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 Director operating in the Incubators space. If you think a Director 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.
Alfredo A. Marti
Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings
Mr. Marti is a Managing Director of Riverstone. He is based in London. Prior to joining Riverstone in 2008, Mr. Marti served in various leadership positions at BP plc, one of the world’s largest energy firms, including leading the organization responsible for overseeing the financial and operational performance and capital allocation of all of BP’s oil & gas exploration and production businesses worldwide. Other roles at BP included Head of Strategy for BP’s North America Gas business, General Manager of oil & gas production operations in Wyoming, USA, and Joint-Ventures Coordinator in Venezuela. Mr. Marti received his M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He also holds a summa cum laude degree in Economics from Venezuela’s Andres Bello University and a Corporate Finance diploma from London Business School.
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About Riverstone Holdings: River Stone is a private investment firm founded in 2000.
Andy Lund
Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings
Andy joined Advent International in 2011 and is located in Advent’s London office where he focuses on research and analysis initiatives to support the Firm’s fundraising and investor relations activities. Andy was previously a Director at UBS Private Equity Funds Group where he managed several fundraising assignments for leading private equity firms. Prior to attending business school, Andy spent over ten years as a pilot in the UK Royal Air Force flying Tornado fast jets and Puma helicopters in a number of operational theatres.
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About Riverstone Holdings: River Stone is a private investment firm founded in 2000.
Robin Duggan
Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings
Mr. Duggan is a Managing Director of Riverstone. He is based in London. Prior to joining Riverstone in 2007, Mr. Duggan was the founder of Commodity Optimization Ventures Ltd., a business providing advice to clients in the private equity industry, including Texas Pacific Group. Before the founding of his business, Mr. Duggan served for over 17 years in various positions with subsidiaries and affiliates of BP plc, one of the world’s largest energy firms. From 2004 to 2005 Mr. Duggan was the Vice President of European Business Optimization at Innovene, BP’s olefins and derivatives subsidiary, where he was responsible for commercial activity for olefins and refining in Europe, and also oversaw Innovene’s successful separation from BP in Europe. From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Duggan held a number of senior level positions in BP’s Petrochemicals segment, including serving as the Performance Unit Leader of the Aromatics and Olefins division, Global Business Manager of the Styrene business unit, and the Planning, Performance and Strategy Manager of the Acetyls business unit. Prior to that time, Mr. Duggan held various positions in the BP’s Upstream segment in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Venezuela over a period of 10 years. Mr. Duggan currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Cuadrilla, Enviva, Origo, Patagonia, Proserv Group, ReEnergy and Velocita, and previously was the Chairman of the Board of Seajacks. Mr. Duggan holds a degree in Biochemistry from Oxford University and a Sloan Master’s of Science in Management from Stanford University.
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About Riverstone Holdings: River Stone is a private investment firm founded in 2000.
Bob Brown
Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings
Mr. Brown is a Managing Director of Riverstone, focused on Limited Partner relations, fundraising, and communications. He is based in London. Prior to joining Riverstone in 2014, Mr. Brown was Managing Director and Global Head of Limited Partner Services for Advent International. Prior to Advent, he was a Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, where he focused on North American fundraising and investor relations. Mr. Brown joined Carlyle in 1999 and during his tenure there raised capital for the firm’s investment partnerships, including funds and coinvestments, and was actively involved in product development, fund formation and marketing strategy for these partnerships. Bob also served on the firm’s Investor Relations Coordinating Committee, focusing on new fund initiatives, capital formation and limited partner relationships. Prior to Carlyle, he was a Vice President in the Private Equity Group at Merrill Lynch from 1994 to 1999. There, he was responsible for raising private equity, real estate, hedge fund, co-investment capital and direct private placements for almost 100 transactions. Mr. Brown graduated with a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and has an M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut.
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About Riverstone Holdings: River Stone is a private investment firm founded in 2000.
Lindsay Sharma
Managing Director of Industry Ventures
Lindsay focuses on originating and valuing the firm’s secondary investments. Prior to Industry Ventures, Lindsay was a Principal in corporate strategy and development at Intuit, leading merger and acquisition activities for the company. Prior to Intuit, Lindsay developed private equity and investment banking industry expertise with Great Hill Partners and Bear Stearns. Lindsay received her MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in business administration in finance and accounting from Indiana University.
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About Industry Ventures: Industry Ventures is an investment firm that makes venture capital investments and manages over $3.5 billion of institutional capital.
Robert Lumley
Director and Co-Founder of Insurtech Gateway
Robert joined Hambro Perks in 2016 to build and lead the InsurTech Gateway, the Hambro Perks InsurTech incubator. He has worked in the insurance sector since 1984 concentrating on niche products, in particular designing engagement strategies through the application of innovative ideas to help insurers build long term productive relationships with their customers. Robert started with the development of a Film and Television Insurance Unit out of Edward Lumley & Sons’ Colchester Office before moving to London to launch the first Rent and Legal protection and property insurance offering for let properties. After a 3-year visit to Lumley Life in Australia, Robert returned to establish Richmunds Insurance which specialised in the Letting Sector. Premium income grew to £30m by the time the business was sold in 1991. Robert grew up in an insurance family and has experience in many product areas including Specialist Motor, Classic Car, Let Property, Life Insurance and Bloodstock. Robert is Chairman of Lumley Jacobs and continues his work with niche insurance businesses through the Lumleys.net investments.
