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 Communities 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.
Arnold Allemang
Member of the Board of Directors of American Chemical Society
Arnold A. Allemang was a member of the Board of Directors for The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan. The Dow Chemical Company – Employee of Dow 1965-2008. Manufacturing General Manager, Dow Benelux N.V. 1992-1993. Regional Vice President, Manufacturing and Administration, Dow Benelux N.V. 1993. Vice President, Manufacturing Operations, Dow Europe GmbH 1993-1995. Dow Vice President and Director of Manufacturing and Engineering 1996-1997. Dow Vice President, Operations 1997-2000. Executive Vice President 2000-2004. Senior Advisor 2004-2008. Member of the Advisory Board for RPM Ventures; the President’s Circle of Sam Houston State University; and the American Chemical Society.
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About : The American Chemical Society is a non-profit scientific society that supports scientific research and inquiry in the field of chemistry.
Marian Gazdik
Director, Europe of Startup Grind
Marian has over twenty years of business experience, having worked in different marketing and product management roles with fast growing technology businesses. He is Director at Startup Grind Europe, world’s largest organisation for entrepreneurs, based in 150 countries. Marian is a founding partner at IPM Growth, a venture capital company that invests in high growth companies from Central and Eastern Europe with world class technology. In 2015 he co-founded Braintrust, a think-tank of top entrepreneurs based in the Central & Eastern Europe region. Marian is an advisory board member at Tachyum and is a member of Acquisition Committee (REEAC) at TATE Gallery. He was featured in New Europe 100 (organised by the Financial Times, Google, Respublica and Visegrad Strategy), a list of outstanding leaders in world class innovation from Central and Eastern Europe. Marian holds an MBA from ESCP, the oldest business school in the world.
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About BrainTrust, InfraPartners Management, IPM Growth, Startup Grind, Tate: Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs.
Robin Souter
Founder / Transformation Director of Opogo
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About Opogo: Opogo is a community platform designed to help schools attract and retain the talent that’s right for them.
Jon Eades
Director and Co-Founder of The Rattle
Jon heads up Abbey Road’s new technology and innovation department, Abbey Road Red, managing the music tech start-up incubation program and partnering with researchers to investigate emerging technologies for music.
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About Abbey Road Red, Abbey Road Studios, The Rattle: The Rattle is a venture studio and incubator for provocative artists, hackers, inventors, and startups.
Jeremy McKeown
Non-Executive Director of HealthUnlocked
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About HealthUnlocked: HealthUnlocked is a social network for health.
Jenny Fallover
London City Director of Lesbians Who Tech
Jenny Fallover has over 20 years’ experience in technology and currently works as a delivery lead at Thomson Reuters. She is also a London City Director for Lesbians Who Tech, Co-Chair for the Gay Women’s Network, author at Gay Star News, an expert for Apps for Good and mentor for Coder Dojo. More recently she joined the steering committee for a new magazine for emerging female writers, Salome. Jenny was featured in the Brummel Top 30 Ones to Watch List in 2016 and was awarded LGBT Role Model of the Year in Jan 2017 by Stonewall. More recently she was a TechWomen50 award winner.
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About Lesbians Who Tech: Lesbian Who Tech is an online community of queer women meeting up on a monthly basis to socialize and discuss popular tech topics.
Alberto Masetti-Zannini
Development Director of Impact Hub
Alberto leads the organisation’s programmatic work in the areas of incubation, acceleration, scaling and development. He is also the Founder and President of Impact Hub Milan, Italy’s first centre for social innovation and the impact economy. He coordinates on behalf of the Impact Hub Network a large EU-funded project called BENISI, which aims to scale social innovation in Europe and create the foundations of a network of incubators for social innovation, a project and consortium that he co-designed. Prior to the Impact Hub Network, Alberto worked for large international NGOs in various capacities, including project financing, programme development and fundraising. He holds a BA hons from Bologna University in Contemporary History and an MSc from the LSE in Global Politics.
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About Impact Hub: Impact Hub provides a workspace that connects entrepreneurs for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Maria Trindade
Global Network Development Director of Impact Hub
Maria Trindade is a professional with a track record of experience in project and operational management with a solid knowledge in human resources and team management.
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About Impact Hub: Impact Hub provides a workspace that connects entrepreneurs for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Mike Thompson
Director and Co-Founder, London of Impact Hub
Mike is Director of Goodbrand and has been with them since it began. Mike is responsible for the stewardship of the Goodbrand community and its resources. He is also chairman of AddVenture, a Romanian social enterprise and another GoodBrand Idea and co-founder of Good Leaders Online (www.glo-china.com). Mike is currently based at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, from where he writes, travels and speaks on sustainable enterprise and responsible leadership. Mike’s passions are adventuring and the poetry and song of the Welsh landscape.
