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 Animation 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.
Sam Higginson
Group Marketing Director of Immotion Group plc
Sam has a wealth of experience in brand creation and management, strategic marketing and communications. Sam began his carrier working for global advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, working primarily on the client Proctor & Gamble, the world’s largest advertiser. In 2009 he joined NetPlayTV plc, an interactive TV gaming company, where he was Head of Brand Development. Strategic media partners included Sky, Freeview, Channel Five, Virgin Media Television and ITV. Having left NetPlayTV plc, Sam founded Digitalbox plc, a new generation of digital media business with an established pedigree in emerging technology, data acquisition and analysis that has been harnessed with the ability to create and curate great content to entertain and engage audiences. In 2015, Digitalbox plc was listed #68 in The Sunday Times HISCOX Tech Track 100. In 2016, Digitalbox plc was listed again at #58, placing it in Britain’s 100 fastest growing tech companies two years in a row. Sam is a Director at M Capital Investment Partners. Formed in 2010, M Capital Investment Partners manages multiple real estate investments across the UK, with a focus on delivering above average returns for investment cash with minimal risk. He also holds the position Group Brand & Marketing Director at Immotion Group plc – a business that combines award-winning CGi animation with state-of-the-art motion platform technology to deliver mind-blowing ‘out-of-home’ immersive VR experiences. Sam is a graduate of the Lancaster University Management School having gained a BSc Honours in Business & Economics.
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About Digitalbox, Immotion Group plc, M Capital Investment Partners: Immotion combine award-winning content & multi-directional motion platforms to deliver immersive VR solutions for high-traffic destinations.
David Marks
Co-founder & Group Finance Director of Immotion Group plc
David co-founded Immotion Group with Martin, and currently serves as the Group Finance Director. With a degree in Law from the University of Glasgow and membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, David’s expertise in finance is a given. He began his career conducting corporate recovery and restructure at Arthur Andersen. Since then, David has been a prominent face in corporate finance in the City of London, working with UBS, Deutsche Bank and Nikko Principal Investments. He’s overseen the rapid international expansion of Monstermob Group in Europe, the USA and Asia as Group Finance Director, and is also an executive board member at Digitalbox Group.
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About : Immotion combine award-winning content & multi-directional motion platforms to deliver immersive VR solutions for high-traffic destinations.
Will Jackson
Founder & Director of Engineered Arts
Will Jackson is the Director of Engineered Arts Ltd, based in Cornwall UK and is the creator of RoboThespian, a full sized humanoid acting robot. Will formed Engineered Arts Ltd in 2004 and employed the talents of many local artists and engineers to produce a number of bespoke commissions for UK science centres and museums. Their accomplishments including major installations for The Eden Project in Cornwall, Glasgow Science Centre, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Centrum Kopernik in Warsaw.
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About Engineered Arts: RoboThespian, a life-size humanoid acting robot designed by Engineered Arts Ltd. info@robothespian.co.uk
Merlin Crossingham
Creative Director of Wallace & Gromit of Aardman Animations
Merlin Crossingham is Creative Director of Wallace & Gromit at Aardman Animations.
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About Aardman Animations: Aardman has a deserved reputation as a world leader in model animation. Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at
Daniel Efergan
Executive Creative Director of Aardman Animations
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About Aardman Animations, MIPCOM: Aardman has a deserved reputation as a world leader in model animation. Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at
Peter Lord
Director of Aardman Animations
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About Aardman Animations: Aardman has a deserved reputation as a world leader in model animation. Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at
Asa Lucander
Animation Director of Aardman Animations
Asa Lucander is Animation Director at Aardman Animations.
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About Aardman Animations: Aardman has a deserved reputation as a world leader in model animation. Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at
Greg Furber
VR Director of REWIND
Before joining REWIND Greg worked in stop frame animation on Fantastic Mr Fox, Frankenweenie and Corpse Bride and as a senior director at ASB creating international broadcast commercials and animatics for brands including Burger King, Fairy, Coca Cola and Kellogg’s. Greg heads up the 360 degree production division at REWIND:VR working on pioneering projects for the likes of the BBC, NBC, Formula E and Sony. REWIND is an industry award winning tribe of vibrant creative technologists and digital artists focused on harnessing immersive technologies to deliver groundbreaking VR, AR, Animation, DOOH, VFX and 360 degree video projects for some of the world’s largest companies and brands. REWIND:VR is an approved content developer for Oculus (Rift), HTC (Vive), Sony (PSVR), Samsung (Gear VR) and FOVE. The team was invited by Meta to join its early access programme alongside being an approved filming partner with Nokia Ozo and Google Jump.
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About REWIND: REWIND is an award winning content production agency, working with bleeding edge technology to create unforgettable brand experiences.
Gareth Williams
Founder & Non-Executive Director of YellowDog
Gareth hounds the YellowDog kennel, spearheading the vision to build a world where people do more, create more, discover more; unleashed from limited computing power. Following an MEng in Information Systems Engineering from the University of Durham, Gareth cut his canines working in software and telecoms at companies including Orange, Experian QAS, FREEDOM4 and Arieso, where he was part of the Management Team that completed the successful sale of the company to JDSU in March 2013 for $85m. One day he had a brilliant idea for using spare mobile capacity which, following a chat with someone in the animation department at the University of the West of England, gave birth to what is now YellowDog. When not coming up with brilliant ideas, he is a dad, a keen cyclist, an ardent reader, a Samaritans Listening Volunteer. He also likes ale and talking to anyone (usually together). You can email Gareth on gareth@yellowdog.co or phone +44 (0) 330 223 2499.
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About YellowDog: Helping businesses power their innovations with the most scalable cloud native scheduling and provisioning technology.
Joe Leese
Creative Director of The Makers
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About Runnit, The Makers: The Makers provides ‘Big Agency’ designers, animators, and videographers without the associated costs.
Tom Painter
Director of Bigman – London studio
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About Bigman – London studio: Bigman is a CGI expert studio bringing ideas to reality with still images, engaging animation or the latest cutting edge VR technology.
Matthew Newcombe
Technical Director of Nexus Studios
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About Nexus Studios: Nexus Studios is an independent production company, interactive arts and animation studio.
Dan Weaver
Co-Founder/Creative Director of Fudge Animation Studios
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About Fudge Animation Studios: Fudge Animation Studios are a full service agency who astonish, inspire and motivate target audiences with exceptional character animation.
James Hill
Director of Fudge Animation Studios
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About Fudge Animation Studios: Fudge Animation Studios are a full service agency who astonish, inspire and motivate target audiences with exceptional character animation.
Aaron Wood
Managing Director & Producer of Slurpy Studios
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About Slurpy Studios: Slurpy Studios offers a complete range of in-house facilities to take a project from concept to delivery.
Aaron Wood
Managing Director & Producer of Slurpy Studios
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About Slurpy Studios: Slurpy Studios offers a complete range of in-house facilities to take a project from concept to delivery.
Daniel Willers
Creative Director of Yellow Mouse Studios
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About Yellow Mouse Studios: We create content using techniques ranging from Stop-Motion to 3D
Daniel Willers
Creative Director of Yellow Mouse Studios
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About Yellow Mouse Studios: We create content using techniques ranging from Stop-Motion to 3D
Katie-Jane Stewart
Communications Director of Yellow Mouse Studios
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About Yellow Mouse Studios: We create content using techniques ranging from Stop-Motion to 3D
