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 COO’ operating in the Energy space. If you think a COO’ 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.
Gianluca Pisanello
COO of First Light Fusion
Gianluca Pisanello currently works as Chief Operating Officer at First Light Fusion.
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About First Light Fusion: First Light Fusion is an energy company that focuses on researching energy generation by inertial confinement fusion.
Paolo Tonucci
Chief Operating Officer of Marex Spectron
Paolo Tonucci joined Marex Spectron in March 2018 as Chief Operating Officer. He was previously at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Commbank) based in Sydney, where he was Group Treasurer, with responsibility for funding, capital and balance sheet management. Before Commbank, he was Head of Funding and Liquidity at Barclays Bank in London. Prior to Barclays, Paolo spent 12 years at Lehman Brothers in London and New York, latterly as Global Treasurer where he managed a team of 220. Paolo is a Chartered Accountant and has an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
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About Marex Spectron: Marex Spectron is a broker offering unrivalled breadth of commodity market.
Susan Lang-Bissell
Chief Operating Officer of Sunamp
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About Sunamp: Sunamp is a company that provides industrial and residential heat battery storage systems.
Gary Fraser
Chief Operating Officer of Foresight Group
Chief Operating Officer at Foresight Group LLP.
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About Foresight Group: Foresight is an infrastructure and private equity investment manager that manages funds on behalf of institutions and retail clients.
Iain Tobin
Chief Operating & Financial Officer of Upside Energy
Iain Tobin is Chief Corporate Officer at Carbon Clean. He joined the company in 2020.
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About Carbon Clean Solutions, Upside Energy: Upside Energy reduces greenhouse gases by enabling people to make smart choices about when to use energy.
Catherine Wainwright
Chief Operating Officer of RWE
Catherine is Chief Operating Officer of RWE Supply & Trading’s Principal Investments fund. RWEST Principal Investments runs a broad based portfolio of asset and equity investments across the commodity trading spectrum. Catherine has 30 years’ experience in commodity trading and related asset, M&A and Principal Investment activities. She has led a number of major commercial transactions and acquisitions for RWE and was previously head of UK Structured Origination for RWE Supply & Trading. Catherine led RWEST’s successful acquisition, biomass project development and the eventual sale of Lynemouth Power Station, including the award and EU state aid approval for a UK government contract. She acted as Chair of the Board of Directors of Lynemouth Power Limited for 3 years. Catherine holds a degree in Theoretical Physics from Durham University and a Masters in Business Administration from Birmingham University.
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About RWE: RWE is pan-European energy company.
Vijay Natarajan
Co-founder & COO of Q Energy
10+ yrs experience in Marketing, strategy, product development, worked on UK & European smart city projects, IoT solutions
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About Q Energy: Q Energy provides new revenue streams and savings on energy bills by enabling proactive management of consumption, production.
Alan Manuel
Chief Operating Officer – UK & Europe of Currie & Brown (Australia)
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About Currie & Brown (Australia): Currie & Brown is a project services consultancy firm.
Dimitris Nikolaidis
Co-Founder and COO of Perceptual Robotics
Dimitris Nikolaidis is the COO and co-founder at Perceptual Robotics.
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About Perceptual Robotics: Perceptual Robotics is creating intelligent automation to make wind turbine and other infrastructure inspection simple and fast
Paul Gemmill
Chief Operating Officer of Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Paul studied modern history at Oxford before gaining an MBA from London Business School. Before joining BBSRC he was Director of Regulation at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and in 2000 he was a founding director of the Disability Rights Commission. Paul also has considerable experience in the voluntary sector including strategic fundraising with The Prince’s Trust and leading strategy for the British Red Cross Society. Prior to that Paul worked in the private sector for National Power PLC. Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
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About Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council: BBSRC invests in bioscience research and training focused on climate change, sustainable food production, land use and energy production.
Roxanna Zea
Chief Operating Officer of Origami
Roxanna brings more than 20 years of experience in business operations, partnerships, strategic planning and scaling businesses. She has worked across the Technology and Telecoms industries, both within global corporations and heading up fast-growing new business. Roxanna has held various senior leadership roles at Google, and more recently has held executive roles at Tele2 Group and two-sided marketplace technology company, Rentify. She has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from London Business School, is a Chartered Accountant, and is currently studying for a Masters in Executive Coaching at Ashridge.
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About Origami: Intelligent trading and automation software for short term power trading. SaaS.
Jeremy Lock
COO of Vestemi
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About Vestemi: Vestemi is a new technology product company with a social purpose.
Thomas Carr Stuart
Chief Operating Officer. Founding member of IDDEA
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About IDDEA, LandTrader: IDDEA provides solar panels, battery storage and electric vehicle charging points.
Andrew Nunn
COO of Cluff Natural Resources
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About Cluff Natural Resources: Cluff Natural Resources Plc is an AIM-listed natural resources investing company.
Varun Sharma
COO of Enian
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About Enian: Project management software for renewable energy professionals.
