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 Chairman operating in the Information Services space. If you think a Chairman 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.
Henrik Kraft
Vice Chairman Of The Board of Sportlight Technology
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About Sportlight Technology: Sportlight Technology is a sports analytics startup that renders relevant and accurate information to professional sports organisations.
Michael Samuel
Chairman of Full Fact
Michael is Chairman of the Anna Freud Centre, a charity dedicated to children’s emotional wellbeing, and trustee of five family charities. He is a director of a number of companies, one quoted and the others private. He has been a Conservative Party donor. We are grateful to Michael for his past and continuing financial support.
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About Anna Freud Centre, Full Fact, Murex Energy, Poison Diaries Limited, TP Toys: Full Fact is the UK’s independent fact-checking charity
Jesper Balser
Chairman of Milestone Systems
Mr. Balser co-founded Navision in 1985 and as CEO steered that company’s growth for 18 years to become an international provider of ERP business management software. Mr. Balser took Navision public in 1999 and the company was acquired by Microsoft Corporation in 2002 – their largest acquisition to date for USD 1.55 billion . Navision became a new division called Microsoft Business Solutions. Balser then served as that division’s Head of Global Strategy until leaving to pursue other interests as an investor and entrepreneur for a number of technology firms. “Milestone is an exciting company in a very interesting sector. I am impressed with how much has been achieved since its start in 1998. Milestone has already documented its ability to compete in the global market. Now the international expansion will be accelerated and systemized, where I hope my background will contribute,” says Jesper Balser
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About : Milestone Systems develops open platform IP video management software, delivering easy-to-manage surveillance solutions for enterprises.
Richard Burston
Vice Chairman of KORE Wireless
Richard Burston, a successful entrepreneur and private equity investor, founded Regency Capital International Limited, a London-based merchant bank in 1991. From 2002 to 2004, He was the CEO of Bostream AB, following Regency Capital’s purchase of a majority interest in the company. He built Bostream into Sweden’s leading independent broadband ISP, prior to selling the company in late 2004. Before founding Regency Capital in 1991, he was employed by Morgan Stanley. Mr Burston, a Canadian citizen, has a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About KORE Wireless: KORE Wireless is a trusted advisor delivering mission-critical IoT solutions and services.
Jerre Stead
Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clarivate Analytics
Jerre L. Stead joined the PCN Technology, Inc. Board of Directors in October of 2008. From 1996 until his June 1, 2000 retirement, Mr. Stead was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ingram Micro Inc., a leading distributor of computers and peripherals. Mr. Stead has also held the position of Chief Executive Officer at Square D Co., which was acquired by Schneider Electric, S.A. He also served as CEO of AT&T Global Information Solutions (NCR Corporation) and Legent Corporation. Since 2006, Mr. Stead has served as Chairman of the Board and CEO for IHS, one of the leading global providers of critical technical information, decision-support tools, and related services to customers in the energy, defense, aerospace, construction, electronics, and automotive industries. Mr. Stead is currently also a Director of Armstrong Holdings, Inc., Conexant Systems, Mobility Electronics, Inc., Brightpoint, Inc. and TBG Group. He has also held numerous positions during a 21-year career at Honeywell. He is a well-known Author of Executive books including Flight of the Buffalo and is the Chairman of the Board for the Center of Ethics and Values at Garret Seminary at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
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About Clarivate Analytics: Clarivate Analytics accelerates the pace of innovation by providing trusted insights and analytics.
Ricardo Santos Silva
Executive Chairman of Dorae
Ricardo is a Portuguese entrepreneur and investor in the financial, technology and mining sectors. He co-founded Aethel Partners, a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services firm headquartered in London and co-founded Dorae, the blockchain-enabled global supply chain accountability system. Ricardo received an economics degree from the University of Lisbon.
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About Aethel Mining, Aethel Partners, Dorae: Dorae is the physical trade cloud.
Rob Dobson
Chairman and Co-Founder of DevicePilot
Rob founded Actix (actix.com) in 1991 and as CEO (1991-2005) grew it to over $50m revenue by 2005. More than 90% of the world’s mobile phone customers have their networks optimized by Actix software and Rob has worked with many of the world’s leading mobile operators and infrastructure vendors. In 2005 he sold a majority stake in the company to PE firm Summit Partners at a $100+m valuation. He has invested in a further 30+ startups and has had five very successful exits (he’s not counting failures as they come with the territory). Rob is chairman of Robotical (robotical.io) and DevicePilot.com. He’s also the founding chairman of Singletrack.com and a supporter of the unique orchestra SouthbankSinfonia.co.uk. As an inveterate tinkerer in software and hardware, he’s fascinated by IoT, 3D printing and the maker movement (as you can probably see from his personal website (robdobson.com). Rob is a Fellow of the IET and has a 1st class honours degree in Electronic Engineering.
