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 Telecommunications 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.
Jamie Hindhaugh
Chief Operating Officer of BT Global Services
Jamie started his TV career as a transport co-ordinator at the BBC. After that he had several roles in the BBC, inlcuding Head of Sourcing Production Resources and culminating as the Head of Production L2012 – responsible for the BBC’s multi-platform coverate of the Olympics, Paralympics and other key national events in 2012. Jamie lives in Chiswick, West London, and has three children. Jamie joined BT on 15th October 2012 as Chief Operating Officer to build the infrastructure, broadcast chain and operating model for the launch of their ground-breaking TV service and the UK’s newest sports service, BT Sport. In August 2013 BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN all started broadcasting from the brand new purpose build studio facility on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Today their 24-hour broadcasting across up to 13 channel outlets (including Europe’s first dedicated 4K Sports channel to the home) covering Barclays Premier League Football, exclusive Champions League and Europa League, FA Cup, Moto GP, UFC, boxing, cricket and Aviva Premiership Rugby, comes from four expansive, industry leading studios with a 160 strong audience holding area. Studio highlights include:- – Biggest TV studio in the UK – Biggest LED lit studio in the world – 9 galleries – 24 editing suits – production office for 300 people
Follow Jamie Hindhaugh:
About BT Global Services: BT Global Services plc is a division of United Kingdom telecommunications operator BT Group.
William Saad
Co-Founder & COO of IHS Towers
Willam is responsible for shaping IHS’s long-term technology vision and driving innovation across the company.William has 18 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry. He has played a key part in the development and roll-out of Nigeria’s telecom sector, including building the first turnkey sites that marked the beginning of the country’s GSM revolution. Before establishing IHS, William was the Operations Director at CELIA Motophone Nigeria Limited. His responsibilities included designing, implementing and operating Motophone GSM, PNL and V-SAT networks in Nigeria. His achievements at CELIA include successfully implementing in 24 months the planned network expansion for one million subscribers. Before joining CELIA, William served as project manager at Lintel SAL where he designed and implemented GSM projects and was a Site Survey and Implementation Engineer at Libancell. William has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University of Beirut.
Follow William Saad:
About IHS Towers: IHS is a mobile telecommunications infrastructure provider.
Tom Williams
COO of Hyperoptic
Having managed the fastest rollout of any broadband provider in the UK with Be* Un limited’s ADSL2+ network in 2006, diversified the business by opening it up to wholesale and then migrated a failing call centre to a successful operation without dropping one call, Tom was the obvious helmsman to help steer Hyperoptic. Prior to joining Hyperoptic, Tom was Managing Director of Be*, having progressed rapidly from Project Manager after the O2 merger. Always hungry for involvement in the next-generation ISP, that opportunity came and he joined Hyperoptic in September 2010 to help roll-out the new online revolution.
Follow Tom Williams:
About Hyperoptic: Hyperoptic is a fiber-based internet service provider.
Peter Rochelle
Chief Operating Officer of Arqit Limited
Peter ‘Rocky’ Rochelle is the Chief Operating Officer at Arqit.
Follow Peter Rochelle:
About Arqit Limited: Arqit develops a quantum encryption platform.
Alexandra Farley
COO of Portland Communications
As Portland’s COO Alex is responsible for all non-client facing elements of Portland including Finance, HR, Legal, Commercial and Office Management. Alex joined Portland in January 2010 from Taylor Herring Public Relations Ltd where she was Financial Controller. She completed her ACA in 2003 and also holds a degree in Law from Leicester University.
Follow Alexandra Farley:
About Portland Communications: We design and deliver communications strategies for some of the world’s highest profile organisations, governments and individuals.
Tom Greenwood
Group COO / CEO-Designate of Helios Towers Africa
Tom Greenwood is the CFO & Group Chief Operating Officer at Helios Towers Africa.
Follow Tom Greenwood:
About Helios Towers Africa: Helios Towers Africa has operations in Ghana, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and a sister company in Nigeria.
Andy Burns
Chief Operating Officer of Opensignal
Andy leads the telecoms industry side of the business with responsibility for sales, marketing and product development. Under his leadership, OpenSignal’s business with mobile operators and technology vendors has expanded across six continents. With over 25 years of telecoms industry experience, he has held senior commercial positions with several high-growth companies, most recently leading Global Sales & Marketing at Arieso (now Viavi Solutions).
