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 Chairman operating in the Consulting space. If you think a Chairman 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.
Wim Bushell
Chairman of the Reinsurance Arm of Gallagher
Wim is the Deputy Chairman of Gallagher London, a global insurance company. His education at Millfield as a boarder in Walton (1970 – 1973) fuelled his passion for sports and as well as participating in a wide variety of sports (amongst which football, cricket and rugby) he gained first team colours in football. After leaving Millfield, his interest in sports did not dwindle and he continued to play for two seasons for Corinthian Casuals AFC, swapping sports afterwards to play for Richmond RFC, also captaining the infamous Richmond ‘Heavies’. Additionally, he was captain of Lloyd’s Gentlemen’s Rugby XV. Wim is a keen golfer and is also a member of the MCC. In 1974, Wim went to work for a small insurance brokerage firm (Wigham, Richardson and Bevington) in the City. In 1987 he became a partner in a company called MRC Limited, which sold itself, in 1996 to a Chicago based brokerage firm, Arthur J. Gallagher, where he became Managing Director, then Chairman of the Reinsurance arm. After this company was acquired by Aon Corporation, another Chicago based operation, Wim became Deputy Chairman for Aon Re UK and has since returned to Arthur J Gallagher as Deputy Chairman of Gallagher London. As well as having been educated at Millfield, Wim was an Old Millfieldian Society committee member in 2003 – 2006. He joined the Foundation Committee from 2007 – 2008 and was appointed a Governor in 2009.
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About Gallagher: Gallagher is an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm.
Martin Bolland
Chairman of MXC Capital
Martin founded the private equity group Alchemy, serving as a Partner for 11 years. Martin is currently chairman of Capita plc, a FTSE 100 company. Martin previously held a number of senior operational roles in Lonrho and is a chartered accountant.
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About MXC Capital: MXC Capital is an investment and advisory group specializing in the technology, media and telecommunications sector.
Peter Rigg
Non-Executive Chairman of MXC Capital
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About : MXC Capital is an investment and advisory group specializing in the technology, media and telecommunications sector.
Stefano Aversa
Global Vice Chairman and Chairman EMEA of Alix Partners
Stefano is Chair of EMEA and Vice-Chair globally. A talented and highly skilled turnaround expert with more than 30 years of experience, Stefano works with investors, boards, and managements of industrial companies, developing business plans, driving financial and operational turnarounds, and implementing large-scale performance improvement programs.
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About Alix Partners: AlixPartners is a global business advisory firm of results-oriented professionals who specialize in creating value and restoring business.
Joshua Pennell
Founder and Chairman of IOActive
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About IOActive, ISSA-UK: IOActive is a security consultancy with a global presence and deep expertise spanning hardware, software, and wetware.
Jeremy Anderson
Chairman Global Financial Services of KPMG International Limited
Jeremy Anderson is a member of the Board of Directors of UBS AG and UBS Group AG since 2018. He chairs the Audit Committee and is also a member of the Corporate Culture and Responsibility and the Governance and Nominating Committees of the Board. He was chairman of Global Financial Services at KPMG International from 2010 to 2017. He has spent over 30 years working with the banking and insurance industry in an advisory capacity, covering a broad range of topics, including strategy, audit and risk management, technology-enabled transformation, mergers and bank restructuring. He was the founding sponsor of KPMG’s Global Fintech Network in 2014 and is a regular participant at fintech events across Europe, the US and Asia. He joined KPMG International in 2004 and was Head of Financial Services KPMG Europe from 2006 to 2011 as well as Head of Clients and Markets KPMG Europe from 2008 to 2011. From 2004 to 2008 he was in charge of its UK Financial Services Practice. Prior to that, he served as a member of Atos Origin’s Group Management Board and as Head of its UK operations after Atos acquired KPMG Consulting UK in 2002. In this capacity he managed Atos’ consulting, systems integration and IT outsourcing services in the UK. She joined KPMG’s UK consulting business in 1985 and led the firm as CEO from 2000 to 2002, having previously been a partner in its financial services business. He started his career as a software developer with Triad Computing Systems in 1980. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from University College London.
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About KPMG International Limited: KPMG is a network of independent member firms offering audit, tax and advisory services.
Matt Isaacs
Founder & Executive Chairman of Essence
As one of the founding partners, Matt helped shape Essence into the company it is today. That agency is now the world’s largest independent buyer of digital media with billings in excess of $650MM USD, is 480 people strong, and has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore and Tokyo. Current clients include Google, eBay, Financial Times and Barclays. Matt served as Global CEO of the agency until spring of this year. During his last four years in that role, both billings and headcount doubled every year. Today, as Executive Chairman, Matt oversees the Board, supports the execution of corporate strategy and helps to ensure the legacy of Essence exists well beyond the agency and the industry. Before co-founding Essence Matt was Chief Marketing Officer at Create Services & Goldfish Bank, a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Group that handled all of the bank’s non LloydsTSB branded retail banking business across 15 brands and with £2B in assets. Matt’s ‘first career’ was in strategy consulting at McKinsey spin-off MMG, where he was part of the core team that built MMG Europe from 14 consultants to 400 across 13 offices. Matt lives on a small farm with his wife, 4 children, 5 hens, lots of sheep and bees in the depths of East Sussex, UK.
