen.
Maria Lam
Non-Executive Director of QPQ
Maria Lam is a Director at QPQ.
Follow Maria Lam:
About QPQ: QPQ is a network infrastructure to enable a digital universe.
Patrick Falconer
Executive Director of The New York Times
Patrick Falconer is Managing Director of The New York Times global office in London and is responsible for advertising sales across all NYTG platforms in Northern Europe and the Middle East and Africa. He first joined the International Herald Tribune (now the International New York Times) in 1988 and then again in 1999 after a 3 year spell at Time Inc. where he managed advertising sales for Fortune magazine in the UK and the Netherlands. In his time at the IHT/NYT he worked on the successful launch the first ever monthly IHT magazine – International Fund Investment and was instrumental in launching the highly successful IHT Luxury Conference series in 2001 now in its twelfth year. Patrick was a founding member of the World Media Group in 1998 and served as President of the group in 2009 – 2010. He has also been a board member of British American Business since 2008. He is a History graduate, is married, has four children and lives in Winchester in the UK.
Follow Patrick Falconer:
About The New York Times: The New York Times creates, collects, and distributes news, information, and entertainment through a daily newspaper and a website.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
Follow Zarir Vakil:
About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
Follow Zarir Vakil:
About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Hugo Drayton
Independent Non-Executive Director of Future
Follow Hugo Drayton:
About Future: Future creates high-quality multi-media products which reach their audiences online, on mobile and in print.
Seb Chakraborty
Executive Director (Digital CTO) of Virgin Media
Follow Seb Chakraborty:
About Virgin Media: Virgin Media is a UK-based company offering TV, broadband, landline phone and cellular services.
Vince Gunn
Non Executive Director and Shareholder of Pagazzi Lighting
Vince Gunn has served as Managing Director of Crocs Europe since arriving at the company in October 2011. Mr. Gunn currently oversees Crocs’ European business, encompassing the wholesale, retail and e-commerce operations. Prior to joining Crocs, Mr. Gunn held senior roles at The Body Shop International, including Head of Global Retail and Managing Director at The Body Shop UK. He also served on the Board of Thomson Travel Group and Mothercare as Retail Development and Operations Director, developing a number of new retail concepts and brand repositioning projects. At Blackwell UK, Mr. Gunn served as Chief Executive Officer and secured numerous industry accreditations for the company, including Bookselling Company of the Year and Retail Chain of the Year. In addition, Mr. Gunn ran his own consultancy and delivered turnaround and special projects for leading brands including Virgin Group and KRM AG – ECCO Group. Additionally, Mr. Gunn currently serves on the board for Pagazzi Lighting.
Follow Vince Gunn:
About : Pagazzi Lighting is an online retailer offering lighting and mirrors.
Patrick Eve
Co-founder & Non Executive Director of TranslateMedia
Follow Patrick Eve:
About TranslateMedia, ZigZag Global: TranslateMedia provides professional translation, localisation, and transcreation services for documents, websites, and content marketing.
Mark Crocker
Executive Director of Madiston
Mark is an experienced General Manager in the software industry with a proven track record in opening offices, expanding internationally, turning around underperforming business units, raising investment capital, leading businesses through significant revenue growth/profitability, mergers/acquisitions and shareholder exits.
Follow Mark Crocker:
About Madiston: Madiston offers a commercially available peer to peer/online lending software platform.
Simon bullers
Non Executive Director of PureNChic.com
Follow Simon bullers:
About PureNChic.com: We are online marketplace that specialise in European designed product
Reggie James
Executive Director | Co-Chief Operating Officer & SVP of Marketing & Communications of Digital Brand Media & Marketing Group, Inc
Follow Reggie James:
About : DBMM Group provides investment opportunity in the growing Digital Marketing & Social Media sector. Operating in NY, London & LA
Tim Faircliff
Non Executive Director of Association of Online Publishers
Follow Tim Faircliff:
About Association of Online Publishers: AOP is an industry body representing digital publishing companies that create original, branded, quality content.
Mike Butterworth
Independent Non-Executive Director of Kin and Carta
Mike Butterworth, ACA joined the Board on 1 August 2010. Mike had served for 8 years as Group Finance Director of Cookson Group plc, a FTSE250 company, until December 2012 when Cookson was de-merged. Previously, Mike was Group Finance Director of Incepta Group plc for 5 years, an international marketing and communications group, prior to which he spent 5 years as Group Financial Controller at BBA Group plc, the international aviation and materials technology group. Mike is senior Non-Executive Director and chairs meetings of the Audit Committee.
Follow Mike Butterworth:
About : Kin + Carta is a global digital transformation business that advises, creates, and connects marketing and customer experience.
Patrick Brennan
Non Executive Director of Bumper
Follow Patrick Brennan:
About : Bumper is a payment platform for car dealerships.
Nick Nicolaou
Non Executive Director of Streetlike
Follow Nick Nicolaou:
About Streetlike: In-store Digital Interactive Reward Platform for Enterprise Retail