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 Virtualization 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.
Simon Marsh
Marketing Procurement Director of Dell EMC
Simon has been at Dell EMC since 2010 as a procurement manager for indirect spend, and is now Marketing Procurement Director. Previously he was at BP.
Follow Simon Marsh:
About Dell EMC: DEll EMC manufactures information management and storage software systems.
Brian Shorland
Senior Director of Product Management of BlueCat
Follow Brian Shorland:
About BlueCat: BlueCat builds next-generation IPAM, DNS, and DHCP solutions that connect mobile devices, applications, and the cloud.
Bharat Mistry
Technical Director – UK & Ireland of Trend Micro
Drawing upon his experience in all areas of security, Bharat works with CISOs providing industry subject matter expertise in the development of Information Security strategies linking in depth security defences to the business requirements. Bharat focuses on major global clients in the Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Financial Services, Telecommunications and Retail markets.
Follow Bharat Mistry:
About Trend Micro: Trend Micro is a global cybersecurity leader with enterprise and SMB security solutions for cloud, XDR, endpoint, email, and networks.
Oliver Wessling
Director of NOS Microsystems
Oliver Wessling is the Director at NOS Microsystems.
Follow Oliver Wessling:
About NOS Microsystems: Specialist in electronic software distribution and cloud services tools for all platforms.
Lars Kurth
Director of Open Source Solutions of Citrix Systems
Lars Kurth had his first contact with the open source community in 1997 when he worked on various parts of the ARM toolchain. This experience led Lars to become a passionate open source enthusiast who worked with and for many open source communities over the past 19 years. Lars contributed to projects such as GCC, Eclipse, Symbian and Xen and became the open source community manager for Xen.org in 2011 and later chairman of the Xen Project Advisory Board.
Follow Lars Kurth:
About Citrix Systems: Citrix offers a unified platform to secure, manage, and monitor diverse technologies in complex cloud environments.
David Cottingham
Director, Product Management & Partner Engineering of Citrix Systems
David runs the product management and partner engineering teams for Citrix Workspace ecosystem and the Citrix Hypervisor virtualization platform. He has spent a decade working with engineering teams at a whole host of companies, listening to customers large and small, and forming product strategy. David holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cambridge, and enjoys scribbling on whiteboards.
Follow David Cottingham:
About Citrix Systems: Citrix offers a unified platform to secure, manage, and monitor diverse technologies in complex cloud environments.
David Cottingham
Director, Product Management & Partner Engineering of Citrix Systems
David runs the product management and partner engineering teams for Citrix Workspace ecosystem and the Citrix Hypervisor virtualization platform. He has spent a decade working with engineering teams at a whole host of companies, listening to customers large and small, and forming product strategy. David holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cambridge, and enjoys scribbling on whiteboards.
Follow David Cottingham:
About Citrix Systems: Citrix offers a unified platform to secure, manage, and monitor diverse technologies in complex cloud environments.
Frances Keeth
Member of the Board of Directors of Arrow Electronics
Frances Keeth is a Member of the Board of Directors at Arrow Electronics. Frances was Executive Vice President of Royal Dutch Shell plc, a global energy company, from 2005 to 2006 and was President and Chief Executive Officer of Shell Chemicals LP from 2001 to 2006. During her long tenure at Royal Dutch Shell, Frances served in a number of other positions of responsibility, including Executive Vice President, Finance and Business Systems and Executive Vice President, Customer Fulfillment and Product Business Units. Prior to these positions, Frances was Controller and Principal accounting officer of Mobil Corporation. Frances has served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Arrow Electronics, Inc. since 2004 and, in the past five years, she has served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Peabody Energy Corporation. Frances’ career with Shell has provided her with substantial experience in managing worldwide operations and strategic partnerships in a capital-intensive business. Frances’ expertise provides the Board with critical skills in the areas of financial oversight, aligning financial and strategic initiatives, and risk management. Frances has served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Verizon since 2006. Frances is Lead Director, Chair of the Corporate Governance and Policy Committee and a Member of the Audit Committee and the Finance Committee.
Follow Frances Keeth:
About : Arrow Electronics designs, manufactures and distributes electronic components for industrial and commercial sectors.
Andy Slater
VP & Managing Director EMEA of Actifio
Having joined Actifio in 2011, Andy leads the EMEA sales execution. Prior to this role, Andy was pivotal in heading up the services and installation customers in the region. Prior to Actifio, Andy lead sales and operations at TecTrade, a data protection and storage partner based in the UK. His 15+ years in roles as Chief Operating Officer and Sales Director allowed him to build strategic customer and regional relationships.
Follow Andy Slater:
About Actifio: Actifio delivers enterprise data-as-a-service to global enterprise customers and service provider partners.
