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 Oxford based CEO’ operating in the Information Technology space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Linda Bell
CEO of MIRICO
Linda holds a DPhil in Chemistry from Oxford University and an MBA, she has had extensive experience of leading and growing science-based international businesses in a range of industrial and process industries. She served as managing director of Servomex Group Ltd, part of Spectris, where she was involved in the supply of gas analysis instruments to blue-chip companies in petrochemical, chemical, laboratory, environmental and healthcare fields.
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About Downing LLP, Fera Science Ltd, MIRICO: Transformational gas measurement
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James Brown
CEO of Smart Communications
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About Smart Communications: Smart Communications is a privately held company that provides cloud-enabled customer communications management services.
David Grimes
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sorted Group
David Grimes is the founder and CEO of Sorted Group, formerly My Parcel Delivery Group.
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About MPD Group, myParcelDelivery, Sorted Group: Sorted Group is a global SaaS company that provides data-driven software for checkouts, warehouses, and shipping.
Frank Averdung
Chief Executive Officer of Oxford PV
Frank P. Averdung joined Oxford PV as Chief Executive Officer in July 2015. He has over 30 years of experience in the Semiconductor industry in leading technology driven organisations, from small startups to large organisations with more than 1000 employees. Prior to joining Oxford PV Frank was President and CEO of SUSS MicroTec AG, a German manufacturer of semiconductor equipment with up to 250 mio US$ of sales. Under his leadership the company became listed in the “TecDAX”, the stock market index for the top 30 publicly traded technology companies in Germany. Having an engineering background (holding the equivalent of a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University Aachen, Germany) Frank spent the first 10 years of his career with semiconductor device companies like Siemens, National Semiconductors and ITT Semiconductors. During this time he held several sales and marketing roles from Key Account Manager, Product Manager to Marketing Director. In 1995 Frank moved to the equipment side of the semiconductor industry and General Manager at Applied Materials and Managing Director of Etec Systems Europe. As CEO of the startup “NawoTec GmbH” he led the successful development and market introduction of semiconductor manufacturing equipment utilising a breakthrough proprietary technology. He sold the company to the German conglomerate Carl Zeiss AG where he became CEO of the enlarged Business Unit and later President and CEO of Carl Zeiss’ US Operations based in Massachusetts. Frank has a proven track record in enhancing companies’ values equally by acquiring and divesting businesses and technologies.
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About Oxford PV: Oxford PV is a provider of perovskite solar cells.
Stuart Mclean
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Zonal Retail Data Systems
Stuart Mclean is the Founder & CEO of Zonal Retail Data Systems & he attended Middlesex University.
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About Zonal Retail Data Systems: Zone Retail Data Systems provides technology solutions to the bar, restaurant, retail, hotel, and leisure industry.
Jason Lee
Founder & CEO of illumr
Jason is a visionary leader with a passion for emergent technologies. He has a proven track record of identifying early-stage, high-growth technology markets and executing business as a first-mover. He co-founded one of the first internet companies in the UK, which won a global award delivering to an international blue-chip client base. His background is in designing electronic, computer and software systems for the oil & aerospace industries. Jason holds a 1st Class MEng (Hons) from Aston University.
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About Founders Pledge, illumr: illumr helps organizations to better understand and predict patterns of behavior that affect them.
Toby Staveley
CEO of Edplus
CEO co-founder of Edplus; serial entrepreneur
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About Edplus: Making learning easier for everyone
Chris Manson
Chief Executive Officer of Newable
Having started out his career as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, Chris has over 20 years’ experience in the start-up and sale of SMEs. With the creation, development and sale of three businesses under his belt, Chris was awarded an EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for London in 2005.
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About Newable: Newable provides finance, consulting, and property services for start-ups, and small and medium-sized businesses in the UK.
Daniel Mitchell
Co-Founder, CEO of Hivemind
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About Hivemind: Data science and technology company specialising in the application of human and machine intelligence to complex unstructured data problems
Craig Wilson
Chief Executive Officer of Williams Advanced Engineering
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About Williams Advanced Engineering: Williams Advanced Engineering is the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group.
Zachary Yerushalmi
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Living Optics
Zachary Yerushalmi is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Living Optics.
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About Circadian Therapeutics, Living Optics: Living Optics is an imaging technology company.
Phil Barry
Founder and CEO of Blokur
Phil Barry joined Blokur as Founder in 2016.
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About Blokur: Blokur is a tech company that empowers Internet of Creators using blockchain technology.
Adam Reynolds
CEO of Webexpenses
Adam Reynolds is CEO of webexpenses, a fast-growing global expenses management software provider. With an extensive background in software and leadership, he joined webexpenses as head of sales in 2013. He became CEO of webexpenses in 2015, and now oversees all business functions from technical and product development to customer services. Webexpenses software is used in over 70 countries throughout the world, and with offices open in Sydney, Brisbane and Austin, the business continues to grow internationally.
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About Webexpenses: Webexpenses is the creator of a web based mobile application that strives to simplify the expenses process for large organizations.
Conrad Wolfram
Chief Executive Officer of Wolfram Research
Conrad Wolfram is a mathematician, technologist, and entrepreneur. He founded the European [Wolfram Research](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/wolfram-research) in 1991 and works as its CEO. He launched computerbasedmath.org in 2010. Since 1997, Wolfram has also been a strategic director of the worldwide group, where he initiates and directs the business, marketing, design, and a variety of strategic technical projects, including the CDF Player concept to webMathematica, which underlies Wolfram|Alpha to conceptualizing wolfram.com. Conrad Wolfram has an MA from Cambridge University, U.K., where he read physics and mathematics.
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About ComputerBasedMath.org, Wolfram Alpha, Wolfram Research, Wolfram Research: Wolfram Research is a computer, web, and cloud software company that offers solutions for sectors such as education, R&D, and sciences.
Sean Miller
Co Founder & CEO of Tubular
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About Jyst Creative, Tubular: A sales tracking, collaboration, and workflow platform for sales teams.
Mike Morgan
Founder & CEO of Peoplevalue Ltd
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About Peoplevalue Ltd: Motivation solutions for companies in the UK and Europe.
Martin Hingley
CEO of ITCandor
Martin is a leading computer industry researcher. He particularly enjoys tracking the complexity and dynamism of the ITC market and helping business planners with their challenges. He is currently working on ‘GDPR awareness’ and ‘F1 IT’ research projects. He is the author of ‘Martin Hingley’s Blog’ (http://www.itcandor.com) – dedicated to analysing the ITC Industry and unique in its inclusion of detailed market data, sizing and forecasts in its 900 published articles. From the basis of his continuous quarterly market sizing activities he publishes 10 predictions each year, with 2017 as his 8th set. As an analyst he believes in employing strong methodologies and accurate measurement as the basis for informed opinion and guidance. He has a collaborative, social approach to management. Earlier in his career he was Group VP and Chief Research Officer of IDC in Europe having begun as an analyst at Inteco. Martin holds an MA in Classics from Corpus Christi College, Oxford University. His hobbies include playing saxophone in jazz and soul bands, landscape painting and fossil hunting.
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About ITCandor: ITCandor is a company dedicated to researching, understanding and advising industry.
