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 Partner operating in the Media and Entertainment space. If you think a Partner 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.
Jambu Palaniappan
Managing Partner of OMERS Ventures
Jambu Palaniappan is Managing Partner of OMERS Ventures in Europe. He previously had several executive roles at Uber, where he was among the first 100 employees of the company globally. From 2012 to 2014, he led Uber’s international expansion in EMEA and India. From 2014 to 2016, he served as Regional General Manager for Uber in Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa leading a team of 300 as Uber built and scaled its business in that region. From 2016 to 2018, he was Head of Uber Eats in EMEA. He is also currently a Non-Executive Director of JustEat PLC. Jambu studied Public Policy and Economics at Vanderbilt University.
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About OMERS Ventures: OMERS Ventures is a transatlantic multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies
Henry Gladwyn
Partner of OMERS Ventures
In his role as Principal at OMERS Ventures, located in our London office, Henry is responsible for researching and executing on investment opportunities and supporting portfolio companies post-investment. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Henry was an investor at BGF Ventures where he led several Series A & B investments including the Cybersecurity startup, Garrison Technology, and the biometric identity platform, AimBrain. Before BGF Ventures, Henry was a Lawyer at Slaughter and May, and later served as General Counsel at the late-stage venture capital fund Hedosophia where he led the legal process for all investments. Henry holds a History degree from Christ’s College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) from BBP University.
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About OMERS Ventures: OMERS Ventures is a transatlantic multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies
Harry Briggs
Managing Partner & Founder of OMERS Ventures
Harry is a partner at OMERS Ventures, previously at Balderton Capital & BGF Ventures- and the youngest investor in the inaugural Forbes “Midas List Europe”, thanks to investments such as The Hut Group, GoCardless, Touch Surgery and Revolut. Prior to Balderton, Harry co-founded Firefly Tonics, a healthy energy drink brand that sells in over 30 countries, sold to Private Equity in 2012. Harry started his career at McKinsey & Co., the strategy consultancy, in London and New York.
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About OMERS Ventures: OMERS Ventures is a transatlantic multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies
Emily Kasriel
Head of Editorial Partnerships and Special Projects of BBC
Emily Kasriel develops strategic partnerships and thought leadership for the BBC World Service Group which includes the BBC World Service, BBC World TV and BBC.com and reaches over a quarter of a billion people every week on TV, radio and digital. Emily is also an Associate Fellow at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. She has had an award winning career as a broadcaster and editor at the BBC – creating, running and presenting The Forum, the landmark weekly ideas show on the BBC World Service after running their Arts and Religion departments, and has reported and produced for the BBC across five continents. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Financial Times and chairs panels and discussions at conferences and events. Emily is also a BBC Executive Coach, on the board of The Wingate Foundation which supports charities, and the advisory board of Spark Inside, an NGO which transforms the lives of young people who have offended.
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About BBC, BBC, Windgate Foundation: BBC is a large-scale broadcasting corporation that offers content to inform, educate, and entertain people.
Matt Gallop
BBC Education Partnerships Producer of BBC
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About BBC: BBC is a large-scale broadcasting corporation that offers content to inform, educate, and entertain people.
Carly Schwartz
Partner Strategy Manager of Corus Entertainment
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About Corus Entertainment: Corus Entertainment is one of Canada’s most successful integrated media and entertainment companies.
Steve Madincea
Managing Partner of Fantastec
Steve Madincea is a recognised international sports industry entrepreneur having created, built and led sports sponsorship teams around the world to serve blue chip clients such as Aston Martin, Ford, Coca-Cola, Rolex, Subway, Casio, Samsung, PUMA, Jaguar, AT&T, Bridgestone, Red Bull, Land Rover, Shell, the NFL, the NBA, The UEFA Champions League, Formula 1 and The FIFA World Cup amongst others. Founder of PRISM, global leader in sports marketing and WPP’s first acquisition in the sponsorship and brand activation space. Founder & Group Managing Director, PRISM & Sports Marketing Global Leader, WPP (2000 – 2016); Startup Engineer, Outside the Box (1998 – 2004); Founder, of PRISM (Public Relations & International Sports Marketing) (1993 – 1999) (acquired by WPP); Commercial Director, Benetton-Ford Formula One team (1990 -1992).
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About Fantastec: Fantastec invents the future of international sports fan engagement.
Andrew Wrobel
Founding Partner, Strategy & Content; Leader, Tech Emerging Europe Advocates of Emerging Europe
Andrew Wrobel is head of editorial at Emerging Europe, an online publication discussing business opportunities in 23 countries across Central and Eastern Europe. Trained as a journalist and a film maker, he has worked for broadcast media for over a decade. Since the beginning of his career he has covered business, investment, trade, macro-economy and political economy and, occasionally, culture and tourism. He regularly interviews political and business leaders about economics, business and politics. His main area of expertise is Central and Eastern Europe. He has authored and contributed to a number of international business, investment and trade-related publications, guides and reports, mainly about the CEE region.
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About Emerging Europe: Emerging Europe Promoting discussion about business opportunities in Central & Eastern Europe.
Martin Beauchamp
Head of Data Strategy, Managing Partner of Wavemaker
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About Wavemaker: Wavemaker provides next-generation media, content, technology solutions, and advertisement services to reinvent the media agency.
Guendalina Cobianchi
Business Development & Partnerships of V-Nova
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About V-Nova: Next-generation video and image compression that works today
Paul Maidement
Partner – Managing Director of TRIARC
Paul joined TRIARC in 2016 to develop TRIARC Learning and to develop the company’s international partnerships. Paul’s career at the BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide spanned almost 20 years during which time he ran a number of business units in the digital media and content spaces. Most notably he ran the clip sales arm BBC Motion Gallery which licensed video material around the world. In addition Paul also oversaw BBC Worldwide Learning, the division producing content from archive to map against learning requirements. Paul helped BBC Worldwide secure a long term contract for BBC Motion Gallery with Getty Images and he then took the opportunity to realise his ambition to run his own business, Kite Media Limited which was established in January 2015. At a time when content continues to be king, Paul helps organisations curate and commercialise their material – usually video – which more often than not has been languishing on the shelf. In addition Paul’s experience has proved invaluable to a number of start-up or immature businesses in the digital media market and he helps them with their planning, investment and ‘go to market’ activity. Paul has associates around the world and Kite Media’s client base is truly global.
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About TRIARC: Stock footage Licensing Platform