Ray Krug
Director, Solutions Engineering / Field Enablement of NetScout Systems
Ray Krug currently focuses on defining solution architectures, product positioning, and pre-sales enablement for the Enterprise line of business at NETSCOUT. With more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry, originally a software developer, then Network Engineer, he transitioned into pre-sales for Performance Management solutions. Ray has been with NETSCOUT for 6 years joining as part of the Psytechnics acquisition as a specialist in Unified Communications and Voice and Video performance management. Prior to this Ray held pre-sales roles in Intelliden, Orchestream, Concord Communications, Olicom, and CrossComm.
Follow Ray Krug:
About NetScout Systems, NetScout Systems: NetScout Systems provides integrated computer network performance management products.
Steve Robinson
Managing Director and CEO of Little Fish (UK)
Follow Steve Robinson:
About Little Fish (UK): Littlefish is an award winning and rapidly growing Managed IT Services Provider.
Richard Roome
Services Director of Little Fish (UK)
A father of two young and energetic boys aged 3 and 6 Richard has his hands full at home but in his down time he enjoys playing tennis and cricket, long days watching cricket and catching up with friends. At Littlefish Richard is Services Director and co-owner, responsible for existing clients, transitioning new clients, contract renewals and service improvements. Passionate about the Littlefish service, Richard has been responsible for shaping the Littlefish Service Delivery teams and with an attention for detail is driven to ensure the service is of the highest quality. After initially working in the Wind Energy industry undertaking Environmental Impact Assessments, he has 20 years of experience in the IT industry, initially from a technical perspective moving thereafter to operational and service management roles. Richard has been involved in a number of successful high growth start-up ventures as well as Operational Management and Service Account Management roles for major clients at ComputerLand UK Plc and Capita IT Services.
Follow Richard Roome:
About Chimata Gold Corp, Little Fish (UK): Littlefish is an award winning and rapidly growing Managed IT Services Provider.
Joe McCarthy
Sales Director of Little Fish (UK)
Also a new father, Joe is getting to grips with a baby boy and enjoys reminiscing about uninterrupted night’s sleep, travel, wine, road biking, days at the cricket and old property restoration. Joe is Sales Director and co-owner at Littlefish and looks after new business growth, contract negotiations, commercial partnerships and marketing. He is a Law and Economics graduate from Liverpool University with over 15 years of B2B IT sales experience, commercial modelling and contract negotiation. He first cut his teeth at British Telecom before moving up the gears at small to mid-market IT & Telco firm PSU Technology Group. As Head of Sales for the IT Support division at PSU, Joe secured major national private and public sector contracts for mid-range IBM, Unix and Wintel support contracts and implemented the sales and marketing plan from the IT maintenance division. Business Development Manager roles at ComputerLand UK Plc and Capita IT Services have given him broad exposure to IT Outsourcing and constructing tailored, managed IT services contracts in the public and private sector. Joe was awarded Managed Services salesman of the year at Capita IT Services in 2008, before joining the executive management team that acquired Littlefish in 2010. Joe looks after all front-line new business and has grown Littlefish total managed service revenue by >25% YoY to date.
Follow Joe McCarthy:
About Little Fish (UK): Littlefish is an award winning and rapidly growing Managed IT Services Provider.
Chris Fuller
Director, Solutions Engineering – Shape of F5
Follow Chris Fuller:
About F5: F5 Networks provides application security and delivery tools.
Gary Newe
Technical Director of F5
Follow Gary Newe:
About F5: F5 Networks provides application security and delivery tools.
Chris Fuller
Director, Solutions Engineering – Shape of F5
Follow Chris Fuller:
About F5: F5 Networks provides application security and delivery tools.
Steve Cobham
Managing Director, Data Division of Stack Group
Follow Steve Cobham:
About Stack Group: The Stack Group provide a comprehensive range of IT services and solutions.
George Bradbury
Managing Director, Telecom Division of Stack Group
Follow George Bradbury:
About Stack Group: The Stack Group provide a comprehensive range of IT services and solutions.
Phil McCartney
Managing Director, Interconnect Division of Stack Group
Follow Phil McCartney:
About Stack Group: The Stack Group provide a comprehensive range of IT services and solutions.
Stuart Bridge
Technical Director of Stack Group
Follow Stuart Bridge:
About Stack Group: The Stack Group provide a comprehensive range of IT services and solutions.
John Farebrother
Sales Director of Stack Group
Follow John Farebrother:
About Stack Group: The Stack Group provide a comprehensive range of IT services and solutions.
Jeff Orr
Founder, Chairman & Managing Director of Stack Group
Follow Jeff Orr:
About Stack Group: The Stack Group provide a comprehensive range of IT services and solutions.
