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 United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Wholesale 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.
Mark Newton-Jones
CEO and Director of Mothercare
Mark Newton-Jones is the CEO and Director at Mothercare.
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About Mothercare: Mothercare Catalogue of baby equipment, clothing and toys with special offers and shopping cart.
David Mills
Chief Executive Officer, Ricoh Europe of Ricoh Company
David Mills is Chief Executive Officer, Ricoh Europe. David is responsible for the strategic direction of the company as well as the operations of Ricoh’s 20 operating companies across EMEA, marketing operations and the supply chain. He joined the Ricoh Group in 2008, having already held several senior roles in our industry including President of European operations at IKON. He then became the Managing Director of Ricoh UK, before joining the Ricoh Europe Board as Executive Vice President, and then COO. He became CEO of Ricoh Europe in April 2014.
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About Ricoh Company: Ricoh is a global technology company provide office imaging equipment, document management systems and IT services.
Fiorina Benveniste-Schuler
Founder & CEO of Selec.to
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About Selec.to: The leading B2B platform for the Fashion Industry
John Corcoran
Chief Executive Officer of Global Switch
John, who has an extensive background in both the property and finance industries, was appointed Executive Chairman of Global Switch in 2008, and assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2014. Previously he served as Chief Financial Officer of Multiplex Group, a large Australian diversified property group, where he was responsible for finance, treasury, administration, planning and major investments. Multiplex Group first became an investor in Global Switch in 2004 and subsequently sold its interest to the Reuben Brothers in 2006. John’s career in the finance industry began at Hambros Bank Limited where he served as a director of its corporate finance business in London, Hong Kong and Sydney where he helped lead the company’s expansion in Asia-Pacific. During this period, John was involved in the bank’s advisory, structured finance, capital markets and development capital businesses, where he worked on major transactions for leading companies around the world. An Australian, John received Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Laws from the University of Sydney. In 1983, he was admitted to the Supreme Court of New South Wales as a solicitor. He has also attended a number of business management and other financial courses.
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About Global Switch: Global Switch is an owner, operator, and developer of large scale network dense, carrier & cloud neutral multi-tenanted data centres
Charles Wilson
Chief Executive Officer of Booker Group
Charles started his career in 1986 with Procter and Gamble following which he was a consultant with OC&C Strategy Consultants and a Director of Abberton Associates. In 1998 he became an Executive Director of Booker plc which merged with Iceland plc in 2000. In 2001 he became an Executive Director of Arcadia Group plc and in 2004 he became an Executive Director of Marks and Spencer Plc. In 2005 he was appointed as Chief Executive of Booker.
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About Booker Group: Booker Group plc is the United Kingdom’s largest food wholesale operator offering branded and private-label goods.
David Howden
Chief Executive Officer of Hyperion Insurance Group
David started his career as a broker at Alexander Howden in 1981. He founded the Group in 1994 originally as a wholesale broker employing just three people. He has been the fundamental driving force behind its expansion into an international insurance group offering wholesale, retail and reinsurance broking, and underwriting. As Chief Executive, David’s focus is on leading the Group’s M&A activities as well as directing and implementing the Group’s strategic growth and direction.
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About Howden Broking Group, Hyperion Insurance Group: Hyperion is an international insurance intermediary group with insurance broking and underwriting agency arms.
Yaniv Toledano
CEO of Qogita
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About Qogita: Wholesale B2B platform aiming to drastically increase market efficiency and supply chain margins.
Ben Wadeson
Co-founder | CEO of Bloomingdeals.co.uk Limited
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About Bloomingdeals.co.uk Limited: Bloomingdeals offers produce delivery services for gardeners and interested parties.
Nicolas Huss
Chief Executive Officer of Hotelbeds
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About Hotelbeds: Hotelbeds is a travel technology company that operates a hotel distribution platform.
Alistair Phillips
CEO of SSE
Alistair has been with SSE since 1997, and possesses a detailed knowledge of the operations of each business area having held a number of senior roles throughout the Company. Prior to joining the Board in 2002 as Energy Supply Director, Alistair was Director of Corporate Finance and Business Development. In 2010, he became Generation and Supply Director, before Deputy Chief Executive in 2012, then Chief Executive in 2013. Alistair’s career progression has supported the development of sound leadership skills and a detailed understanding of the energy markets in Great Britain and Ireland, including the implications of EU membership and the increasingly global context in which they operate. Through his role, Alistair has initiated significant focus on people development and efficient operations in order to develop SSE’s capabilities for future growth. Alistair is a Chartered Accountant and prior to 1997 worked for HSBC and National Westminster Bank.
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About SSE: SSE, provider of energy and related services in a low-carbon world.
Brady Rafuse
CEO of euNetworks Group
Brady Rafuse is the chief executive officer of [euNetworks Group Limited](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/eunetworks-group-limited#/entity), a bandwidth infrastructure provider. He was previously the managing director of COLT Telecom. Rafuse is the former president and chief executive officer of Level 3 Europe before which he was the head of operations for Concert. Rafuse holds a master’s degree from McGill University.
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About euNetworks Group: euNetworks is a Western European provider of bandwidth infrastructure services.
