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 SaaS 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 Whitfield
Chairman of hundo.careers
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About : hundo.careers is an end-to-end entry-level talent solution that helps forward-thinking companies engage with Gen Z talent.
Stephen Bullock
Exec Chairman of Autologyx
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About Autologyx, Beacon Capital: Autologyx is the next-generation Fabric Automation Platform for enterprise businesses.
Rob O’Donovan
Co-Founder & Chairman of Charlie
Rob O’Donovan works as Chairman and Co-founder for The Eleven.
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About Charlie, The Eleven: Charlie is the HR software for small teams with big ideas.
Alberto Gabbai
Chairman and CEO of Cezanne HR
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About Cezanne HR: Comprehensive Cloud HR software for mid-sized UK & international businesses
Ashley Cooper
Chairman of Properr
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About : Simplifying the property purchasing process.
Lester Mordue
Chairman of PromoMii
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About : A.I. powered video content creation SaaS platform used by the likes of Disney, NENT, VRT and more
Denys C. Shortt
Chairman & CEO of Enable
Denys Shortt is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at DCS Group. He is also a Co-Founder at Enable.
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About Enable: Enable is a startup developing a cloud-based software tool for business-to-business rebate management.
Neeshu Lukha
Chairman of the Board of Realeyes
Neeshu chairs Realeyes’ Board and leads business development with key brands. Neeshu comes to Realeyes with over 17 years brand management experience at Procter & Gamble (where he obtained P&G peak advanced level in marketing and advertising) and running Yum! Restaurants in Europe for another 3 years. He has successfully grown businesses over a diverse spectrum, including US, Europe and 15+ years in emerging markets, 50+ brands over 25 categories, and a wide variety of business situations like launching and designing new brands, expanding established brands, entering new geographies and segments, turnarounds, high-growth markets, economic downturns, joint ventures, technology and innovation partnerships and numerous acquisitions. Neeshu has worked across businesses such as Olay, Hugo Boss, Pampers, Pizza Hut, KFC, Gillette, Crest, Braun, Vicks, and in marketing these brands has also lead development of new marketing models and new research & innovation approaches.
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About : Measuring Human Response At The Speed & Scale Of AI
Neil Scarth
Chairman of KITE EDGE LTD
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About : Customisable Search Platform for Asset Managers/Banks
Richard Tipper
Executive Chairman of Ecometrica
Richard is a champion of evidence-based environmental action. He has worked as an adviser on climate change issues for many government, business and international organisations. After studying Agricultural Science (Edinburgh University) Richard worked in Mexico as an advisor to farmers’ organisations. He later took an MSc in Technology Management, then doctoral research on the economics of contemporary Mayan farmers. Following his PhD he obtained research funding to develop the Plan Vivo system for payments for ecosystem services, and subsequently commercial investment to put theory into practice in Mexico, India, Uganda and Mozambique. With commercial interest growing in this area Richard founded the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), and built a team of experts on land use and GHG accounting. While at ECCM Richard was appointed to the UK Roster of Experts on Climate Change and was Lead Author on two IPCC reports. In 2007 his work on the IPCC was recognised as a contribution to the Nobel Peace Prize. Richard also advised on numerous standards and methodologies for accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, including the WBCSD-WRI GHG Protocol, European standards for biofuels and PAS 2060. Since co-founding Ecometrica in 2008 Richard has focused on developing the Earth Observation and spatial data platform side of the business. He has retained an interest in measurement and evaluation of land use interventions as a senior evaluator of Norway’s international climate and forests initiative (NICFI), and an advisor to the UK government’s investments in forests under the International Climate Fund.
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About : Ecometrica is an end-to-end environmental software-as-a-service that helps businesses and governments identify risks and opportunities.
Mark Tincknell
Chairman of Oneserve
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About : Field service management software
Chris Underhill
Non Executive Chairman of Hive Marketing Cloud
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About Hive Marketing Cloud, iVoucher: Hive Intelligence is an agile marketing platform that offers marketing software and services.
