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 Internet of Things 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.
Andreas Lane
Creative Director of Smarter
Andreas Lane is an award winning designer and has an extensive background in product design and manufacturing. Andreas has previously set up his own business in interior design and retail. As a founding partner at Smarter, Andreas works alongside the CEO, is responsible for the planning and management of product development and design. Andreas manages a team of manufacturers, engineers and developers in the UK and manufacturers in Asia. He oversees the entire product development cycle from concept, feature creation to design and mass production. Andreas is responsible for the development of Smarter’s brand and design. He has created the Smarter product range from physical products, packaging and print to the software and its apps.
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About Smarter: Smarter develops connected kitchen products that bridge the gap between the traditional and smart kitchen.
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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.
Darren Barson
Finance Director of Smarter
As Finance Director at Smarter, and in addition to overall ownership of the core Finance function, Darren is part of the management team and provides commercial insight and support across a variety of key business decisions. Darren joins Smarter having spent the past 7 years working in Asia across various commercial finance roles, most recently as Head of Financial Operations for St James’s Place Wealth Management (FTSE). “Joining the Smarter team was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make. The industry leading products, global opportunity and the team translates into a journey I had to be part of.”
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About Smarter: Smarter develops connected kitchen products that bridge the gap between the traditional and smart kitchen.
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.
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About Smarter: Smarter develops connected kitchen products that bridge the gap between the traditional and smart kitchen.
Mike Parton
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arqiva
Mike brings a wealth of relevant experience from the telecoms and technology industry to Arqiva. Mike started his career as a Chartered Management Accountant, working for a number of UK technology companies including ICL, GEC, STC and Marconi. He moved into General Management in 1995 at Marconi, and became CEO in 2001. Between 2001 and 2006 Mike was CEO of Marconi before overseeing a sale of the company to Ericsson. In 2007, Mike became Chairman of Damovo and joined the Board of Tele2, becoming Chairman there in 2010. Mike stepped down from the Board of Damovo in 2015 following a sale of the company.
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About : Arqiva is a communications infrastructure and media services company.
Claire Cherry
Investment Partner/UK Director of Social Starts
Claire covers the consumer sector across Europe and the US. Prior to Social Starts, she ran the seed and pre-seed consumer fund at True, backing businesses across beauty, femtech, sexual wellness, mental health, and many more. With almost a decade of experience in venture, Claire is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs breaking new ground. Outside of investing, she can be found hiking the cliffs of Guernsey with her dog, or attempting to grow vegetables (sometimes successfully) in her garden.
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About Social Starts: Social Starts is a set of early-stage venture funds that uses analytics to uncover and invest in the strongest companies in the strongest segments. Based on a uniquely data-driven methodology, Social Starts has discovered and backed companies with huge value in e-commerce, employment platforms, digital brands, next-generation food, and education. The current fund, “Social Starts Health and Happiness,” focuses on startups that help people live longer, live better, or both.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
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About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
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About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Tom Horne
Co-Founder/Director of L’Estrange London
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About L’Estrange London: Reimagining smart-casual for the man on the move.
Stacey Edwards
COO, CFO & Director of Ad-Lib.io
Stacey Edwards is the COO, CFO and Director at Ad-Lib.io.
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About Ad-Lib.io: Powering Creative Effectiveness
Vernon Dias
Founder and Managing Director of Made by Fire
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About Made by Fire: We create digital products for our ambitious clients with a team of over 100 specialists.
