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 Director operating in the Creative Agency space. If you think a 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.
David Boscawen
Managing Director of VCCP Group
David started out in advertising at Young and Rubicam, working on accounts such as Heinz Baked Beans, British Gas, Smirnoff, Royal Navy & Royal Marines Recruitment and Legal and General. After seven years he went to McCann-Erickson where he became a Managing Partner of the London office for nine years and won and ran clients such as Esso, Bacardi, Coca-Cola and the Irish Tourist Board, as well as working on Nestle, CGU and Bacardi. He then joined Lowe worldwide for five years, where he was the Global Business Director on Nokia and Electrolux before joining VCCP, where he is the Group Managing Director. He is married and has three teenage children. David went to the University of Durham where he studied Greek & Roman Civilisation, Russian Studies and Anthropology.
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About VCCP Group: VCCP Group provides directory for top marketers, agencies, media companies.
Mark Orbine
Group Creative Director of VCCP Group
Mark started off at Ogilvy where he spent his first few years in advertising working on clients such as Ford, Lucozade and Guinness. He became a Campaign face to watch in 1995. He then bumped into Rooney Carruthers in the pub and has been with VCCP ever since. He helped launch O2 and worked on brands like Coca Cola, Dyson, Muller and More Than. With VCCP, Mark has produced award-winning work including the COI’s anti-binge campaign, Macmillan Cancer Care and the mullet-wearing Jean-Claude Van Damme campaign for Coors Light. His most recent pitch wins include Which?, Macmilllan and the AA.
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About VCCP Group: VCCP Group provides directory for top marketers, agencies, media companies.
Darren Bailes
Executive Creative Director of VCCP Group
Darren has worked for many initials. He started his career at WCRS creating award-winning work for Speedo and funny work for Butterkist. He then moved to DDB London. But not for long. Next was a seven year stint at Mother. Pimm’s, ITV Digital, PG Tips, Yellow Pages were all hits. Xelibri followed, a massive mobile phone launch across Europe for Siemens. DVD pirate copies of the TV spot were available on street corners of Japan. In 2008 Darren moved to VCCP with the desire to create more famous advertising that the nation would love. VCCP’s comparethemarket.com launched in 2009 and still wins awards and goes from strength to strength. O2 Be more dog is the hit of the year. Coors Light sells out thanks to Jean Claude Van Damme. Morgan Freeman will be forever More Than Freeman.
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About VCCP Group: VCCP Group provides directory for top marketers, agencies, media companies.
Eugene Delaney
Non Executive Director of Make Agency
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About Make Agency: Make is a young, tight-knit and fast growing tech team, specializing in the latest trends in website development & digital marketing.
Kate Howe
Executive Director of MSQ Partners
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About MSQ Partners: MSQ Partners is a joined-up community of agencies, helping businesses build High EQ brands.
Jemima Garthwaite
Director of This Here
Founder and Director of This Here, a data-driven creative agency and marketing technology startup. http://thishe.re
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About This Here: This Here build brands through the story-tellers of our generation, influencers.
Kostas Alekoglu
Managing Director of Caliston
Serial entrepreneur and Managing Director of Caliston Digital, a results-driven marketing agency based in London, UK.
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About Caliston, SmartFi: ROI-driven Digital marketing agency
Kenny Harmel
Director and Co-Founder of Galileo Watermark
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About Galileo Watermark: Galileo Watermark provides creative design and innovative products to the airline and medical industry.
Andrew Furlong
Managing Director of REO
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About REO: REO creates digital customer experience services for businesses.
Matt Garbutt
Creative Director of Greenlight Digital
Matt has been a digital creative his entire career, starting out in full service agencies in the late nineties through to in-house roles in the 2000s. In 2010, he co-founded a digital agency, followed by a creative production agency in 2013. Matt has extensive experience in a great many areas of digital creative and build, as well as video and film, motion graphics and above-the-line creative. In 2017, Matt’s digital agency and Greenlight joined forces, with Matt being appointed as the agency’s Creative Director.
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About Greenlight Digital: Full service digital marketing agency
Hannah Kimuyu
Director of Paid Media & Data Insights of Greenlight Digital
Hannah has been working in digital for over sixteen years, thirteen of which have been at Greenlight. A major element in Hannah’s success as a search professional is her historical knowledge and understanding of the way that search has grown over the years, coupled with her extremely specific hands-on experience. Hannah has been a key innovator in diversifying Greenlight’s paid media and data offering, moving the agency towards retargeting, audience insights, display, and paid social advertising, at a time when other agencies saw those innovations as a fad. As Greenlight’s Paid Media & Data Insights Director, Hannah is responsible for managing and delivering the agency’s paid media strategy for all clients. Through this role, she consults for some of Greenlight’s largest international clients, including New Balance, Superdry, ghd, and Victoria Beckham. In 2016, Hannah launched a second department; Data Science & Audience Insights. Partnering with Lotame, a data management platform, the service combines interaction, attitudinal, descriptive, and behavioural data to help brands understand who their customers are and what they’re buying with a cross-channel and cross-device focus.
