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 CIO’ operating in the Financial Services space. If you think a CIO’ 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.
Zishan Cheema
CIO of Apsara Capital
Zishan manages Apsara Capital’s investments in publicly listed water companies. Prior to joining Apsara, he spent 6 years at PineBridge Investments as an investment analyst covering utilities and technology, and 3 years at Global Wealth Allocator, an investment firm developing smart beta products. Zishan holds a BSc in Chemistry from UCL and MSc in operational research from Warwick University.
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About Apsara Capital: Apsara Capital is a UK-based investment firm with a focus on the water sector.
Wouter Volckaert
CIO of Force Over Mass Capital
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About Force Over Mass Capital: Force Over Mass Capital is a London based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments.
Gareth Jones
Chief Information Officer of Visa
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About Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
Darryl West
Group CIO of HSBC
Darryl West is HSBC’s Group Chief Information Officer and Group General Manager, heading up the bank’s Technology function. He is leading the transformation of HSBC Technology to be the world’s leading financial services technology team, overseeing approximately 43,000 people spread across 53 locations. Darryl has more than 30 years’ experience in financial services, holding senior level positions with global organisations such as JP Morgan Chase, Accenture and National Australia Group Europe.
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About HSBC: HSBC is a banking and financial services organization that offers a comprehensive range of services.
Peter Ebden
Chief Infrastructure Officer (CIO) of Thought Machine
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About Thought Machine: Thought Machine is a Fintech company that builds cloud-native technology to revolutionize core banking.
Pawel Aleksander
CIO & Co-Founder of Coinfirm
Pawel Alexander is Co-Founder and CIO of Coinfirm. One of the more recognizable fraud prevention experts in Central Europe, former Head of Fraud Investigations in ArcelorMittal, AML/CTF Project Manager in the Royal Bank of Scotland, fraud investigator and auditor in Ernst & Young; holds the titles of Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Internal Auditor.
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About Coinfirm: Coinfirm is the global leader in regtech for digital currencies and the blockchain-based financial ecosystem.
Andrew Newington
COO & CIO of Actis
Andrew started his professional career as a lawyer specialising in cross border transactions, including in Asia and the Middle East, before moving into private equity with BT Capital Partners after completing his MBA at Columbia.He then spent 13 years with BC Partners, a leading global investment firm, latterly as Managing Partner and co-head of their London office. At Actis, Andrew has operational responsibility for the firm as well as sitting on all of the firm’s investment committees.
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About Actis: Actis is a global growth markets investor in private equity, energy, infrastructure, and real estate.
John Seglias
Chief Information Officer at National Grid Electricity Transmission of National Grid Partners
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About National Grid Partners: National Grid Partners makes and manages strategically and financially attractive investments and leads company-wide innovation efforts.
Alexander de Carvalho
Co-founder, CIO of Public
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About Public: Public is a venture capital firm that supports technology startups aiming to work more deeply with the UK’s public services.
John Mountain
Chief Information Officer of Starling Bank
As Chief Information Officer, John is responsible for IT strategy and ensuring the technology platform delivers the retail banking product required by Starling and expected by the Regulator. After many years as a technical architect working for clients such as Lloyds and Bank of America, he became increasingly frustrated with the inefficiency and lack of commitment to improving technology at the traditional banks. John approached Starling in mid-2015 because he was excited about the opportunity for a banking start-up that is also a technology business throughout. Since he joined, he has designed a systems landscape for a retail bank from scratch and recruited a team to work across platform, infrastructure, security and mobile. If he wasn’t working at Starling, John would be sailing around the world (or at least to France) and probably trying to solve some software problems on the way.
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About Starling Bank: Starling Bank is a mobile banking platform that offers personal, joint, and business accounts.
Robert Duncan
Chief Information Security Officer of Direct Line Insurance
Robert Duncan has been Chief Information Security Officer for Direct Line Group since December 2015. Direct Line Group is a FTSE 100 firm that is the UK’s largest retail general insurer, owning brands such as Direct Line Churchill and Green Flag. I am responsible for Cyber Security as well as Technology Risk teams. Prior to this Robert was the Chief Information Security Officer for Euronext, where Robert was responsible for overall Information Security Strategy along with the oversight of various core teams: Threat and Vulnerability Management, Security Architecture, Application Security, Security Operations, and Security Awareness, as well as managing the relationship with the five core European regulators in respect to the firm’s security posture. Robert has extensive international experience, having been based in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Australia. Prior to this he worked for ANZ Bank in Melbourne, Australia, where he was responsible for Technology Risk and Security for their International Global Markets division. He was also Head of Global Risk and Governance for Prudential plc PGDS division for many years, supporting the division globally with extensive travel of Asia and the USA. He holds an LLB in Law (London), MBA (Cranfield), and a post graduate qualification in Executive IT Management from Columbia University in New York.