Eamonn O’Hare
Independent Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Dialog Semiconductor
Eamonn joined the Board in May 2014 as an independent non-executive Director. He was appointed as Chair of the Audit Committee in December 2014 and was replaced by Alan Campbell in July 2015. Eamonn has spent over two decades as CFO of some of the world’s fastest-growing consumer and technology businesses. From 2009 to 2013, he was CFO and main board member of the UK’s leading entertainment and communications business, Virgin Media Inc. and led its successful sale to Liberty Global Inc. in 2013. From 2005 to 2009, he served as CFO of the UK operations of one of the world’s largest retailers, Tesco plc. Before joining Tesco he was CFO and Board Director at Energis Communications and led the successful turnaround of this high profile UK telecoms company. Prior to this Eamonn spent ten years at PepsiCo Inc. in a series of senior executive roles in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Eamonn spent the early part of his career in the aerospace industry with companies that included Rolls-Royce PLC and BAE Systems PLC.
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About : Dialog Semiconductor makes energy-efficient, highly-integrated, and mixed signal ICs for mobile, IoT, and solid state lighting applications.
Jimmy Kyriacou
Founder & Director of Unbox
Jimmy Kyriacou is the creator of #BehindTheFace and UNBOX, which is a collective of like minded entrepreneurs, creatives, scientists, artists and film makers with a shared vision of the future. UNBOX merges art, music & cutting edge technology with a specific focus on Augmented Reality. Enquiries & INFO : hello@unboxlondon.com
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About Unbox: Unbox is a blog site about electronics and the way they work and operate.
Hadiya Masieh
Director of CENTRI
Hadiya Masieh is Director of CENTRI, an organization dedicated to addressing issues of Islamist radicalization amongst Muslim youth as well as educating and training organizations on the nature of radical groups, their theology and their practices. She is currently working on a unique piece of research commissioned by the UN on the subject of female radicalization. In addition, Hadiya works as a Community Cohesion Coordinator in London as part of the U.K. Counter Extremism Strategy for the Home Office.
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About Barnet Council, CENTRI, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, PopTech, UK Home Office: CENTRI provides advanced security for the internet of things.
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.
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About : Pagazzi Lighting is an online retailer offering lighting and mirrors.
Serge Lubensky
Founder | Executive Managing Director of ReTool Ventures
Serge is a geek who enjoys finding pragmatic solutions to difficult problems. Along the way, he managed to become a successful entrepreneur with a track record of starting, growing and selling technology companies. Serge grew up in a family of scientists and artists. Not smart enough to become a scientist and not creative enough to be an artist, Serge chose to pursue a computer engineering degree in his hometown of Minsk strictly to avoid being drafted into the Russian Army during the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan. Serge’s first successful exit, from a failing 70-year old startup called the USSR, occurred in 1988. Fresh off the boat, Serge joined a computer company in Queens, NY, developing software for service contractors. Architecting and supporting a system that businesses relied on allowed Serge to learn the intricacies of the commercial repair and maintenance trades and ways to apply technology to solve real-life challenges for business owners and their field technicians. In the process, Serge and the company’s founder, Steven Gottfried, became friends and business partners and started to formulate plans for their next business venture. In 1999, Steven and Serge founded a cloud-based facilities management platform, ServiceChannel, with the goal of transforming the highly inefficient multi-billion dollar commercial repair and maintenance industry. As with their previous company, which was successfully sold, Steven was the idea generator and a master salesman, while Serge worked behind the scenes as CTO to help ServiceChannel achieve a dominant position in the global facilities management marketplace. In 2016, Serge moved to London to accelerate ServiceChannel’s expansion in Europe. In the summer of 2017, Accel, an elite technology VC firm, invested $54M in ServiceChannel continuing to fuel its growth and allowing Steven and Serge to realize a highly successful exit. Now Steven and Serge run ReTool Ventures, a technology investment firm.
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About Equip ID, ReTool Ventures: ReTool Ventures is a new technology investment firm that seeks to retool the facilities management industry by curating a “digital toolbox”
Christian Mastrodonato
Director Of Engineering of Digital Catapult
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About Digital Catapult: Digital Catapult drives early adoption of advanced digital technologies to grow the country’s economy.
Alan Sillito
Global Key Accounts, Senior Director of Wirepas
Alan Sillito is Global Key Accounts, Senior Director at Wirepas.
