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 Partner operating in the Security space. If you think a Partner 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.
John Boero
Partner Solutions Engineer – EMEA+APAC of HashiCorp
John Boero is the Partner Solutions Engineer – EMEA+APAC of HashiCorp.
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About HashiCorp, HashiCorp: HashiCorp is a remote-first company that solves development, security, and operations challenges in infrastructure.
Kristin Waeterloos
Head of Partner Eco-System of Privitar
As Head of Partner Eco-System, Kristin is responsible for the development and management of global and local partnerships to support Privitar’s growth strategy. A major focus is on joint go-to-market with consultancies, platform providers and complementary software vendors. Kristin has over 25 years experience in the Financial Services Technology sector, including SAP Financial Services, Sopra Group and Finastra, where she held senior management and business development positions and has built up a successful track record in Alliance and Channel management over the last 7 years. She has an extensive network of executive relations across global and European consultancies and technology players.
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About Privitar: Privitar offers a data privacy platform that protect their customers’ sensitive personal data and to deliver comprehensive data privacy.
Michael Szalontay
General Partner of Flashpoint
Michael Szalontay joined Flashpoint Venture Capital as General Partner in 2010.
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About Flashpoint, Forbes Finance Council, IntelliBoard, QMENTA: Flashpoint is an international asset management firm investing in tech businesses.
Alexander Konoplyasty
General Partner of Flashpoint
Alexander Konoplyasty is the co-Founder at Flashpoint Group. Alexander Konoplyasty serves as Managing Partner Flashpoint Venture Capital. He co-founded an investment company focusing on start-up investments in Internet in CEE/Israel/CIS. He was Independent Financial Advisor for the sale of 100% in Ventrade; with Ivan Tavrin in 2010 and helped in the acquisition of a significant minority stake in Net-By-Net Holding in 2010 for debt/equity restructuring of OJSC RBC Information Systems, including restructuring of c. US$260 million of debt, sale of 51% stake for US$80 million to ONEXIM, sale of RBC Bank. Alexander Konoplyasty was Director and Associate in Investment Banking at UBS. He was coverage banker for media/telecom and financial services in the CIS and completed over 20 investment banking transactions in Russia and Ukraine. He was Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley in the European Telecom Media Technology group and the Leveraged Finance group. He was Consultant of Transaction Support at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Alexander Konoplyasty has wide experience of leading all types of corporate finance transactions: M&A, IPO, private placements, leverage buy-outs, raising and restructuring debt. He mostly acted as execution “deal captain”. Alexander Konoplyasty studied Advanced Bachelor of Arts (Specialist) in Economics from 1998 to 2003 from Moscow State University for International Relations (MGIMO).
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About Flashpoint: Flashpoint is an international asset management firm investing in tech businesses.
Donatella Callegaris
Managing Partner of Flashpoint
Donatella joined Columbia Lake Partners in 2014. She is involved in the entire deal life cycle including assessing, evaluating and post investment monitoring. Donatella is focused particularly on CLP relationships with the equity sponsors ecosystem and on identifying high growth technology companies in need of growth financing that best suits CLP’s investment criteria. Prior to joining CLP, Donatella spent seven years working at Kreos Capital, managing several aspects of the investment process on a pre-term sheet and post-term sheet basis as well as managing the portfolio for technology and life science companies based in the UK, continental Europe and Israel. Donatella also managed various levels of the fund corporate governance for Kreos II, Kreos III and Kreos IV funds. Prior to this, Donatella worked in trust management. She holds a degree in Business Management from Birkbeck College, University of London and speaks both Italian and English.
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About Flashpoint: Flashpoint is an international asset management firm investing in tech businesses.
Iain Jawad
Director Strategic Partnerships of Frost & Sullivan
Iain Jawad Director of Strategic Partnerships at Frost & Sullivan, a global growth partnership company.
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About Frost & Sullivan: Frost and Sullivan is a business growth consultation company focused on increasing brand demand.
Robert Dobson
Vice President, Technology Partners, and Product Marketing of Device Authority
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About Device Authority: Device Authority is a global leader in Identity and Access Management (IAM) for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain.
Mark Olding
Enterprise & Partner Pre-Sales Engineer of Kaspersky Lab
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About Kaspersky Lab: Kaspersky Lab is a vendor of endpoint protection solutions for consumers, SMBs and enterprises.
David Leftley
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Bloc Ventures
David has more than 30 years global technology industry experience in start-ups and multi-nationals as an engineer, manager, director and investor. From 1983 he worked as a design engineer in the defence industry, specialising in radar and airborne electronic countermeasures, first at Cossor Electronics and then at Racal Defence. In 1987 he moved into the TV and film industry, working for Abacus Cox and then Vistek on the design of the world’s first digital TV production technology. In this time he progressed to become R&D Manager and later became General Manager. In 1996, as CTO he founded Digital Vision UK for DV AB of Sweden, a world leader in video compression, transmission and post production technology, securing contracts with the BBC, several Hollywood studios and customers as far afield as China. In 1999 DV AB successfully went to an IPO. In 2009 he joined Vodafone’s corporate venture team as head of its European activity, closing numerous investments in Mobile Health, Clean Tech, Infrastructure and Financial Tech services. In this time the fund ranked in the top 5 CVCs, achieved an IRR of 27% and in 2012 received an industry award for its exit of portfolio company Amobee for $321M. In 2010 David was ranked in Wired Magazine’s top 100 innovators’ list. He represented Vodafone on the boards of nine portfolio companies. In April 2013 David departed Vodafone to establish Bloc Ventures with Bruce. He has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Aston Birmingham, and is a Chartered Engineer.