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About Greenlight Digital: Full service digital marketing agency
Ben Cook-Northrop
Account Director of Greenlight Digital
Ben Cook-Northrop is an account director at Greenlight.
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About Greenlight Digital: Full service digital marketing agency
David Schneider
Co-Founder & Creative Director of ThatLot
Best known in the UK as an actor/comedian/writer, David starred in TV shows such as I’m Alan Partridge and movies such as Mission Impossible and 28 Days Later. In 2013, David Schneider set up That Lot with David Levin. An avid tweeter with 240,000 followers and counting, David and the team provide content for brands and businesses, as well as making viral videos and pictures, and he recently directed Josh Widdecombe’s sitcom for the BBC. David gives workshops on social media to businesses, agencies and brands as well as keynote speeches in both the academic and corporate sectors.
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About ThatLot: That Lot is a social creative agency.
David Levin
Creative Director of ThatLot
David Levin is one of the UK’s foremost professional tweeters. His love affair with Twitter happened after setting up a spoof account for a pub in Hackney, @the_dolphin_pub, which gathered a cult following and ranked among the top tweeters for London 2012, The BRITs, the royal baby and TV shows such as Big Brother and Drugs Live; and was named in Time Out’s ‘Favourite London Tweeters’. He also got The Dolphin trending (above the Nobel Peace Prize) with an Olympics-themed #dolphinquiz. On the back of the Dolphin’s successes, David has gone on to tweet for many household brands and TV flagship shows, and is always coming up with creative ways of using social media platforms.
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About ThatLot: That Lot is a social creative agency.
Louis Persent
Creative Director of Weirdo
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About Weirdo: Weirdo is a creative agency that provides strategy, creative campaigns, and design.
Alistair Campbell
Executive Creative Director of Waste Creative
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About Waste Creative: Waste Creative is a digital creative agency solving marketing challenges with urgency, digital expertise & a no-fuss attitude.
Mark Fleming
Creative Director of Rosie Lee
With a decade’s experience within the creative sector – working cross discipline for Virgin Group, Lego, MTV and various record labels – Mark founded Rosie Lee in early 2000. As Creative Director he saw the agency’s client base soon grow to include a diverse relationship with Nike UK, EHQ and Global. Developing projects spanning both brand and retail categories, performance and sportswear, campaigns include National and International team kit launches, Nike Sportswear 08.08.08, the NIKEiD launch at NikeTown London as well as grass-roots projects such as this year’s Run Dem Crew Youngers initiative. A keen collaborator, Mark is currently working alongside industrial designer Jasper Morrison to launch Swiss electronics brand Punkt, and with poet, producer and DJ Charlie Dark on a number of creative projects. In keeping with Rosie Lee’s ethos of celebrating diversity within creativity, Mark has become increasingly involved with mentoring aspiring creatives, sharing his substantial experience within the sector and giving hands on advice to business start-ups.
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About Rosie Lee: Rosie Lee are a hybrid creative agency.
Ian Styles
Executive Creative Director of Design Studio
With nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, Ian has built a reputation for the quality of his work, and transforming the agencies he works for. As well as forming his own studio, he has worked for some of London’s leading consultancies and loves the power of a simple idea to create and regenerate brands across any media. At DesignStudio he mentors the design team and ensures that innovation drives the work.
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About Design Studio: DesignStudio is a global brand and design agency with offices in the creative hubs of London and San Francisco.
Jack Archer
Director of Fable&Co.
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About Fable&Co.: Fable&Co. provides creative solutions and services to improve brand designs.
Francesca Yacoumis
Director of Series Eight
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About Series Eight: Award-winning digital product studio specialising in branding, UX, UI and front-end development.
Chris Earnshaw
Commercial Director of Tommy
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About Tommy: Tommy is a digital creative communications agency.
Jess Markwood
Content and Strategy Director of THE FIFTH
Jess Markwood is the Content and Strategy Director at THE FIFTH.
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About THE FIFTH: THE FIFTH is a professional influencer marketing agency that creates influencer campaigns for news, magazine, online or TV company.
