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 Internet of Things 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.
Neil French
COO of Canonical
Neil French is the COO at Canonical.
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About Canonical: Canonical is a computer software company that markets commercial support and related services for Ubuntu and related projects.
Lee Hudson
Chief Operating Officer of AppyWay
Lee has spent 20 years bringing cutting edge technology and services to consumers in retail, online and app sectors, leading operational strategy for turnaround and growth. At AppyWay, Lee is responsible for developing strategic IOT and Connected City partnerships and scaling operations for global expansion.
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About AppyWay: AppyWay is a kerbside management & technology firm enabling intelligent mobility for cities.
Graham Budd
President and Chief Operating Officer of Arm Holdings
Graham Budd was appointed Chief Operating Officer in July 2008. Prior to this he was EVP and General Manager of the Processor Division from July 2005. He joined ARM in 1992 as a VLSI design engineer and led the development of several of ARM’s early system-on-chip designs. Since then he has held a number of engineering, marketing and operations leadership roles. He is a chartered engineer.
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About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Sophia Guy-White
Chief Operating Officer of Groupladder
Sophia Guy-White is Co-founder & Chief of Staff
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About Generation Home, Groupladder: Groupladder is a provide a unique mortgage product.
Keith Reed
COO of DevicePilot
COO at DevicePilot.
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About DevicePilot: DevicePilot provides Service Monitoring for connected devices
Stacey Edwards
COO, CFO & Director of Ad-Lib.io
Stacey Edwards is the COO, CFO and Director at Ad-Lib.io.
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About Ad-Lib.io: Powering Creative Effectiveness
Paul Zimmerman
COO of Invotra Ltd
An accomplished executive in the technology sector for nearly 20 years, having joined Amazon.com in 1999. Communications & Technology Currently COO of Invotra, an enterprise Intranet-as-a-Service, used by 200,000 end users in the UK and the US. Customers include the UK’s Home Office, Department for Works & Pensions (DWP), Department for Transport (DfT) and HMRC. In America, the venerable environmental organisation Sierra Club became a customer in 2017. I’m a public speaker and guest lecturer on diverse subjects ranging from entrepreneurship to the future of communications in the workplace to accessibility to Brexit’s impact on the UK. Ecommerce CEO for online gift and gadget site Firebox.com from 2010 to 2012, and COO of Stanley Gibbons’ ecommerce operations in Jersey from 2013 to 2014. Prior to this, I served Play.com as Marketplace Director in 2010 and Head of Business Development from 2005-2010. Previously I was a senior manager at both Amazon.com’s UK division, Amazon.co.uk (4 years), and Woolworths Group (2 years), where I led the business units responsible for driving e-commerce retail sales for both physical and digital music products. Specialties digital communications strategies, ecommerce, consulting and stakeholder engagement, p&l management, general management, product management, marketplace strategies, vendor management, purchasing, user experience & web design, SEO, search technologies, content management systems, digital distribution technologies, competitive analysis and research, market analysis and research, international experience
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About : Enterprise Intranet and Portal solutions for organisations worldwide
Clara Vaisse
Founder & COO of Pony
Clara Vaisse is the Founder and COO at Pony.
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About Pony, Sibberi: Pony is the first shared micro-mobility scheme to decentralise ownership of its vehicles.
Ian Hammond
COO of GeoSpock
Ian has a strong background in technology and business operations at both small and large scale, bringing 15+ years of experience from leadership roles in telco, media, and technology organizations as well as the UK public sector. He spent 5 years living in the Netherlands where he led a global team as SVP of Technology Operations at TomTom, responsible for delivering and supporting global digital services to millions of consumers as well as B2B services to some of the world’s largest companies. Most recently Ian held C-level positions within central government and a UK based procurement technology SME. Ian joins the GeoSpock management team to build and lead the operations function, delivering and supporting solutions for GeoSpock customers.
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About GeoSpock: GeoSpock builds GeoSpock DB, the unique space-time analytics database that delivers rapid insights at a fraction of the cost.
Ian Hammond
COO of GeoSpock
Ian has a strong background in technology and business operations at both small and large scale, bringing 15+ years of experience from leadership roles in telco, media, and technology organizations as well as the UK public sector. He spent 5 years living in the Netherlands where he led a global team as SVP of Technology Operations at TomTom, responsible for delivering and supporting global digital services to millions of consumers as well as B2B services to some of the world’s largest companies. Most recently Ian held C-level positions within central government and a UK based procurement technology SME. Ian joins the GeoSpock management team to build and lead the operations function, delivering and supporting solutions for GeoSpock customers.
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About GeoSpock: GeoSpock builds GeoSpock DB, the unique space-time analytics database that delivers rapid insights at a fraction of the cost.
Chris Forster
Chief Operating Officer of Altitude Angel
Chris is passionate about both aviation and technology. Chris has a Masters of Engineering degree in Computer Science and Cybernetics and has worked in the technology industry for over 15 years. Prior to Altitude Angel, Chris worked at Microsoft for 10 years where he held consulting and leadership positions, focused on helping enterprise customers deliver their full potential with the right technologies.
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About Altitude Angel: Altitude Angel makes drones safer by providing the data and cloud services needed to safely unlock their potential.
Peter Mildon
COO & Co Founder of Vivacity Labs
Peter is responsible for the commercial delivery of Vivacity. After graduating from Cambridge University, Peter joined a leading systems engineering consultancy, leading projects across the oil, civil nuclear, and renewables industries. With substantial process-driven experience under his belt, Peter leads operations at Vivacity, ensuring we deliver on time and to specification, every time.
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About Vivacity Labs: Vivacity Labs makes intelligent cameras to gather transport data, using the latest machine learning & computer vision techniques.
Richard Sinclair
Chief Operating Officer of Zzoomm Full Fibre Broadband
Richard Sinclair is the Chief Operating Officer at Zzoomm.
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About Zzoomm Full Fibre Broadband: Zzoomm is a leading Full Fibre broadband internet provider in the UK building a brand new broadband network
Timothy Waltniel
Chief Operating Officer of Toyota Connected
Prior to joining Toyota Connected Europe, Timothy Waltniel worked for more than 15 years across Toyota’s European and global operations to expand its use of advanced technology. This includes expanding the use of digital technologies as part of Toyota’s manufacturing operations and the Toyota Production System, delivering opportunities for academic and future business collaboration around new technologies including next generation ICT and advanced powertrain, and developing the company’s connected and mobility business strategy in Europe. Waltniel holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and management degrees from both Vlerick and IMD business school.
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About Toyota Connected: Toyota Connected re-imagines the use of data and technology to deliver effortless services that make life easier and driving safer.
Bettina Rubek Slater
COO & Co-Founder of Pycom
Strategist Marketeer Tech and innovation seeker Telco, consumer electronics and IoT specialist
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About Pycom: The world’s most integrated IoT Platform
Jeremy Lock
COO of Vestemi
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About Vestemi: Vestemi is a new technology product company with a social purpose.