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About Bloc Ventures: Bloc Ventures is an early-stage Deep Tech investment company. Pitch to Bloc here: https://blocventures.com/pitching/
Alex Deane
Senior Managing Director (Partner) Strategic Communications, Head of Public Affairs UK of FTI Consulting
Alex Deane is a Senior Managing Director (Partner) Strategic Communications, Head of Public Affairs UK at FTI Consulting.
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About FTI Consulting: FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm.
Henry Newby
Partnerships Director of Superscript
Every business needs a bridge builder, and nobody does it better than Henry. With a ton of big brand partnerships experience under his belt, he’s taken to the startup life like a duck to water. Always ready to brighten your day with his dazzling sarcasm, you might be surprised he’s also a (drum roll…) fantastic percussionist.
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About Superscript: Superscript provides business insurance designed specifically to meet the fast-changing needs of small businesses.
Dimitrie Sandu
Partner Solutions Architect & WAN Specialist of Meraki
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About Meraki: Meraki provides Cisco-based, cloud-controlled Wi-Fi and routing and security products for distributed wired and wireless networks.
Lisa Forte
Partner of Red Goat Cyber Security
Lisa began her career working in anti-piracy intelligence off the coast of Somalia before moving into Counter-terrorism intelligence for a UK Government agency. Lisa researched the process of online radicalisation by terrorist groups. This included studying how social media algorithms could be exploited for radicalising British nationals as well as looking at the lengthy and risky social engineering process undertaken by terrorist recruiters. Lisa then moved into one of the UK Police Cyber-Crime Units where she got to know the attackers’ mind sets and methodologies well. The unit dealt with serious cyber-crime cases working closely with international law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. Victim companies ranged from small to multi-national organisations and almost all the cases involved social engineering. Lisa left in 2017 to start her own company, Red Goat Cyber Security LLP, with the goal of reflecting the techniques and methodologies actually being employed by hackers. They provide GCHQ certified social engineering awareness training for staff and wargaming cyber-attack exercises to help organisations prepare for an attack. Lisa Forte frequently writes for business publications and appears as a guest on many business podcasts. Lisa is an experienced cybercrime keynote speaker having spoken in major conferences around the world.
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About Red Goat Cyber Security: Red Goat Cyber Security was founded to provide effective cyber security solutions.
Nick Morris
Head Of Partnerships & CEO of CyLon
Nick is a Director at Epsilon Advisory Partners, before which he spent three years running a technology startup. Following the company’s launch in 2014 by HRH Prince Charles, Nick successfully secured partnerships with a number of globally market leading companies across the UK, Europe and USA. Nick also sits on the Trustee Board of two small charities.
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About CyLon: CyLon is the world’s leading cyber security accelerator and seed investment programme.
Abi Hemingway
Partner, Producer, and Director of jackshoot
Having produced live online content since 2001, Abi Hemingway has become a leading online live broadcast producer. Working with industry leaders Jackshoot TV, she has produced complex online broadcasts for leading brands including BAFTA, the Royal Opera House, British Fashion Council, the BRIT Awards, the FA, Harrods and MTV – covering fashion, gaming, sports, corporate and cultural events. With the team at Jackshoot, they are the go-to team for awards ceremonies. Abi has also worked extensively in live music broadcasts with well over a hundred live recordings with artists including Kings of Leon, Muse and Madonna. Abi has exec-produced a multi-platform live music TV series (Live at indigo2), a global live-stream for Michael Jackson and large online multi-site events including World Ballet Day for four years. Her expertise and experience runs the gamut from technical to creative and editorial through to commercial – and she prides herself on creating strong teams who can always deliver high quality work with a smile, even when under pressure.
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About jackshoot: jackshoot is a highly skilled & experienced team that capture & deliver their clients content to any digital platform,offers reliable price
Mark Evans
Managing Partner of Define:Athene
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About Define:Athene: Define:Athene is a specialist in the field of cybersecurity, cyber governance, data protection, and information technology.
Chris Gould
Partner of Genium4
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About Genium4, Secgate: Genium4 engaging in cyber security services and technology risk challenges.
Gert den Poel
Founder & Managing Partner of Cybervalue
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About Cybervalue: Cybervalue offers security solutions that provide value to an organization’s performance, reliability, agility, and reputation.
Ken Munro
Senior Partner of Pen Test Partners
Ken Munro has been working in IT security for over 15 years. He writes for various newspapers and industry magazines, and regularly advises the broader press and news broadcasters. He works at Pen Test Partners who specialise in helping organisations understand and quantify risk to their business. In an effort to get beyond the unhelpful FUD put about by many security vendors Ken speaks widely on computer security, the Internet of Things, and takes great pleasure in highlighting vulnerabilities
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About Pen Test Partners: A limited liability partnership for one very good reason; being in a partnership means that our people are heavily invested the company.
Iain Fraser
Vice President Sales, Strategic Partnerships of Ransom Release
Iain Fraser is the vice president for sales and strategic partnerships at Ransom Release.
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About Ransom Release: Ransom Release is the simplest and quickest way to stay protected from today’s dangerous and unpredictable ransomware attacks.