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About Essence: Essence, part of GroupM, is a global data and measurement-driven agency whose mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world.
Adrian Binks
Executive Chairman of Argus Media group
Adrian Binks is chairman, publisher and major shareholder of the Argus Media group of companies. Adrian developed the company after buying a partnership in a small newsletter business following an earlier career in BP and a brief stint working as an oil industry analyst in the City of London. In 1984 he took management control, renamed the company and started the development of a global business under the Argus brand. Adrian grew up in Leeds where he attended the local grammar school before reading history at Cambridge University.
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About Argus Media group, Metal Pages: Argus Media group is a global energy and commodity price reporting agency.
Rune Sovndahl
Chairman of Starfish Enterprise
Summary – Rune Sovndahl (Born 13 February, 1975) is a Danish-born entrepreneur with over fifteen years’ experience in the the IT, dot-com and telecommunications industries. He is the founder of Briing.com, Polish portal Gadatka.com and Victor Connect Ltd. He is currently the co-owner and CEO of international SEO agency [First Online Solutions](http://www.1stonlinesolutions.com/). Early Life- Sovndahl grew up in Copenhagen attending both [Ingrid Jespersens Gymnasie skole](http://ijg.dk/) and [Oestre Borgerdyd](http://www.gefion-gym.dk/om-gefion/historie/oestre-borgerdyds-historie.aspx). He became interested in programming and business technology at an early age, primarily through the influence of his father who was a programmer for IBM, writing his first program for stock management at age 10. Rune attended the [Copenhagen Business School](http://eng.brock.dk/) from 1997 – 1999 with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. As a graduate student, he worked with [British Telecom](http://www.bt.com/) as a systems architect. His early technological influences include the inspiration of William Gibson’s novel, Virtual Light. Following his service in the Royal Danish Navy, Rune developed a passion for the culinary arts which lead to him to working in the kitchens of multiple Michelin Star restaurants in Copenhagen and Søllerød under the tutelage of Franz Stockhammer. Rune was fascinated by El Bulli and the school of culinary technology and organization, but he left the industry due to a severe shellfish allergy. He keeps the passion of his culinary days alive in the day to day work of his companies. Career- Rune’s interest in technology and human interaction led him to the fields of Search Engine Marketing, Paid Search, Natural Search, Brand Discovery, and Protection & Visibility. His early days in technology involved the development of location-based systems and the early development of a [3G platform](http://www.btagilemedia.com/) for locating restaurants and shops, as well as one of the first televised SMS campaigns in the UK. In 2003 Rune launched a mid-sized SEO and affiliate web design company, [Victor Connect Ltd.](http://www.victorconnect.com/) before he became Head of Search at Lastminute.com where he managed an extensive multi-million dollar SEM strategy in the travel market. He co-founded First Online Solutions in 2009, which owns and operates a number of popular consumer telecom brands: – [Fantastic cleaners](www.fantasticcleaners.com) – [Rubbish Please](www.rubbishplease.com) – [Tick Tick Check](www.ticktickcheck.com) – [Aussie Handyman](www.aussiehandyman.com) – [Aussie Clean Team](www.aussiecleanteam.com) – [TimeVouchers](www.timevouchers.com) – [Mini Wardrobe](www.miniwardrobe.com) – [Now Roam](www.nowroam.com) – [Briing.com](www.bring.com) Personal Life – Sovndahl currently resides in London’s Bloomsbury. He remains passionate about travel, culinary arts and designing sustainable business models for technology that optimize marketing and usability across the full value chain of the consumer. Philanthropy – Rune is the co-founder of Stepnote, a charity music school in Denmark. The [site](stepnote.dk) is a personal matching service that aims to find the ideal music teacher based on a student’s individual needs.
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About 1st Online Solutions, Fantastic Services, Local Fame: Starfish Enterprise is a company, founded by Rune Sovndahl, that offers search engine optimization, web design, customer service and more.
