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 Managing Director operating in the Consumer space. If you think a Managing 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.
Steve Folwell
Managing Director of LoveSpace
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About LoveSpace: LoveSpace is the UK’s first storage-by-the-box company, offering next-day collection and return of items.
Isabella Lane
Managing Director of Smarter
Isabella is responsible for ensuring that the visions and strategic plans of the Board and CEO are realised and translated into the day-to-day running of the business. Isabella has oversight of each department from finance to customer services keeping the various teams motivated and driven to reach Smarter’s goals and targets. As a founding partner at Smarter, Isabella has extensive experience in all aspects of the business. Being instrumental alongside the CMO for strategic partnerships, Isabella has worked with some of the largest names in the industry e.g. Bosch, Unilever, Amazon, John Lewis.
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About Smarter: Smarter develops connected kitchen products that bridge the gap between the traditional and smart kitchen.
Rob Lowe
Managing Director – Digital Play, LEGO Ventures of The LEGO Group
Rob Lowe is responsible for the global strategy, development and day-to-day running of LEGO® Life, the new creative, social and safe digital experience for LEGO kids. He has been at the LEGO Group for three years, prior to that he has worked in marketing and product development leadership roles at Nintendo and BBC Worldwide.
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About LEGO Ventures, The LEGO Group: The LEGO Group is a family-owned company that specializes in the development of children’s creativity through playing and learning.
Christopher Crozier
Chief Risk Officer and Managing Director of Permira
Christopher is the Chief Risk Officer of Permira. He focuses on improving and standardising Permira’s risk management function globally. His role covers key areas including reputation, conflicts, compliance, litigation and regulatory matters. Christopher is a member of the ESG group. Prior to joining Permira as a Principal in 2008, Christopher was the Chief Administrative Officer for Emerging Markets (EMEA) at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for a number of compliance and risk matters, including helping the firm establish its Middle East offices. Before that, he practised law at Freshfields and Simpson Thacher.
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About Permira: Permira is a global growth obsessed private capital investor.
Martin Arumemi
Co-Founder & Managing Director of EE
Arumemi-Ikhide is the MD and Founder of EE. He also serves as the MD of Hansworth Ltd and General Manager of Engineering for Rockson Engineering. In both Hansworth and Rockson Engineering he is responsible for the leadership, execution and construction of the 4 NIPP power plants in FGN. He has lead the firm to the successful commissioning of the first phase of the 1074MW Alaoji CCGT plant. He is also progressing the completion of the 225MW Omoku, 225MW Gbarain and 338MW Egbema OCGT also based in FGN. Prior to joining Hansworth, Dr Arumemi-Ikhide worked for GE Power and Water for more than seven years as a Senior Project Manager, overseeing the execution of several landmark projects. At GE he was the Project Manager for two combined cycle plants that were using GE 9FB based in Spain and Turkey notably. Whilst at GE, he was on the fast track of the firm’s world renowned leadership programme. Dr Arumemi-Ikhide holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from Warwick University. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Birmingham. He possesses and is attending a number of business management executive courses including leadership programme from Boston University and is currently completing a leadership programme at Oxford University Business School.
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About EE, Rockson Engineering: EE is a telecommunications company that provides 4G mobile and fixed fiber broadband services to personal and business customers.
Arthur Holcombe
Managing Director of Snupps
Responsible for operations, marketing and business development. Arthur has 15 years experience building dynamic startups and early growth companies in the wireless and Internet sectors. Previously Arthur was the Chief Revenue Officer at MobileWave, an AIM listed Company, and prior to that worked at Coordinate Technologies (Founder), The Cloud, Coremetrics (co-Founder; sold to IBM) and Dow Jones China. Arthur is a graduate from Georgetown University, with an MBA from Thunderbird.
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About Snupps: Snupps helps people organize, share and discover the stuff they own and value.
Pierre Sapin
Managing Director of BORN
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About BORN: BORN is the world’s first private B2B platform that connects a global network of design-led lifestyle brands and retail buyers.
Colin Roughan
Managing Director, Asia Pacific of SquareTrade
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About SquareTrade, The Natural Edition: SquareTrade is an independent warranty provider for consumer electronics and appliances.
