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 Gaming 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.
Jon Bellamy
Senior Director, Corporate Strategy of Huuuge Games
Jon is an experienced games industry investment professional and has lead deal processes both as a VC and M&A Lead. He has lead investment processes for many distinct transactions and spearheaded multiple $20-500MM international acquisition processes.
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About Huuuge Games: Huuuge Games is a real-time social casual gaming platform.
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Jenny Storey
Operations Director of Blue Duck Education
Jenny Storey is an operations director at Blue Duck Education (Mangahigh).
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About Blue Duck Education: Blue Duck Education is the holding company behind Mangahigh.com which develops and publishes maths games for 11 to16 year-old students.
Gavin Harrison
Finance Director of LVP
Gavin is an ACA qualified accountant with 20 years’ experience scaling and financially managing high growth enterprises. Previously founder of an award-winning VC firm raising £120m in equity funding for gaming & television companies. In his career, Gavin has structured over £1.2bn in project finance with Disney, Universal & TWC.
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About Daedalus Partners, LVP: London Venture Partners is a seed fund that focuses on the game ecosystem.
Lili Ibrahim
Art Director of Chucklefish Limited
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About Chucklefish Limited: Computer games developer and publisher
Phil Elliott
Director of Indie Publishing of Square Enix
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About Square Enix: Square Enix develops, publishes, and markets interactive entertainment titles worldwide.
John Rankin
Commercial Director (Consultant) of Stakester
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About Stakester: Stakester is a mobile first skill-based competition platform that enables competitors to compete with each other for prizes.
Dominic Grounsell
Managing Director – UK & Eire Sports Brands of Entain
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About Entain: Entain is a multinational sports betting and gaming group operating in the online and retail sector.
Mehrad Noori
Director, Global Programming of Comcast NBCUniversal
Mehrad Noori is Director, Global Programming, NBCUniversal International Networks (NBCUIN), based at the company’s international headquarters in London. In this position, Noori acquires and produces scripted content for NBCUIN’s portfolio of channels (including Universal TV, SYFY and 13th Street). He is also responsible for creating original immersive content for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Noori most recently served as creator and executive producer on NBCUIN’s groundbre
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About Comcast NBCUniversal: A media and entertainment company.
Eirik Moseng
Director, CTO of Digiment
Eirik Moseng is a successful tech entrepreneur from Norway. For over 30 years he’s been creating pioneering companies in the computer games, technology, telecom, and software space, with numerous successes and innovations to his name, including Digiment and Conspexit. He’s held various positions in multinational companies and he has held roles such as CTO, Technical Director and Senior Software Engineer.
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About : Digiment is an award-winning, leading independent game development and self-publishing company.
Andrew Munden
Live Operations Director of Space Ape
Andrew Munden serves as a live operations director at Space Ape Games.
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About Space Ape: Space Ape is a mobile gaming company dedicated to creating the highest quality games for players.
Amanda Brearley
Operations Director of Space Ape
Amanda Brearley serves as an operations director at Space Ape Games.
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About Space Ape: Space Ape is a mobile gaming company dedicated to creating the highest quality games for players.
Barbara Lippe
Founder, Creative Director of entreZ VR
Barbara Lippe PhD is a unique combination of video-game-art-director-turned actor. Having designed characters for games companies in Tokyo including Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Namco Bandai and creating art for social games years before the rise of the genre and researching what works for a female target audience she has reached a turning point: it’s not enough to DRAW characters, one must BECOME characters. To that end, she has recently graduated from a renowned London acting school. With that new toolkit onboard she’s moving on from designing virtual worlds to creating drama-enriched content for the virtual reality. Bridging the two worlds, she marries the lessons learned on stage & screen with her knowledge of video games and innovates the principles of character development, status and staging for VR.
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About entreZ VR, Snafflz, Spree Interactive: entreZ VR is an experienced team of industry players passionate about storytelling on real and virtual stages.
John Ribbins
Creative Director of Roll7
John Ribbins is the Co-Founder at Roll7.
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About Roll7: Roll7 make games that are Simple to Play.