Joel Segal
Partner & Chairman of PwC South Africa
Joel started his career in South Africa and joined PwC in 2009 as a partner. During his career in the firm, he has served as strategic advisor to executive boards of multinationals across the FTSE100 and Fortune500 equivalents, helping them operate effectively by transforming their global business models. He has over 15 years’ experience across multiple industries, with a strong focus on consumer, retail, manufacturing and industrial products. He has held various senior leadership roles and remains a global relationship and advisory partner in the firm. Joel currently sits as Chair of the UK firm’s Africa Business Group with a focus on helping companies enter and operate effectively in the emerging markets of sub-Saharan Africa. He has lived and worked in Africa, US and UK helping clients and their senior executives in over 20 countries.
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About PwC South Africa: PwC South Africa provides industry-focused assurance, advisory, and tax services to public, private, and government clients.
Ivan Martin
Chairman of FDM Group
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About FDM Group: FDM Group is a professional services provider with a focus on IT and business recruitment for graduates and veterans.
Ivan Martin
Chairman of FDM Group
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About FDM Group: FDM Group is a professional services provider with a focus on IT and business recruitment for graduates and veterans.
Cristopher Weston
Chairman of White Horse Capital
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About : Corporate capital raising and M&A
Christopher Sier
Executive Chairman of ClearGlass
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About ClearGlass, Connectory: ClearGlass is a digital intermediary between asset managers and pension funds.
David Heslop
Chairman and Co -founder of China Ventures
Co-founder and Chairman, David has extensive experiences in corporate finance and leadership management, has been working across many industries including automotive, financial services, confectionery, healthcare and advertising, etc. As investor, David holds various portfolio of interests including renewables, security, the music industry, housing and transport, etc. Prior to joining in China Ventures, David served as Chairman of MCL Finance and Chairman of AGL Finance, also held positions of Chief Executive of KIA (UK), Chairman of Mazda Cars (UK). David earned his MBA from London Business School in 1978.
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About China Ventures: China’s global deal marketplace and a leading China-centric investment community on the globe.
Alexandros C. Argyriou
Chairman of Scientia Consulting Group
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About Scientia Consulting Group: Scientia Consulting Group offers business development methodologies for web startups and financial institutions with e-business units.
Sahel Majali
Chairman of Mid Group
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About Mid Group: The Mid Group is a dynamic construction, investment and development company based in the UK and Middle East.
Richard Bampfylde
Chairman of 4Sight Communications
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About 4Sight Communications: 4Sight Communications is one of the leading providers of business telecommunications and managed services for public sector organisations.
Peter Harrop
Chairman of IDTechEx
Dr Peter Harrop PhD, FIEE is Chairman of IDTechEx Ltd. He was previously Director of Technology of Plessey Capacitors Scotland and Chief Executive of Mars Electronics, a start-up he took to $260 million gross sales value with highly automated factories built in US and UK, without acquisitions. He was a board member of $1.5 bn Mars UK, a division of Mars Inc. Mars Electronics was sold for $500 million after he left, generating an excellent return.
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About IDTechEx: IDTechEx is a consultancy that provides market research, business intelligence, and events on emerging technology to its clients.
Chris Skinner
Chairman of The Financial Services Club
Chris Skinner is an independent commentator on the financial markets and, as Balatro, Chris assists clients as an advisor, as well as sometimes being commissioned to write or speak on their behalf at conferences and tradeshows. As well as being Chief Executive of Balatro, Chris chairs the European networking group the Financial Services Club. The Financial Services Club is a prestigious meeting place, and allows networking between members and regulators, practitioners and futurists. Our guest speakers include Charlie McCreevy, John McFall, Angela Knight and other luminaries shaping the future of banking and insurance. Chris is well-known for his regular columns and for his daily blog, which can be found at The FinanSer. He has also written several books on banking, covering retail and investment banking, payments and the supply chain, and general technology trends. Current titles include “The Future of Banking”, ‘The Future of Finance after SEP’ and “The Future of Investing after MiFID”. Chris is a Judge with the TradeTech Awards and with the Asian Banker’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services program, and a contributor to the World Economic Forum. Chris worked for various technology firms and is a co-founder of the website for strategists www.shapingtomorrow.com. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Services, an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Chartered Insurance Practitioner.
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About The Financial Services Club: Aim of FSC is any firm that is interested in understanding and planning for the future operating environment for the UK Financial Services.
Ross Alexander
Executive Chairman of Africa Matters
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About Africa Matters: AML is an Africa-focused commercial consultancy specialising in strategy and risk management, due diligence.
Nadim Nsouli
Founder & Chairman of Inspired
Nadim M Nsouli founded Educas, an education investment firm in 2013 to make an investment in Reddam House, a leading group of schools in South Africa. Since then, Nadim founded Inspired and led the growth of the group globally. Prior to that, Nadim was a partner at Providence Equity Partners, a private equity firm with $40 billion under management. Nadim was also a member of Providence’s Global Investment Committee and led Providence’s Education investment efforts in Europe and the Middle East. Prior to joining Providence in 2006, Nadim was the European head of The Gores Group, a special situations private equity fund based in Los Angeles. Prior to Gores, he founded and managed Lago Ventures, a venture capital firm. Previously, Nadim was a member of the media and telecommunications investment banking teams of Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan in London. Nadim started his career in New York as a corporate lawyer at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. He received a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD with distinction, a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science (magna cum laude) from Georgetown University.