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About FloodFlash, Insurtech Gateway: The only FCA authorised independent incubator + fund, the Insurtech Gateway is the fastest place to build and launch an insurtech idea.
Stephen Brittain
Director and Co-Founder of Insurtech Gateway
Stephen is an experienced innovation consultant with a deep understanding of startups, design, strategic innovation and translating this to investors. As Hambro Perks first Creative Director, he supported their growing portfolio (including Sipsmiths, Laundrapp, Takumi, TheDots) through early stage development and testing. He is now applying his experience to disruptive InsurTech businesses, getting to market – fast!
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About Insurtech Gateway: The only FCA authorised independent incubator + fund, the Insurtech Gateway is the fastest place to build and launch an insurtech idea.
Simon Lavers
Director of Founder Institute
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About Axigan Limited, Founder Institute: Founder Institute is a pre-seed startup accelerator, with chapters in 180+ cities and a portfolio with $20B+ in value.
Gary Stewart
Director of Wayra
Gary Stewart is the Director of Wayra UK and Telefónica Open Future_ (UK). He is also an associate professor and the Entrepreneur-In-Residence at IE Business School in Madrid. Gary co-founded Nuroa.es, a Barcelona start-up that raised over €4M in funding before being sold to an Australian competitor. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Gary worked as a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in London, and Freshfields Brackhaus Deringer in Spain. Gary graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University and was the Executive Editor of The Yale Journal at Yale Law School.
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About Nuroa, Wayra: Wayra is a globally connected and technologically open innovation hub.
Jon Eades
Director and Co-Founder of The Rattle
Jon heads up Abbey Road’s new technology and innovation department, Abbey Road Red, managing the music tech start-up incubation program and partnering with researchers to investigate emerging technologies for music.
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About Abbey Road Red, Abbey Road Studios, The Rattle: The Rattle is a venture studio and incubator for provocative artists, hackers, inventors, and startups.
Alberto Masetti-Zannini
Development Director of Impact Hub
Alberto leads the organisation’s programmatic work in the areas of incubation, acceleration, scaling and development. He is also the Founder and President of Impact Hub Milan, Italy’s first centre for social innovation and the impact economy. He coordinates on behalf of the Impact Hub Network a large EU-funded project called BENISI, which aims to scale social innovation in Europe and create the foundations of a network of incubators for social innovation, a project and consortium that he co-designed. Prior to the Impact Hub Network, Alberto worked for large international NGOs in various capacities, including project financing, programme development and fundraising. He holds a BA hons from Bologna University in Contemporary History and an MSc from the LSE in Global Politics.
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About Impact Hub: Impact Hub provides a workspace that connects entrepreneurs for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Maria Trindade
Global Network Development Director of Impact Hub
Maria Trindade is a professional with a track record of experience in project and operational management with a solid knowledge in human resources and team management.
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About Impact Hub: Impact Hub provides a workspace that connects entrepreneurs for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Mike Thompson
Director and Co-Founder, London of Impact Hub
Mike is Director of Goodbrand and has been with them since it began. Mike is responsible for the stewardship of the Goodbrand community and its resources. He is also chairman of AddVenture, a Romanian social enterprise and another GoodBrand Idea and co-founder of Good Leaders Online (www.glo-china.com). Mike is currently based at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, from where he writes, travels and speaks on sustainable enterprise and responsible leadership. Mike’s passions are adventuring and the poetry and song of the Welsh landscape.
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About Impact Hub: Impact Hub provides a workspace that connects entrepreneurs for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Simon Bond
Innovation Director of SETsquared
Simon is Innovation Director of SETsquared, the award-winning enterprise partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. He is also Director of the University of Bath Innovation Centre (www.ubic.org.uk) which helps accelerate the growth of technology-based companies both from the University’s research base and from the private sector and has founded a portfolio of networks to support business innovation – these include Silicon South West, Low Carbon South West, the open Mobile Innovation Camp, and the Assisted Living Action Network. He is a Director of the UK Electronics Alliance, ESCO. Simon leads the Bath Entrepreneurship Programme business plan training course which is based on the practical experience and track record of SETsquared and the Innovation Centre.
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About SETsquared: SETsquared is a collaborative partnership that supports enterprise activities, spin-outs, licensing, and incubation.
Joel Kenny
Director of JKRB Investments Limited
Since the age of 14, Joel has always had a passion for his own business ventures. Having worked in a variety of sectors, Joel applies previous experience alongside a strong interest in new technology to strengthen JKRB offerings. Joel manages numerous JKRB assets and projects, maximising potential and efficiency along with researching new investment opportunities. With a strong interest in the economic workings of Cryptocurrency and technical opportunities Blockchain technology provides, he is a self-taught Solidity & python programmer, and also provides insight and analysis to businesses in this sector.
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About JKRB Investments Limited: JKRB Investments Limited own a variety of exciting companies
Peter Gutman
Managing Director of iFormation Group
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About iFormation Group: iFormation Group is a venture capital firm that focusses on startups, and growth capital investments.