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About Impact Hub: Impact Hub provides a workspace that connects entrepreneurs for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Juan Juan Clemente Lopez
Creative Director of Favorey
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About Favorey: We are building a community of trust, where we can all ask for help from trusted contacts, and use our skills to help others.
Martine Parnell
Director of Members, Marketing and Digital of Royal Horticultural Society
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About Royal Horticultural Society: The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening.
Catherine Sermon
Employability Director of Business in the Community
Catherine joined Business in the Community in 1998, after completing a Master of Arts in Marketing. She has held various posts including campaigning, research and development, and advisory services work predominantly across community and workplace teams. This has included establishing the Business Action on Health campaign in 2005 and leading the strategic direction of all community campaigns from 2008 to 2012. Two maternity leaves later, Catherine is Employment Director, leading BITC’s work to increase access to quality & sustainable work for people facing disadvantage, including the flagship Ready for Work programme. She is also a trustee of the Batten Disease Family Association.
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About Business in the Community, Business in the Community: Business in the Community is a business-led, issue-focused charity with more than 30 years’ experience of mobilising business.
Maggie Porteous
Non Executive Director of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
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About Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust includes a full variety of local primary healthcare services to people of Sheffield.
David Hughes
Managing Director of What’s Possible Group
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About What’s Possible Group: What’s Possible Group is a marketing group exclusively for marketers at dynamic growth brands.
Wayne Kurtzman
Research Director of Social and Collaboration Solutions of IDC
Wayne Kurtzman is the research director of social media, communities, and collaboration at IDC.
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About IDC: IDC provides market intelligence solutions, advisory services, and events for the information technology and other related markets.
Philip Carnelley
Research Director of IDC
Philip Carnelley is AVP for IDC’s European Software Group, and has over 20 years’ experience of working in the IT industry as an analyst, consultant, and applications developer in a variety of industries around Europe. He leads IDC’s European research on enterprise applications and analytics, with a particular focus on big data and cognitive/AI software and solutions and their implications for digital business transformation. He heads IDC’s multi-disciplinary European Cognitive/AI Research Practice, and he also oversees IDC’s European Software Tracker analyst team. He is also tasked with writing and presenting on broader enterprise software trends and the impact of emerging software technologies in the European region. He is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at industry events.
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About IDC: IDC provides market intelligence solutions, advisory services, and events for the information technology and other related markets.
Philip Carnelley
Research Director of IDC
Philip Carnelley is AVP for IDC’s European Software Group, and has over 20 years’ experience of working in the IT industry as an analyst, consultant, and applications developer in a variety of industries around Europe. He leads IDC’s European research on enterprise applications and analytics, with a particular focus on big data and cognitive/AI software and solutions and their implications for digital business transformation. He heads IDC’s multi-disciplinary European Cognitive/AI Research Practice, and he also oversees IDC’s European Software Tracker analyst team. He is also tasked with writing and presenting on broader enterprise software trends and the impact of emerging software technologies in the European region. He is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at industry events.
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About IDC: IDC provides market intelligence solutions, advisory services, and events for the information technology and other related markets.
Paddy O’Clery
Business Development Director of Amber Energy
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About Amber Energy: AMBER is a for profit cooperative with the goal of growing community based green energy generation in Ontario by engaging residents.
Richard Millington
Founder & Managing Director of FeverBee
Richard Millington has spent the past decade helping 250+ companies develop some of the world’s largest online communities. Richard is the founder of FeverBee, an international community consultancy, and the author of Buzzing Communities. Richard’s clients have included Google, Facebook, Oracle, Wikipedia, EMC, Greenpeace, and many more. Prior to FeverBee, Richard interned with Seth Godin in New York.
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About FeverBee: FeverBee provides consultancy, training, and technology to help you build your community.
James Drinkwater
Director of World Green Building Council
James Drinkwater leads the work of World Green Business Council’s Europe Regional Network, a community of over 20 national Green Building Councils, 9 regional partners, and over 4.500 members from across the buildings sector – and is a regular adviser to the EU and UN on sustainable built environment issues He has spearheaded ground-breaking initiatives that have seen major banks agree an EU-wide definition for ‘green mortgages’, over 2,000 organizations come together to establish ambitious building renovation strategies across over half of Europe and is now taking on the challenge of mainstreaming life cycle assessment and circular construction.