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About Inspired: Inspired is a operator of premium schools in Europe, Australia and Africa.
Richard Knowlton
Chairman of Richard Knowlton Associates
Richard Knowlton is chairman of the European security risk consultancy Richard Knowlton Associates. He was Group Corporate Security Director of Vodafone between 2009-2015, having previously worked in Milan as Head of Security (Global Operations) for the Italian UniCredit Group, the largest bank in Central and Eastern Europe. A Director of C-Secure, a company developing innovative cyber hygiene certification processes, Richard is also European Executive Director of the non-profit Internet Security Alliance (ISA), a multi-sector trade association based in Washington DC. Richard chaired the Internet of Things World conference in Berlin (June 2016).
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About Richard Knowlton Associates: Richard Knowlton Associates
Pat Curran
Chairman of FSI
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About FSI: FSI provides workplace technology and services.
Paul Thompson
Chairman of DGA Technology
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About DGA Technology: DGA Technology provides consultation services and solutions to improve business growth.
Chris Corson
Executive Chairman of The Disruption House
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About The Disruption House: The Disruption House is the first specialist ratings agency for early and growth stage Fintechs.
Clare Parsons
Founder & Chairman of Lansons
Clare Parsons is Founder & Chairman @ Lansons.
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About Lansons: Lansons is a full service strategic consultancy, specialising in corporate, media and political communications.
Oliver Rothschild
Chairman of Oliver Rothschild Corporate Advisors2
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About Oliver Rothschild Corporate Advisors2: Corporate Management and Investment, Strategy, Development, Turnaround and Market Opportunities, UK and Specific Overseas Territories
Peter Hannaford
Chairman of Datacenter People
Peter Hannaford is founder and Chairman of Datacenter People. He has been involved with datacenters for almost 40 years, firstly through programming and systems development, and later starting his own company Waterfields in 1989, which became one of the biggest datacenter design & build companies in Europe before being sold in 2001. His next venture was to found Tecnikon, which designed and patented the first water-cooled server rack with an integrated vertical cooling coil specifically for high-density computing. Tecnikon was acquired by APC in June 2003. At APC Peter helped develop Tecnikon’s innovative cooling solution into one of APC’s most successful product lines. APC was itself acquired by Schneider Electric in February 2007, where Peter was appointed Vice President for Datacenters & Alliances for EMEA. As APC became more and more integrated into the Schneider organisation, Peter’s entrepreneurial instincts resurfaced, and he left in September 2010 to form Datacenter People. Peter is a respected subject matter expert on datacenter evolution, talent search and acquisition in the datacentre industry. He is a regular speaker at global industry events, and more, worldwide. He maintains a deep personal network of contacts developed over many decades in the industry and was named by Data Economy Magazine in 2017 as one of the 50 Top Influencers In Data Centres, Cloud and Data in EMEA. Peter was further honoured in 2018 with the industry “Lifetime Achievement” award at the Datacloud awards in Monaco.
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About Datacenter People: Datacenter People is a niche headhunting firm helping businesses at every stage in their development to identify
Peter Hannaford
Chairman of Datacenter People
Peter Hannaford is founder and Chairman of Datacenter People. He has been involved with datacenters for almost 40 years, firstly through programming and systems development, and later starting his own company Waterfields in 1989, which became one of the biggest datacenter design & build companies in Europe before being sold in 2001. His next venture was to found Tecnikon, which designed and patented the first water-cooled server rack with an integrated vertical cooling coil specifically for high-density computing. Tecnikon was acquired by APC in June 2003. At APC Peter helped develop Tecnikon’s innovative cooling solution into one of APC’s most successful product lines. APC was itself acquired by Schneider Electric in February 2007, where Peter was appointed Vice President for Datacenters & Alliances for EMEA. As APC became more and more integrated into the Schneider organisation, Peter’s entrepreneurial instincts resurfaced, and he left in September 2010 to form Datacenter People. Peter is a respected subject matter expert on datacenter evolution, talent search and acquisition in the datacentre industry. He is a regular speaker at global industry events, and more, worldwide. He maintains a deep personal network of contacts developed over many decades in the industry and was named by Data Economy Magazine in 2017 as one of the 50 Top Influencers In Data Centres, Cloud and Data in EMEA. Peter was further honoured in 2018 with the industry “Lifetime Achievement” award at the Datacloud awards in Monaco.
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About Datacenter People: Datacenter People is a niche headhunting firm helping businesses at every stage in their development to identify