Frank Bertele
Managing Director of Der Merklinger
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About Der Merklinger: Der Merklinger is an online shop that offers different kinds of baking and grilling materials.
Ollie Marshall
Managing Director of Maplin Electronics
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About Maplin Electronics: Maplin Electronics is an online retailer of consumer electronics.
Paul Archer
Founder and Managing Director of Duel
World Record-breaking Adventurer, Best-selling Author and founder of Duel. Aside from his expeditions and writing, he has spent his career building technology, including the Daredevil Project app development studio, and consulting for advertising agencies and tech companies. He founded Duel to democratise and decentralise marketing for brands. Duel is solving the lack of emotional connection and social proof in often clinical looking online stores by rewarding customers for creating visual testimonials and advocating among their friends, rather than wasting millions on advertising to drive sales. Before this Paul conceived and implemented the It’s on the Meter Expedition to drive to London taxi around the World. The expedition broke two Guinness World Records, raised over £20,000 and passed through 50 countries after driving 80,000 miles from London to London in Hannah, a 1992 London Taxi bought of eBay. Paul is also an experienced speaker, moderator and a conference host. Including TEDx, SXSW, Festival of Media, Cannes Lions, Social Media Week, GenerationE, the Content Marketing Institute and Retail.Tech, as well as guest lecturing at the British School of Fashion.
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About Duel: Brand Advocacy Platform that enables purpose-led brands to drive organic growth & retention through word-of-mouth & advocacy
Prem Rajalingham
Managing Director of Frontier Smart Technologies
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About Frontier Smart Technologies: Frontier Smart Technologies is a supplier of digital audio solutions.
Giovanni Dolci
Vice President, Theatre Development and Managing Director, Europe and Africa of IMAX
Giovanni Dolci joined IMAX Corporation in October 2012 as Vice President, Theatre Development. In January 2017 he was also appointed Managing Director Europe and Africa, where he is responsible for growing and expanding the IMAX theatre network across the two continents. He previously served as Director of Business Development and Commercial Operations at Arts Alliance, where he was in charge of negotiations with cinema exhibitors and film distributors throughout EMEA to support the market’s transition to digital projection technology and where he helped establish a worldwide digital distribution platform. Prior to Arts Alliance, Giovanni Dolci worked in film financing and oversaw a number of projects based in New Zealand, Italy and the UK. He has a degree in Economics and Management from Bocconi University in Milan and an MSc in Management from Cass Business School in London. He is a Junior Fellow of the Aspen Institute Italy.
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About IMAX: IMAX Corporation is one of the world’s leading entertainment technology companies, specializing in immersive motion picture technologies.
Lucie Marchelot Shukla
Co-Founder – Managing Director of Straight Teeth Direct
Lucie Marchelot Shukla is a Co-Founder – Managing Director at Straight Teeth Direct.
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About Straight Teeth Direct: Straight TeethDirect to consumer teledentistry platform that connects users to online dentists globally enabling low cost.
Ian Hobson
Co-Founder, CEO & Managing Director of ChargeBox
Ian has set and delivered the mission and objectives for ChargeBox which has seen the company grow rapidly. Involved since the companies inception, Ian took over control of the company and formulated the change in strategy driven by the smart phone market and Olympics in 2012. Ian is passionate about ChargeBox and passionate about bringing free charging to everyone who needs it everywhere they need it. A graduate of Imperial College, Ian’s career has taken him from Accenture to Hambrecht & Quist and Tibco, all the time delivering rapid growth and businsess development.
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About ChargeBox: ChargeBox They pride Theirselves for providing the easiest to use, most trusted and innovative charging solutions for public spaces.
Daniel Axsäter
Co-Founder & Managing Director of bySTORED
Daniel Axsäter works as a Co-Founder and Managing Director at bySTORED.
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About bySTORED, CronLab Sweden AB, CronLab Sweden AB: Taking the stress out of storage since 2013
Steve Miller
Managing Director of Insulin Angel
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About Insulin Angel: Insulin Angel is World smartest medication tracker.