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About World Green Building Council: The World Green Building Council is a non-profit organization and a coalition of national Green Building Councils.
Mike Owen
Cyber Consulting Director of Mishcon de Reya
Mike is a Cyber Consulting Director at Mishcon de Reya, leading the firm’s consulting focused services. He has an extensive range of experience in cyber security including cyber security governance and risk management, cyber strategy and technical architecture. Mike often is called upon to lead compliance implementation and management programmes, including ISO27001 and PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standard) projects. He has experience across a wide range of sectors and organisations of all sizes, and has been most recently focused on the Fintech, Energy, and Transportation sectors. Mike has previously held a range of internal and consulting roles, having started his career with a small software house that became a leading security software provider. Combining the experience of both in house and consulting, Mike is able to provide a range of cyber consulting services while truly understanding the pressures on in-house teams.
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About Mishcon de Reya: Mishcon de Reya services an international community of clients.
Mike Owen
Cyber Consulting Director of Mishcon de Reya
Mike is a Cyber Consulting Director at Mishcon de Reya, leading the firm’s consulting focused services. He has an extensive range of experience in cyber security including cyber security governance and risk management, cyber strategy and technical architecture. Mike often is called upon to lead compliance implementation and management programmes, including ISO27001 and PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standard) projects. He has experience across a wide range of sectors and organisations of all sizes, and has been most recently focused on the Fintech, Energy, and Transportation sectors. Mike has previously held a range of internal and consulting roles, having started his career with a small software house that became a leading security software provider. Combining the experience of both in house and consulting, Mike is able to provide a range of cyber consulting services while truly understanding the pressures on in-house teams.
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About Mishcon de Reya: Mishcon de Reya services an international community of clients.
Mike Warriner
Non Executive Director of Classlist.com
Mike Warriner is SVP Engineering for Crypto.com, building a world class Crypto-currency engineering team across Europe. Previously VP/CTO for Skyscanner, Digital CIO at HSBC and Engineering Director at Google, Mike has 30 years of experience across all aspects of the technology industry. Mike has a passion for STEM and Computer Science education and making sure that our children are able to be instrumental in the amazing technical opportunities that are all around them. He holds a MA in Computer Science from Cambridge University and lives in the UK with his wife and two young children.
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About Crypto.com: Classlist enables parents at the same school to make trusted, secure connections; making their life easier and school communities stronger.
Richard Harries
Associate Director of Institute for Community Studies
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About Institute for Community Studies, St. Mary’s University: Institute for Community Studies is a research institute that focuses on people and communities.
Maria Baibakova
Founder & Director of Baibakov Art Projects
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About Baibakov Art Projects: Baibakov Art Projects is a contemporary art organization with a mission of supporting Russian artists globally.
Lorraine Rees
Managing Director of IR-connect
After 20 years in financial services, Lorraine founded IR-connect in 2014 as a boutique investor relations consultancy firm. During her time in the City, she realised that there was limited support available for small and medium sized companies who wanted to maximize the impact of their investor communications. With her experience and expertise, she has addressed this gap in the market. Since launching IR-connect, she has provided practical, hands-on IPO support, training courses for people new to the area or looking to expand their skills, and conducted in-depth shareholder sentiment studies to help companies position their investment case.
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About IR-connect: IR-connect is an investor relations advisory and training company.
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.
Michael Malen
Director of 6 Degrees Network
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About 6 Degrees Network: A hybrid networking company, for ordinary individuals to meet extraordinary people within their field of practice.
Ergys Peka
Founder / Director of 6 Degrees Network
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About : A hybrid networking company, for ordinary individuals to meet extraordinary people within their field of practice.
Julie Lake
CEO, Founding Director of FinTechCity – The FinTech50
Julie is CEO and Founding Director of The FinTech50 launched in 2013 to recognize the European game-changers transforming financial services. Published annually, the list is now helping FinTech companies to raise profile globally, connect with influencers, investors and funders and generate business. In 2017, the FinTech50 will announce the first FinTech50 Asia and a new Financial Inclusion 50 which will showcase innovators worldwide who are delivering greater access to financial services.
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About FinTechCity – The FinTech50: FinTechCity London is the home of The FInTech50 – 50 game-changing businesses across Europe.
Nigel Clapham
Managing Director of NC Communications
Nigel has 20 years experience in event management starting with Maxwell Communications largest industry events in the construction markets before moving on to Telecommunications. Nigel has worked in the I.T. field for the last ten years. He has built strong relationships with our partners and clients including HP, Intel, Microsoft, IBM and Symantec.
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About NC Communications: NC Communications is a provider of content and events for the Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 community.