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About Direct Line Insurance: Direct Line Group is an organization with a clear mission: to make insurance much easier and better value for customers.
Judith Sciamma
CEO & CIO of WyeTree Asset Management
Judith has over 20 years of portfolio management and asset analysis experience and launched WyeTree’s residential asset and ABS platform in September 2007. She was previously Portfolio Manager and Head of ABS at Solent Capital, London. Solent won the Risk Magazine CDO manager of the Year award for 2006. Her previous experiences include IXIS CIB (London) as a Senior ABS Analyst and ABS trader, and ODDO Asset Management (Paris), as Fund manager of structured products and securitisation. In 1999, she was part of the founding team of Equigest Asset Management (Paris). A student from the French ‘grandes ecoles’, Judith holds a masters degree from ENSAE M’, the French top tier University specialising in Statistics, Economics and Mathematics. She agrees with American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder in thinking that “It does not matter so much what happens. It is what one does when it happens that really counts.”
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About WyeTree Asset Management: WyeTree Asset Management is a systematic investment approach to source new and innovative opportunities.
Anthony Woolley
UK CIO of Societe Generale
Anthony Woolley was appointed Head of Innovation for the UK, Societe Generale in September 2017. He previously served for 4 years as the UK Chief Information Officer for the bank and has over 20 years of management experience delivering technology solutions to the Corporate and Investment Banking Industry.
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About Global Digital Finance, Ownera, Societe Generale: Societe Generale is a French multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Paris, France.
Yogesh Sholapurkar
Chief Information Officer – Commercial of Close Brothers
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About Close Brothers: Close Brothers is a leading merchant banking group providing lending, deposit taking, wealth management services and securities trading.
Frederic Couderc
Co-CIO of Chenavari Investment Managers
Mr. Frederic Jean Sylvain Couderc is a Co-Chief Investment Officer at Chenavari Investment Managers LLP. Mr. Couderc is a Partner at Chenavari Credit Partners LLP. He is also the Co-Founder and Managing Director at RiverRock Securities Limited. Mr. Couderc is the Managing Director at Chenavari Financial Group Limited. Mr. Couderc was a Managing Director Principal at Bear Stearns. Prior to this, he was employed at Natixis, where he was responsible for originating, structuring, and distributing European structured credit products. Mr. Couderc holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Dauphine University.
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About Chenavari Investment Managers: A group of alternative investment management companies focused on a broad range of credit,structured finance, real estate and private debt
Loic Fery
CEO and Co-CIO of Chenavari Investment Managers
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About Chenavari Investment Managers: A group of alternative investment management companies focused on a broad range of credit,structured finance, real estate and private debt
Gideon Smith
Europe CIO, Rosenburg Equities of AXA Investment Managers
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About AXA Investment Managers: Providing asset management and investment solutions
Rafi Vasserman
Chief Information Officer of EBS BrokerTec
Rafi was appointed Chief Information Officer of EBS on June 2012. From 2005 Rafi served as EVP Engineering and General Manager of Israel for Traiana (acquired by ICAP in 2007). From 2000 to 2005 Rafi was VP R&D of ClearForest that developed text mining solutions. Prior to 2000, Rafi was employed in several roles in Tecomatix Technologies Ltd.
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About EBS BrokerTec: EBS BrokerTec is a leading electronic trading platforms and solutions business in foreign exchange and fixed income.
Paddy Osborn
CIO – Chief Investment Officer & co-founder of MoneyDrome Ltd
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About MoneyDrome Ltd: MoneyDrome is a hybrid investment & trading platform enhanced by analytics, machine-learning and artificial intelligence
Steve Howling
CIO of QuoinStone Investment Management
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About QuoinStone Investment Management: QuoinStone Investment Management is a specialist UK focused, value-add real estate investor
Steve Howling
CIO of QuoinStone Investment Management
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About QuoinStone Investment Management: QuoinStone Investment Management is a specialist UK focused, value-add real estate investor
Michel van Tol
CIO and Co-founder of Huddlestock
Michel is co-founder and CIO of Huddlestock, a financial technology company based in Oslo, Norway and London, United Kingdom. Michel has experience from working at Meditor Capital in London, and UBS O’Connor in Chicago.
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About Huddlestock: SaaS, Fintech, Mobile App, Wealth Management, Asset Management, Trading, Investing
Kaj Siebert
Chief Information Officer of Social Finance
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About Social Finance, Social Finance: We partner with government, social sector and the financial community to find better solutions to society’s most difficult problems.