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About Wirepas: No bullshit. Just enterprise IoT as it should be. Connecting millions of devices. Failure-free. No infrastructure. No middlemen.
Jelena Jansson
Director of Healstack
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About Chunkie, Healstack: Venture development studio focused on launching innovative products and companies
Victor Jansson
Director of Healstack
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About Chunkie, Healstack, Rota: Venture development studio focused on launching innovative products and companies
Phil Stone
Director of Sensus
British by birth, Phil began his career with British Telecom in Central London and is a true global citizen, having lived and worked in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Denmark, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. His experience, integrity and honest approach to business have been the foundations of long term and enduring partnerships. Phil is married and holds Australian and British citizenship.
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About Sensus, The Chapel Group: Sensus is a helps a wide range of public service providers Company.
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.
Aleix Megias Homar
Director, VP Programmes of Open Cosmos
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About Open Cosmos: Open Cosmos provides simple and affordable space missions.
Livio Hughes
Co-Founder & Director of Postshift
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About Postshift: Postshift is a digital transformation consultancy that helps organisations become 21st Century businesses
Antonio Giugno
Co-Founder/Managing Director of Portrayt
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About Portrayt: We create digital strategy, experience and engagement.
James Turley
Board Of Director of Emerson
James S. Turley is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ernst & Young, a leading global professional services organization providing audit, risk advisory, tax, and transaction services. With approximately 130,000 people in 140 countries, Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services organizations in the world. Jim began his career with Ernst & Young in 1977 in the US firm’s Houston office. Over the last 31 years, he has held a series of leadership positions throughout Ernst & Young. Jim was named Metropolitan New York Area Managing Partner of Ernst & Young LLP in 1998 and was appointed Deputy Chairman in 2000. In July 2001, he became Chairman & CEO. Based in New York and London, Jim serves as senior advisory partner for many of Ernst & Young’s largest global clients. As Chairman, Jim sets a clear and strong tone from the top, focused on quality, integrity, and professionalism. He has worked to create a high-performance work environment with a highly visible leadership commitment to “Quality in Everything We Do.” Ernst & Young has been consistently recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Jim is actively engaged with many stakeholders as part of Ernst & Young’s commitment to enhancing the public’s trust in professional services firms and in the quality of financial reporting. He has encouraged dialogue with key stakeholders across the globe regarding the many changes facing the world capital markets, including the advent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States, the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards in more than 100 countries throughout the world, and the overall movement toward greater convergence of global accounting standards and global governance. Throughout his career, Jim has actively supported numerous civic, cultural and business organizations. He co-chairs the Russia Foreign Investment Advisory Council. He is on the Board of Directors for Boy Scouts of America, Catalyst, the National Corporate Theater Fund and on the Board of Trustees for Rice University. He is also a member of the Business Roundtable, Transatlantic Business Dialog and IBLAC (International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai). In October, 2007, was appointed Chair for the Governing Board of the U.S. Center for Audit Quality. Jim holds a Master’s and a BA in Accounting from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He enjoys sports, including golf and tennis. Jim and his wife, Lynne, have a 24-year old son.
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About : Emerson is a global technology & engineering company providing innovative solutions for customers in industrial and residential markets.
Rajesh Gunasekaran
Director Of Technology of Aurlis Limited
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About Aurlis Limited: Technology consultancy and product development company, specialised in IOT, Cloud, Test automation, App development and Blockchain
Joanna Montgomery
Founder & Director of Little Riot
Joanna Montgomery started her own company, Little Riot, to develop a product called Pillow Talk. In the last few years, the company has grown from strength to strength, securing vast amounts of funding and winning several awards.
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About Little Riot: Little Riot mission is to alleviate loneliness and empower people to use technology to communicate without staring at a screen.
