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 Government 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.
James Mawson
CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Mawsonia
James was editor of Private Equity News, part of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal in London, for nearly four years until May, 2010 when he launched Global Corporate Venturing as an independent title from his own publishing company. This was followed by the launch of Global University Venturing and Global Government Venturing by the publishing company, Mawsonia.
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About Global Corporate Venturing, London Press Club, Mawsonia: Mawsonia is a publishing and events company. Titles: Global Corporate Venturing, Global University Venturing, Global Government Venturing.
Sharon White
CEO of Ofcom
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About Ofcom: Ofcom is the UK’s communications regulator.
Simon Riggs
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 2ndQuadrant
Simon Riggs is the Founder and CEO of 2ndQuadrant. Simon has worked with enterprise-class database applications and uses his operational experience to contribute to many features of PostgreSQL’s internal design and usability. He is also co-author of the “PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook” series.
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About 2ndQuadrant: 2ndQuadrant provides solutions for mission critical PostgreSQL databases, ensuring high availability, backup & disaster recovery, & more.
Joshua Gould
Chief Executive Officer of thebigword
Welcome to my Crunchbase page. People refer to me as an entrepreneur and I think that the true test of an entrepreneur is to believe that you really can achieve your dreams, not just once but over and over. I’m now CEO of a $100 million company that I started from scratch but I began my working life as an apprentice and that’s why, throughout my career, I’ve been such a supporter of apprenticeships and training. My company, thebigword, is now one of the world’s largest tech-enabled language services companies. We employ nearly 500 people, based in 12 offices in nine countries, working with more than 10,000 linguists from 73 countries. Every month thebigword interprets over two million minutes of speech in 235 languages over the telephone globally and our linguists carry out 14,500 face-to-face interpreting appointments throughout the US and UK. We also translate 35 million written words every month in hundreds of languages. Technology has truly revolutionised our business with developments we could only have dreamed of 20 years ago. Just a few of the game-changing developments in that time have been: global online selling, over the phone interpreting, machine translation, and translation memory. Our Apprentice programme is one of the most successful in the UK. In just two years we have progressed 82 Apprentices through the scheme and 67 percent of them have gone on to full-time jobs in company. Recently I was proud to accept on behalf of thebigword the award for ‘Large Employer of the Year’ at the UK Apprenticeship Awards. I now divide my time between living in New York and Leeds, England and visiting our many global offices. I continue to be enthused and excited by business and the difference it can make to people’s lives.
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About thebigword, WordSynk: We are technology-driven language communication leaders trusted by the top 100 global brands and organizations. What language barrier?
Fintan Galvin
CEO of Invotra Ltd
Fintan is the founder / owner of Invotra. He has a passion for delivery and keeping things focussed and connected. With over 25 years in enterprise technology he has a vast array of knowledge in getting large scales systems developed and deployed out to the people that count.
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About : Enterprise Intranet and Portal solutions for organisations worldwide
Darius Khan
Chief Executive Officer of infini Group
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About infini Group: Infini delivers infrastructure services to governments, businesses, and intermediaries via its cloud-based grid architecture.
Crispin Beale
Chief Executive Officer of Insight250
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About ESOMAR, Insight250: Insight250 provides insights into data-driven leaders in academics, business, government, technology, consultancy, media, and associations.
Fiona Piercy
CEO of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership
Fiona has headed the national centre of excellence in regeneration and growth and the Midlands Engine economic development organisation. She is currently leading the W5G Testbed programme, focussed on driving Industry 4.0, developing the network sustainability model and supporting the Midlands Digital Strategy. Fiona has an MBA from University of Reading and has completed the SBS Oxford Artificial Intelligence programme.
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About Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership: Worcestershire is responsible for creating and delivering economic growth and jobs in the County.
Cristina Gamboa
CEO of World Green Building Council
Cristina Gamboa is the CEO of the World Green Building Council. She’s a passionate advocate for green buildings and cities as one of the most effective solutions to climate change, and as a means to deliver on social justice and other environmental goals, such as stopping biodiversity loss. She previously worked as the CEO of Colombia Green Building Council and also has expertise in the fields of economic research, journalism, and international affairs. Thanks to her active, committed, and participatory leadership and thorough knowledge of sustainable development, the Colombia GBC met significant milestones that enabled sustainability in construction to become mainstream.
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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.