Thomas Hegarty
Director of Roll7
Thomas Hegarty is the Co-Founder at Roll7.
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About Roll7: Roll7 make games that are Simple to Play.
Elizabeth Sampat
Studio Creative Director of Future Games of London
Elizabeth Sampat is an award-winning game designer and activist. At work, she designs blockbuster titles that are played by millions of fans every day; when she comes home, she crafts personal games that are intimate, revealing, and push the boundaries of the relationship between game and player. In her spare time, Elizabeth also works to make the industry she loves a better place for women and marginalized people. She was on the IGDA Women In Games steering committee for two years; Marie Claire called her “The Game Changer” when they named her one of “20 Women Changing The Ratio” in male-dominated industries. Elizabeth’s personal work has been in the LA Times and on Rock Paper Shotgun, and her advocacy and talks have been covered on Polygon, Kotaku, The Escapist, and more. She’s also an accomplished writer outside of the game industry, and was a regular contributor at The Yearbook Office. Her book “Empathy Engines: Design Games That Are Personal, Political, And Profound” was released in early 2017. She is kind of a feminist, and definitely trouble.
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About Future Games of London, Future Games of London, SYBO Games: We make iPhone, iPad and Android games for all you lovely people 🙂
Ryan Doyle
Technical Director of Hello Games
I’ve been into games for as long as I can remember – one of my earliest memories is playing Robotron 2084. I was amazed, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I was in a science fiction film, a universe where anything was possible. I was hooked. I eventually went to university to study Computer Science, and upon leaving I was lucky enough that Criterion must have been desperate for programmers as they furnished me with my first job in the games industry. I was elated – this was my dream! To be making games, to be able to provide other people with that fantastic feeling you get when you first boot up a new game and it (hopefully) pushes all the right buttons, makes you feel you’re no longer in the world you’re physically sat in but the one on the screen, the one in your head. I had a fantastic time working on the Burnout series, before moving to Kuju for the opportunity to be Lead Programmer on Geometry Wars: Galaxies (I’d been a massive Geometry Wars fan previously). This was another great place to work, a fun atmosphere and fun games being made. Hello Games was the next big step – to try something for ourselves. It’s been an exciting and educational journey, and hopefully we’ll produce games that will bring a smile to your face, or a laugh to your lips as that’s what games mean to me. Fun.
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About Hello Games: Hello Games is a British video game development and publishing company based in Guildford, England.
David Ream
Creative Director of Hello Games
People often ask me – “Excuse me, are you David Ream, Creative Director of Hello Games?” At this point I nod. “I thought so! I would love to know a bit more about you.” I am a polite guy, so I indulge them. I normally start by telling them about how it all started with my Dad and his hacked Atari 2600. Piles of loose ROM chips with stickers on that said things like Frogger, Adventure, Kaboom and Defender. We sigh together nostalgically. I waffle on about old PC games I used to love for a bit, then move on to how I went to University to do Maths and Physics, then a Masters in Computer Science. With my smarts established I next talk about moving down to London to work for Climax as a bright-eyed graduate coder. I take them on a wild journey from there out to Kuju in the game development heartlands of Surrey, including development of some sort on every platform of the time and including personal fanboy favourites such as being able to help create a new Geometry Wars game. If at this point their eyes have glazed over, I drop in casually that I am a keen musician, that I play the piano. That either gives them more useful insight into the David enigma or makes them think I am being a pretentious snot. Who cares? I have re-engaged them. I win! I round it all off by saying how much I enjoy working in games, and how the opportunity to be part of a tight team made up of my mates was one that I could not possibly pass up.They nod knowingly, smile and walk away thoroughly enlightened.
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About Hello Games: Hello Games is a British video game development and publishing company based in Guildford, England.
Caroline Marchal
Founder and Creative Director of Interior Night
Caroline is a narrative game designer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She was lead Game Designer on Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls and has founded a narrative game studio called Interior Night, working on an unannounced new IP.
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About Interior Night: Interior Night is an independent game studio of Quantic Dream and Sony veterans based in London.
