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 Social 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.
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.
Follow Michael Samuel:
About Anna Freud Centre, Full Fact, Murex Energy, Poison Diaries Limited, TP Toys: Full Fact is the UK’s independent fact-checking charity
Rory Sutherland
Vice Chairman of Ogilvy
Rory Sutherland read Classics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, before joining Ogilvy as a Graduate Trainee. He was appointed Creative Director of OgilvyOne in 1997 and ECD in 1998. In 2005 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the Ogilvy Group in the UK. Sutherland was President of the Direct Jury at Cannes in 2007, and was elected President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising in 2009. He is a visiting professor at Warwick University and in 2012 was awarded an honorary doctorate (D.Litt) by Brunel University. He also writes The Spectator’s Wiki Man column.
Follow Rory Sutherland:
About Ogilvy: Global brand Strategy, Advertising, Customer Engagement and Commerce, PR and Influence, Digital Transformation, and Partnerships.
Matt Isaacs
Founder & Executive Chairman of Essence
As one of the founding partners, Matt helped shape Essence into the company it is today. That agency is now the world’s largest independent buyer of digital media with billings in excess of $650MM USD, is 480 people strong, and has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore and Tokyo. Current clients include Google, eBay, Financial Times and Barclays. Matt served as Global CEO of the agency until spring of this year. During his last four years in that role, both billings and headcount doubled every year. Today, as Executive Chairman, Matt oversees the Board, supports the execution of corporate strategy and helps to ensure the legacy of Essence exists well beyond the agency and the industry. Before co-founding Essence Matt was Chief Marketing Officer at Create Services & Goldfish Bank, a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Group that handled all of the bank’s non LloydsTSB branded retail banking business across 15 brands and with £2B in assets. Matt’s ‘first career’ was in strategy consulting at McKinsey spin-off MMG, where he was part of the core team that built MMG Europe from 14 consultants to 400 across 13 offices. Matt lives on a small farm with his wife, 4 children, 5 hens, lots of sheep and bees in the depths of East Sussex, UK.
Follow Matt Isaacs:
About Essence: Essence, part of GroupM, is a global data and measurement-driven agency whose mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world.
Olinga Taeed
Chairman and Founder of Seratio
Olinga is Director of the Centre for Citizenship, Enterprise and Governance and attributed with the creation of the Social Earnings Ratio (S/E). He is Council Member (one of 7) and Expert Advisor to the Government Ministry of Commerce China ECommerce Blockchain Committee. He is Visiting Professor in Blockchain at Birmingham City University, and Editor-in-Chief of 3 journals – Frontiers in Blockchain with 367 editors, Social Value & Intangibles Review and Efficiency Exchange.
Follow Olinga Taeed:
About Frontiers, Rothbadi & Co, Seratio: Measurement of Intangible Non-Financial Value, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
Martin Roots
Co-Founder & Chairman of Expede Group
Follow Martin Roots:
About Expede Group, Expede Group: Transforming universities for tomorrow
Mike Hedger
Chairman of Conversocial
Mike Hedger has a track record in building market-leading companies. Mike was previously CEO of email archiving company KVS from its inception in 1999 to its successful sale to Veritas for $225 million in 2004 (now Symantec Enterprise Vault). Before that, he served as EVP Worldwide Operations at Forte, building the European business before moving to head up Worldwide Operations which culminated in a successful acquisition by Sun for $700 million. Mike’s earlier career included positions as VP Marketing Operations EMEA for Oracle, Managing Director UK and Northern Europe for INGRES/ASK and successful sales careers at both WANG and IBM. Mike is also the chairman of Mimecast and eCommera.
Follow Mike Hedger:
About : Conversocial is a Customer Experience Platform for Messaging Channels.
Colette Ballou
Chairman of Ballou
I am an entrepreneur, a limited partner and the founder and chairman of Ballou. I advise and mentor CEOs and often speak about topics I care very much about: the importance of reputation, civility in the workplace, the importance of a strong and warm corporate culture, and the responsibilities of investors, be they angels or limited partners. I founded Ballou in 2002, a European communications and strategy agency that works with high-growth technology and technology-enabled companies, as well as technology investors. Ballou’s success has enabled me to invest in venture capital firms, and has also given me exposure to thousands of different business models, so that along with my colleagues, we know what works, what doesn’t, and what to watch for. Thus, we forecast trends, understand and examine human behavior, and use these insights to position businesses for high growth. I invest in venture capital and private equity firms including Cavalry Ventures, Asia Partners and Connect Ventures.
Follow Colette Ballou:
About Ballou: International communications agency for high-growth technology companies
Israel Mazin
Chairman & Co-founder of Shadow Technologies Ltd.
Mr. Mazin was a co-founder of Memco Software and served as Memco’s CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1990 until the company was acquired by Computer Associates in 1999. Prior to his position at Memco, Mr. Mazin served as a business development consultant to several Israeli companies in the high-tech industry. Mr. Mazin began his career at the Israel Defense Forces Computer Center where he served in infrastructure systems management.
Follow Israel Mazin:
About Shadow Technologies Ltd.: Shadow.com summarizes user reviews under topics such as products, services, and people.
Jonathan Baines
Chairman of Ideal Flatmate
Follow Jonathan Baines:
About : Ideal Flatmate is the first UK website dedicated to helping its users find the right flatmates.
Chris Underhill
Non Executive Chairman of Hive Marketing Cloud
Follow Chris Underhill:
About Hive Marketing Cloud, iVoucher: Hive Intelligence is an agile marketing platform that offers marketing software and services.
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.
Follow Christofer Solheim:
About Commetric Ltd.: Award-winning media analytics solutions that provide deeper, more practical level of insight. #MoreWithAnalytics
Jon Wilkins
Executive Chairman of Karmarama
Follow Jon Wilkins:
About Karmarama: Karmarama is a full service communications agency, combining creative excellence with technology-inspired solutions
Richard Wolman
Founder and Chairman of WISTLA
Follow Richard Wolman:
About WISTLA: The world’s first sociable network. We’re igniting the power in every crowd.
Vedan Choolun
Founder and Chairman of UiTV Connect
Follow Vedan Choolun:
About UiTV Connect: A Global Internet Television Network
David Benello – Chairman
Chairman of V-Nova
Follow David Benello – Chairman:
About : Next-generation video and image compression that works today
David Benello – Chairman
Chairman of V-Nova
Follow David Benello – Chairman:
About : Next-generation video and image compression that works today
Nigel Hamway
Chairman of Quickheart
As Chairman, Nigel helps produce the harmonies that develop into the complete Quickheart performance. Through provocation, questioning and positive interference. A qualified Chartered Accountant and a Cambridge University graduate, he is also currently Director of Charterhouse Development Capital, Chairman of AIM listed The Conygar Investment Company PLC, Trustee for Oxfordshire Community Foundation and Hon Treasurer of The Society of Wood Engravers.
Follow Nigel Hamway:
About Quickheart: Quickheart, an innovative technology company that specialises in digitally enabled social care solutions.
Peter George
Chairman & President of Enigma Holding Group
Follow Peter George:
About Enigma Holding Group: Enigma is an investment company that focuses on the areas of health and wellbeing, sport, learning, community programs, and social housing.
Clare Parsons
Founder & Chairman of Lansons
Clare Parsons is Founder & Chairman @ Lansons.
Follow Clare Parsons:
About Lansons: Lansons is a full service strategic consultancy, specialising in corporate, media and political communications.
Kev McFadyen
Chairman of Crowd Reactive Ltd
Follow Kev McFadyen:
About : Crowd Reactive Ltd operates a web-based application for event organizers.