Luc Delany
CEO and Founder of Delany & Co
Luc Delany is the CEO of the ISGA. Luc is also the Founder and CEO of Delany & Co, a public policy and communications agency. He is a former policy executive at Google and Facebook, a Fellow of the British American Project, and sits on the University of Maastricht External Advisory Board of the Faculty of Arts and Science.
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About Delany & Co, International Social Games Association: Delany & Co. is a public policy and strategic communications agency that helps innovative tech organisations to achieve their objectives.
Diane Lightfoot
CEO of Business Disability Forum
Diane joined Business Disability Forum as Chief Executive Officer in February 2017 after moving from her former role as Director of Policy and Communications for United Response, a leading national disability charity. During her 13 years at United Response, Diane led and developed the charity’s campaigning, public affairs and lobbying activity, with a particular focus on promoting employment for disabled people. She subsequently took on the strategic leadership of the organisation’s employment services as a whole and is passionate about the role that good work has in transforming people’s lives. Diane meets regularly with Business Disability Forum Partners and Members and also works closely with Government to help shape disability employment policy. She is a member of the Department of Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident Professional Advisers Group and the Disability Expert Advisory Panel for the Civil Service.
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About Business Disability Forum: Business Disability Forum is a not-for-profit member organisation.
Sally Sfeir-Tait
Co-Founder & CEO of Regulations.gov
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About Regulations.gov: Regulations is an online web-based source and platform that enables its users to view and comment on federal government regulations.
Gillian Docherty
CEO of The Data Lab
Gillian Docherty is the CEO of The Data Lab, one of eight Innovation Centre’s across Scotland, where she is responsible for delivering the strategic vision set out by The Data Lab Board, the aim of which is to create over 250 new jobs and generate more than £100 million for the economy. Gillian has over 22 years’ experience working in the IT sector. Previously, she held a range of senior leadership roles at IBM UK, including leader for software business in Scotland, systems and technology sales leader and territory leader for general business Scotland. Gillian is on the board of Tech Partnership Scotland and is also a board member of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Gillian holds a degree in computing science from Glasgow University. She is married and has a daughter.
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About Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Scotland’s AI Strategy, The Data Lab: Data Lab is an innovation center focusing on helping the Scottish industry to capitalize on a growing market opportunity in data science.
Shelley Taylor
Founder & CEO of trellyz
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About Digital Fan Clubs, trellyz: trellyz, a cloud-hosted platform, powers the public services supply chain across diverse networks at scale
Thomas Defty
CEO of GamCheck
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About GamCheck: Web based service to check the status of UK Government licensed online casinos
Deborah Wake
Founder/CEO of My Diabetes My Way
Dr. Deborah Wake (DW) (CEO/Co-Founder MyWay Digital Health, Senior Clinical Lecturer (University of Dundee), NHS Diabetes Consultant, (MBChB, BSc, Ph.D., Clin Ed Dip)) has a unique mix of business, clinical, educational and academic skills. She has a national clinical/ academic reputation for technology, informatics and automated support for diabetes care. She is a national clinical lead for internationally award-winning and cost-saving MyDiabetesMyWay offering online data access and education to all patients in Scotland with diabetes (>30,000 registrants). In 2017, she co-founded the MyWay Digital Health company to commercialize MyDiabetesMyWay outwith Scotland. She has won several business/entrepreneurship awards including; Scottish EDGE, Bio Dundee, Venture and was a top 3 finalist in AccelerateHER, and Women Ahead. Dr. Wake graduated MBChB (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh and subsequently gained a Ph.D. and Diploma in Medical Education. She is passionate about technology and education delivery. She has been a Principle Investigator for multiple research projects (>£2million funding, >40 publications)). 2010-2017, she was program director/ clinical lead for Kuwait Scotland e-Health Innovation Network, delivering formal postgraduate education to over 300 Kuwait diabetes health care professions. Dr. Wake has also developed and delivered a number of free Diabetes MOOCs (massive online courses) educating over 20,000 participants to date, and online structured education for patients. Dr. Wake was a Diabetes UK clinical champion (2015-17) and has an active role in public health communication. She contributes regularly to the radio, was a resident on-screen doctor for STVs flagship show ‘The Hour’ and Health Columnist for The Scotsman newspaper for many years. She developed the first medical podcast series in the UK (Dr. Pods Healthcast) in 2005. Her focus now is on driving MyWay Digital Health company to international success, transforming diabetes care.
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About My Diabetes My Way, MyWay Digital Health: My Diabetes My Way is an NHS Scotland interactive diabetes website to help support people who have diabetes and their family and friends.