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About 1248, Float: DevicePilot provides Service Monitoring for connected devices
Richard Dilworth
Vice Chairman of Zapaygo
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About : Zapaygo provides a menu of goods or services and a pre-order and payment facility to consumers.
Joe Seifert
Chairman & Co-founder of H4
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About H4: H4 is a digital platform transforming the documentation that underpins global financial markets and legal contracts.
Christofer Solheim
Chairman, Chief Innovation Officer of Commetric Ltd.
Mr. Christofer Solheim founded Commetric Ltd. in 2005. Prior to Commetric, Mr. Solheim worked in various roles at Hill & Knowlton Public Relations spanning 10 years, including leading H&K s Business Intelligence unit and latterly providing executive counsel to Paul Taaffe, global Chief Executive Officer of Hill & Knowlton. In the 80s and 90s, he consulted full time for the Chief Executive Officer of Kaldnes de Groot and spent two years at Heerema in Oslo. Since 1992, he has pioneered the use of advanced technologies to revolutionize business and communications strategic planning. In 2003, he was the Principle Founder of 2B, a company specializing in quantitative reputation measurement, later acquired by Factiva, a Reuters & Dow Jones Company. Prior to founding 2B, he was the founding Director of H&K s Net Communications practice. In 2007, he co-founded CommEq Asset Management to develop and implement fully automated behavioural finance trading methodologies. He was educated in business at the Academy of Commerce, Oslo, and in Computer Science at the University of Oslo.
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About Commetric Ltd.: Award-winning media analytics solutions that provide deeper, more practical level of insight. #MoreWithAnalytics
David Ovadia
Founder CEO, Chairman and Non Executive Director of IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd
David Ovadia is a successful Chief Executive and Chairman with a proven record of achievement in the public and private sectors. He was a Director of Blenheim Natural Resources plc, previously Coburg plc, London AIM-listed companies investing in the global natural resources sector, CEO of Avenco Ltd and Chairman of South East African Mining (SEAM) Ltd, both junior explorers for gold and other minerals in Africa. He served as a Director of Spectrum General Partner Ltd and was previously the Director of International at the British Geological Survey, from which he spun out and was the founder Managing Director, and later Chairman, of IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd.
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About IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd: IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd provides geoscientific and geodata services to the global mineral exploration sector.
Peter Harrop
Chairman of IDTechEx
Dr Peter Harrop PhD, FIEE is Chairman of IDTechEx Ltd. He was previously Director of Technology of Plessey Capacitors Scotland and Chief Executive of Mars Electronics, a start-up he took to $260 million gross sales value with highly automated factories built in US and UK, without acquisitions. He was a board member of $1.5 bn Mars UK, a division of Mars Inc. Mars Electronics was sold for $500 million after he left, generating an excellent return.
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About IDTechEx: IDTechEx is a consultancy that provides market research, business intelligence, and events on emerging technology to its clients.
Roger Wilson
Chairman and Founder of Adept Technology Group Plc
Roger has worked in telecommunications since 1993. In addition to being the first Managing Director for Telewest’s residential consumer business in the UK he spent 3 years in Poland successfully building a business for American investors. He was Managing Director of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association until January 2006.
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About Adept Technology Group Plc: Adept Technology Group is one of COMMS Integrators offering best-in-class breed solutions from any UK network, customized to your needs.
Bob Brittaine
Chairman & Director of CMI
Bob Brittaine, an electronics engineer by profession owned and managed a successful UK IT services company, employing 300 staff before selling it to a PLC in 2007. Bob continued with the new entity heading up Sales and Marketing and integrating his former company. He also is the President of Euroserv, an association comprising IT services companies across Europe, a post he has held for over 20 years. In 2010 Bob formed a consultancy business focused on assisting owner managers in achieving their personal aims and strategic goals. With these aims in mind, Bob joined CMI in 2012 as an investor and Chairman, as the business embarked on an expansionary phase to develop CMI into a UK National Managed Services business. With a wealth of experience and track record in the IT services sector Bob brings the pragmatic input and advice where needed and the energy to develop the business. With interests also in a Mussel farm, property portfolio and property development, Bob also finds time for gardening and following F1 motor racing
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About CMI: CMI is a company offering manufacturer business streamlining and growth services.
Stephen Viney
Chairman of Whistlebrook
Steve founded Whistlebrook in 1997, and has over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry, focusing on application software development. As well as his role as Chairman, Steve oversees the direction and development of Whistlebrook’s products.
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About Whistlebrook: Whistlebrook is a trusted supplier of innovative, back office, software systems to the financial services sector.
David Bell
Executive Chairman of GoReport
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About : GoReport provides a range of purpose-built solutions for a variety of survey types across the entire property sector.