Guy Levin
Executive Director of Coadec (The Coalition for a Digital Economy)
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About Coadec (The Coalition for a Digital Economy): The policy voice of UK digital startups
Guy Levin
Executive Director of Coadec (The Coalition for a Digital Economy)
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About Coadec (The Coalition for a Digital Economy): The policy voice of UK digital startups
Jim Killock
Executive Director of Open Rights Group
Jim Killock is Executive Director of Open Rights Group.
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About Open Rights Group: Open Rights Group is a non-profit organization that exists to protect civil liberties.
Ivan Genchev
Director/Founder of Enjoy Minded
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About Enjoy Minded: Enjoy your favourite activities with like-minded people
Ivan Genchev
Director/Founder of Enjoy Minded
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About Enjoy Minded: Enjoy your favourite activities with like-minded people
Charlie Lines
Events Director and Founder of The Ecommerce Club
Charlie Lines is the director and founder at Mixing Digital and The Ecommerce Club. She used to work as a freelance Marketing & Sales manager for CleanTech magazine. Charlie is a graduate of Thomas Bennett Community College & Crawley College of Technology.
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About The Ecommerce Club: The Ecommerce Club is a member-led group dedicated to encouraging and supporting retailers in developing e-commerce expertise.
Charlie Lines
Events Director and Founder of The Ecommerce Club
Charlie Lines is the director and founder at Mixing Digital and The Ecommerce Club. She used to work as a freelance Marketing & Sales manager for CleanTech magazine. Charlie is a graduate of Thomas Bennett Community College & Crawley College of Technology.
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About The Ecommerce Club: The Ecommerce Club is a member-led group dedicated to encouraging and supporting retailers in developing e-commerce expertise.
Jamie Bartlett
Director, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media of Demos
Jamie Bartlett is the author of The Dark Net, an examination of the hidden corners of the internet, its strange subcultures, and the protagonists that inhabit it – from trolls, Bitcoin miners, political extremists and members of the hacktivist group Anonymous, to pornographers, drug dealers, computer scientists and neo-Nazis. In researching his book, Jamie spent a substantial amount of time embedded with these characters, comparing their real life personas with their online avatars. The Dark Net offers a startling glimpse of human nature under the conditions of freedom and anonymity, and shines a light on an enigmatic and ever-changing world. As Head of the Violence and Extremism Programme and the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos, Jamie has researched and written extensively about radical political parties and movements across Europe. He also writes on technology for the Telegraph and for several other publications on how the internet is changing politics and society. Jamie’s next book, Radicals Chasing Utopia: Inside the Rogue Movements Trying to Change the World explores the individuals, groups and movements that reject the way we live today.
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About Demos: Demos is a champion of people, ideas, and democracy.
Jamie Bartlett
Director, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media of Demos
Jamie Bartlett is the author of The Dark Net, an examination of the hidden corners of the internet, its strange subcultures, and the protagonists that inhabit it – from trolls, Bitcoin miners, political extremists and members of the hacktivist group Anonymous, to pornographers, drug dealers, computer scientists and neo-Nazis. In researching his book, Jamie spent a substantial amount of time embedded with these characters, comparing their real life personas with their online avatars. The Dark Net offers a startling glimpse of human nature under the conditions of freedom and anonymity, and shines a light on an enigmatic and ever-changing world. As Head of the Violence and Extremism Programme and the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos, Jamie has researched and written extensively about radical political parties and movements across Europe. He also writes on technology for the Telegraph and for several other publications on how the internet is changing politics and society. Jamie’s next book, Radicals Chasing Utopia: Inside the Rogue Movements Trying to Change the World explores the individuals, groups and movements that reject the way we live today.
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About Demos: Demos is a champion of people, ideas, and democracy.
Paul Noble
Creative Director of Spiritland
Paul Noble is Creative Director @ Spiritland.
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About Spiritland: Spiritland is a new space for listening to music, open every day from 6th October 2014 to 1st January 2015
Paul Noble
Creative Director of Spiritland
Paul Noble is Creative Director @ Spiritland.
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About Spiritland: Spiritland is a new space for listening to music, open every day from 6th October 2014 to 1st January 2015
William North
Director of SheCanCode
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About SheCanCode: Bridging the digital gender divide by empowering women to enter and remain in the tech industry.
William North
Director of SheCanCode
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About SheCanCode: Bridging the digital gender divide by empowering women to enter and remain in the tech industry.
Peter Gregory
Marketing & Sales Director of Iturus Limited
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About Iturus Limited: Online Scheduler platform for Freelancers and the SME Community