Follow Andy Burns:
About Opensignal: Opensignal is a mobile analytics company.
James Lunn
Chief Operating Officer of Africa Mobile Networks
Follow James Lunn:
About Africa Mobile Networks: Africa Mobile Networks is finances, builds, and operates mobile network base stations in Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Jekaterina Orlova
Chief Operating Officer of Augnet
Jekaterina Orlova is an authority in business development and strategy, in particular in setting up early-stage tech companies for success. Following ten years at Skype and Microsoft, where she was a Business Development Manager, Jekaterina worked as a Senior Technology Consultant at Deloitte, specialising in Cloud services, Connectivity and Digital workplace transformation within the financial services industry. Following this, she advised and scaled tech start-ups and SMEs. In 2018 Jekaterina joined Augnet, where her boundless energy and focus have moved the company at a fast pace towards its goals, and have enabled it to push past every milestone ahead of target.
Follow Jekaterina Orlova:
About Augnet: Augnet is a London-based technology start-up set to revolutionise the SMS and messaging space.
Frankie Kearney
Chief Operating Officer of Sliide
Frankie Kearney is the coo of sliide.
Follow Frankie Kearney:
About Sliide: Mobile technology company that work with MNO, MVNO and OEM partners globally to increase engagement, drive revenue, and decrease churn.
Martin Garner
COO and Lead analyst IoT of CCS Insight
Follow Martin Garner:
About CCS Insight: Industry analyst firm CCS Insight is a leading research and advisory company focused on the mobile communications sector.
Rob Evans
COO of Logicalis
Follow Rob Evans:
About Logicalis: Logicalis is a platform that provides IT solutions and managed services.
Wasif Mehdi
Chief Operating Officer of Unmanned Life
Wasif Mehdi is the Chief Operating Officer at Unmanned Life.
Follow Wasif Mehdi:
About Unmanned Life: Unmanned Life is the leading software platform for seamless orchestration of autonomous robotics
Rob Reid
Founder & COO of StayPrivate
Follow Rob Reid:
About StayPrivate: Founded in 2014, StayPrivate provides secure communication across the open internet.
Jens Schulte Bockum
Group Chief Operating Officer of MTN Cote d’Ivoire
Jens has extensive operational experience in the mobile telecoms sector, with his last senior role being as CEO of Vodafone Germany between 2012 and 2015. Jens has extensive experience in the consumer business, as well as the area of large scale transformation in a convergent operation.
Follow Jens Schulte Bockum:
About MTN Cote d’Ivoire: MTN Côte d’Ivoire is a telecommunications company and an entity of MTN International.
Gary Jordan
Chief Operating Officer of euNetworks Group
Gary Jordan is Chief Operating Officer at euNetworks, responsible for all Operations functions within the business, including developing and maintaining the network, ensuring its physical integrity and performance. Also for the deployment of all customer services and bandwidth associated projects. He joined the Company in November 2008. Gary has held telecommunications operational roles for over 23 years. Prior to joining euNetworks, he held a number of senior posts in fixed and wireless design, deployment and operation of fibre, copper and GSM networks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As a Senior Manager in Metromedia Fibre Networks, Gary was responsible for the engineering and construction of high capacity fibre networks in 16 cities across 8 European countries. Before this he held senior positions at Lucent Technologies EMEA, Southwestern Bell and Cox Communications. He was responsible for the planning and design of one of the first CATV systems to be introduced into the UK, which later became Virgin Media. Gary holds a University Higher National Diploma in Electronics and Telecommunications and is trained in Advanced Project Management IPM from the Stevens Institute of Project Management New Jersey.
Follow Gary Jordan:
About euNetworks Group: euNetworks is a Western European provider of bandwidth infrastructure services.
Neil Heffernan
Chief Operating Officer of Community Fibre
Neil Heffernan is the Chief Operating Officer at Community Fibre.
Follow Neil Heffernan:
About Community Fibre: Community Fibre provides up to 1,000 Mbps fiber broadband service.
Edward Heappey
COO & Senior Consultant of Cloud Systems Group
Follow Edward Heappey:
About Cloud Systems Group, Cloud Systems Group: Cloud Systems Group providing IT Services to a wide variety of Clients located around the globe.
Joseph Katsioloudes
Founder/COO of Glovdi Technological Innovations
Follow Joseph Katsioloudes:
About Glovdi Technological Innovations: Glovdi Technological Innovations, a London based startup. Specialising in wearables of the future.