Dan Collier
Co-Founder, Director of Sales and Strategy & CEO of ElevateDirect.com
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About ElevateDirect.com: Productivity enhancement tool for recruitment across all workforce categories
Pete Trainor
Founder & Director of HCD of Nexus Chile
Pete Trainor is an author, technologist, accidental polymath, mental health campaigner and co-founder of US Ai in London. He talks all over the world on creative & social technologies, data, artificial intelligence and the physiological & psychological effects on their audiences. Over the last three years, Pete has helped to pioneer an entirely new approach to Ai focused services, one that looks at ‘self-evolving systems’ and ‘minimum viable personality’ to help solve societal and human issues. His recently published, bestselling, book, “Hippo – Human Focused Digital” takes a philosophical look at technology and design, challenging us to look inwardly at the self when designing future technologies. Pete regularly appears in UK national and international press as an analyst on emergent technologies, and tech markets. Pete also chairs the Ai Think Tank for The British Interactive Media Association. He has a very simple philosophy: Don’t do things better, do better things.
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About Nexus Chile, US Ai Ltd, Vala Health: Nexus is a website that helps users protect their credit card information and transactions.
Adrian Drewett
Director of GridLocate Ltd
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About GridLocate Ltd: GridLocate – Creating affordable end-to-end LoRaWAN IoT Solutions and GPS Tracking solutions for consumers and SME’s.
Marc Francis
Director of Speakit Films
Marc J. Francis is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have been shown throughout the world in cinemas and on television. He was chosen by Harper’s Bazaar magazine as one of their top “Household names of the future,” and named by the Observer newspaper as one of Britain’s “Rising Stars.” His most notable film was ‘Black Gold,’ described as “riveting and draw-dropping” (LA Times), it premiered at the Sundance Festival winning world wide critical acclaim. It went on to be released in over 30 countries and broadcast on networks including: PBS, Channel 4, and NHK. Marc’s next film, ‘When China Met Africa,’ described as “a rare, grass-roots view into one of the most important economic developments of the age” (Times of London), was a multi-broadcast project involving the BBC, Arte France, and the Sundance Institute. The film screened at international film festivals including Rotterdam, Munich, and at the Margaret Mead Festival in New York, where it won best film. His latest film ‘Walk With Me,’ is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch and co-directed with Max Pugh. It’s a cinematic journey that follows the monastic community who practice the art of mindfulness with Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh. Marc is also the Co-founder and Creative director of Speakit Films—a dynamic production company renowned for its imaginative and sensitive treatment of the most pressing global issues and human stories of our time.
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About Speakit Films: Speakit Films makes character-driven films about the most pressing global issues of our time.
Marc Francis
Director of Speakit Films
Marc J. Francis is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have been shown throughout the world in cinemas and on television. He was chosen by Harper’s Bazaar magazine as one of their top “Household names of the future,” and named by the Observer newspaper as one of Britain’s “Rising Stars.” His most notable film was ‘Black Gold,’ described as “riveting and draw-dropping” (LA Times), it premiered at the Sundance Festival winning world wide critical acclaim. It went on to be released in over 30 countries and broadcast on networks including: PBS, Channel 4, and NHK. Marc’s next film, ‘When China Met Africa,’ described as “a rare, grass-roots view into one of the most important economic developments of the age” (Times of London), was a multi-broadcast project involving the BBC, Arte France, and the Sundance Institute. The film screened at international film festivals including Rotterdam, Munich, and at the Margaret Mead Festival in New York, where it won best film. His latest film ‘Walk With Me,’ is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch and co-directed with Max Pugh. It’s a cinematic journey that follows the monastic community who practice the art of mindfulness with Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh. Marc is also the Co-founder and Creative director of Speakit Films—a dynamic production company renowned for its imaginative and sensitive treatment of the most pressing global issues and human stories of our time.
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About Speakit Films: Speakit Films makes character-driven films about the most pressing global issues of our time.
Nick Nicolaou
Non Executive Director of Streetlike
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About Streetlike: In-store Digital Interactive Reward Platform for Enterprise Retail