Shum Singh
Managing Director & Founder of Agnitio Capital
Shum Singh is the founder and managing director of Agnitio Capital Limited
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About Agnitio Capital: Agnitio Capital is a fully authorised and regulated investment bank focused on digital media and games.
Jason Perkins
Managing Director of Curve Digital
Jason Perkins currently works as the Managing Director for Curve Digital. He previously worked at blue52 limited as the Director.
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About Curve Digital: Indie developer & publisher of fine video games.
Sefton Hill
Game Director, Co-Owner & Co-Founder of Rocksteady Studios
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About Rocksteady Studios: Rocksteady Studios is a multi-award winning videogame developer based in London, England. Located in a spacious, purpose built converted.
Tim Hanagan
Game Code Director of Rocksteady Studios
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About Rocksteady Studios: Rocksteady Studios is a multi-award winning videogame developer based in London, England. Located in a spacious, purpose built converted.
Mark Carter
Commercial Director of EXCEL ESPORTS
Mark’s expertise is in delivering strategic and innovative solutions to global markets by utilizing his wealth of experience in sales, marketing, and product development within the financial and tech sectors. He has worked in the USA, Europe, and the Philippines, and is responsible for driving the global growth of fastacash. Mark was part of the team that took Skrill through two acquisitions in 2 years, resulting in the sale to Optimal Payments in August 2015 for $1bn and has been involved in both the buy and sell-side of M&A transactions. Passionate about delighting consumers whilst delivering real and tangible business benefits to clients, he has delivered business differentiating solutions to start-ups, SMEs, and global businesses. He is a weekend farmer and classic car enthusiast.
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About EXCEL ESPORTS: EXCEL ESPORTS is a competitive gaming culture brand that uses its platform to have a positive impact on the gaming and esports community.
Arnaud De Bock
Director of Pikuniku
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About Pikuniku: Pikuniku is an absurdly wonderful puzzle-exploration game.
Jonathan Elkin
Sales Director of Rightlander
An accomplished leader selling enterprise SaaS and managed service solutions to digital marketing, compliance, legal and InfoSec buyers. Accelerator of revenue growth and creator of high performing teams. Specialising in online brand protection, marketing compliance and information security.
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About Rightlander: Affiliate marketing compliance SaaS solutions
Evgeny Zlotin
Director of Business Development of JuJu Media
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About JuJu Media: Providing bespoke software solutions and innovative marketing tools.
Kate Walker
Marketing Director of WildBrain
Kate Walker, Marketing Director, WildBrain, leads marketing and communications for the DHX owned, multi-platform digital media company. Since its’ launch in 2015, Kate has overseen the growing profile of WildBrain; building the brand on the YouTube platform, and launching original productions. Prior to joining WildBrain she served in a number of senior Marketing positions in the entertainment industry, including Base79, ITV Studios Global Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox Films.
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About WildBrain: Wild Brain is a computer animation studio that creates short cartoons for corporate advertisements and television shows.
Michal Konicek
Director of AccuCities
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About AccuCities: 3D London & 3D City Models for Planning, Architecture, CGI, BIM, VR, Games, 3D Printing
Phil Stuart
Creative Director & Co-Founder of Preloaded
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About Preloaded: They make games that do more than just entertain.
Ted Menmuir
Content Director of Sports Betting Community
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About Sports Betting Community: Sports Betting Community is a leading source for sports betting and igaming, insight, knowledge and opinion.
Jonathan Burroughs
Director & Co-Founder of Variable State
Game developer and co-director of Variable State, an independent video game studio based in London and Dublin.
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About Variable State: Variable State is an independent video game studio based in London and Dublin
Michael Kolarz
Art Director of Motion Stride
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About Motion Stride: Game studio that creates meaningful mobile games to raise awareness and encourage to participate in a good social movement.
Michael Kolarz
Art Director of Motion Stride
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About Motion Stride: Game studio that creates meaningful mobile games to raise awareness and encourage to participate in a good social movement.
Patrick Griffiths
Director & Founder of Indieworx
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About Indieworx: Founded in early 2015. Indieworx is a team of passionate and dedicated individuals looking to bring something fresh to the games industry.