Steve Garnett
Chairman of Fairsail
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About Fairsail: Human resources software for mid-size organizations
Jon Myers
Strategy Consultant & CAB Chairman of DeepCrawl
Experienced senior leader with over 19 years’ experience within the digital marketplace working for large corporate organisations to start ups within the sector. Currently the Chief Growth Officer of DeepCrawl. www.deepcrawl.com Jon has been working in Digital Marketing since 1997, first agency side, working for Latitude Digital Marketing as one of the original core team members. Then he moved to MediaVest, part of Starcom Mediavest (now part of Aegis), and grew their Search department from around 20 to over 40 people, including setting up the SEO team. After working agency side for 13 years, Jon moved to Yahoo! to head up their search business and display account management. After 2 years at Yahoo! Jon was head-hunted for the position as VP & Commercial Director EMEA with a view of becoming VP & Managing Director of Marin Software EMEA. In his time heading up Marin Software in the EMEA region, Jon helped grow the company; doubling the international revenues, opening new offices and assisted developing the product offering. Also he was part of the exec management team taking Marin Software through IPO in March 2013. Whilst being VP & MD EMEA at Marin Software the company won the following awards: Best PPC Management Software – UK Search Awards in 2011, 2013 and 2014 Best PPC Management Software – European Search Awards 2012, 2013 and 2015 Best Use of Search – Finance with Moneysupermarket.com at European Search Awards in 2014 Best use of PPC Innovation with Moneysupermarket.com at the DADI Awards in 2014 More receltly with DeepCrawl awards for: Best B2B Technology – B2B Expo Awards 2017 Best Search Tool – MENA Search Awards 2017 Jon is seen as a thought leader in the digital marketing industry and speaks, keynotes, chairs and moderates at industry events worldwide. Jon is a regular judge at notable industry awards in the UK and Europe. He contributes regularly to the online and offline digital marketing and mainstream press, as well as trains, mentors and supports up and coming marketers.
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About DeepCrawl: The #1 technical SEO SaaS platform for enterprise businesses
Adam Shaw
Founder / Exec Chairman of Scribestar
Adam Shaw is the Founder and Exec Chairman at Scribestar.
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About Scribestar: Scribestar is a cloud-based platform that improves efficiency and project management for complex capital markets.
Lady Barbara Judge
Independent Non-Executive Chairman of LoopUp
Lady Judge is a Senior Advisor to Triangle Growth Partners, and chairs the Investment Advisory Committee.Lady Judge, a trained commercial lawyer, has an unusually broad and successful international career as a senior executive, chairman and non-executive director in both the private and public sectors. She was previously a partner in a major US law firm specialising in corporate and financial transactions. In 1980 she was appointed by the President as a Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Thereafter she was appointed as the first woman executive director of News International and Samuel Montagu and held many positions in the financial services industry including Chair of the UK/US Committee on Corporate Governance and Senior Advisor to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. She is currently Chairman of the Energy Institute of University College London and Chairman of the UK Pension Protection Fund. In 2002 she was appointed as a director of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and became its Chairman in 2004 and was reappointed in 2007. After completing two terms she was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Tepco Nuclear Reform Committee and Chairman of its Task Force on Nuclear Safety. She is also a member of the UAE Advisory Board for the Development of Peaceful Nuclear Energy. Lady Judge is a non-executive director of NV Bekaert SA (Belgium) and Magna International Inc (Canada) and a strategic advisor to a number of international corporations, including Statoil and Barclays. She is a member of the International Advisory Board of Sabanci University and a member of the Steering Committee of the Istanbul International Energy & Climate Center at Sabanci University. In addition she is currently a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University. In June 2010 she was awarded Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the nuclear and financial services industries. Lady Judge received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and Juris Doctor with honours from New York University Law School.
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About University of Oxford: LoopUp is a premium remote meetings solution.
Roberto Rivero
Chairman of Vable
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About Vable: Vable is a software that helps companies manage all their sources of information in one place to deliver the best content to your audience.
Hugh Lloyd-Jukes
CEO and Chairman of Oxehealth
Hugh Lloyd-Jukes is the CEO and Chairman at Oxehealth.
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About Oxehealth: SaaS workflow solution gives carers and custodians more time for hands on care where and when it’s needed most.
Jeff Painter
Chairman of the Board of unrival
Adviser and mentor to the team, Jeff has 40 years’ experience including at board level within the UK Financial Services and Insurance sector, where he was Director of Direct Distribution at AXA Sunlife Plc.In addition to being appointed Chairman, he advises the team on Corporate Planning and Business Strategy, People Development and Enterprise Sales.
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About : SaaS, Sales, Client, Business Intel
Chris Barling
Chairman of The Bot Platform
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About Powered Now, The Bot Platform: Empowering people to build a better employee experience using bots, digital assistants and automation tools.
Roger Adcock
Chairman of Reactec
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About Reactec: Reactec is the market leader in monitoring and management support solutions for hand and arm vibration syndrome
David Sykes
Chairman of SmartSurvey
Chairman at SOMNIUM® Technologies.
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About SmartSurvey: The UK’s leading online survey software.
