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 Managing Director operating in the Industrial space. If you think a Managing 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.
Keith Moorhouse
Managing Director – ATR of Centurion Group
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About Centurion Group: Centurion Group is an Aberdeen headquartered specialist rental equipment provider primarily to the offshore global oil & gas industry.
Ian Mellor
Managing Director of Metalysis
Ian joined Metalysis in September 2004. Prior to this Ian was a Project Manager at Morgan Fuel Cell, a subsidiary of the Morgan Crucible Company plc Ian has a background in physical chemistry, he has over ten years industrial experience leading teams, developing new products and commercialising technologies, primarily in the alternative energy and metals industries. Since joining Metalysis, Ian has developed and led the Technology team to improve the chemistry and morphology of the products, primarily for tantalum and titanium. He has also provided support to the Engineering team for the scale-up of the process. Ian was awarded a PhD in Heterogeneous Catalysis from the Nottingham Trent University.
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About Metalysis: Metalysis, a manufacturer of metals and alloys, offers both economic and environmental benefits over traditional metal production methods.
Ignacio Gimenez
Managing Director Europe and Middle East, BP Ventures of BP
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About BP: BP delivers heat, light and mobility products and services to people all around the world.
Gareth Maker
Co-Founder & Managing Director of M Squared Lasers
Gareth Maker attained a first class honours degree in Physics from Southampton University in 1986. The laser research group at Southampton is one of the largest and most prestigious in the UK, and as part of this group Gareth completed PhD research into laser development in 1989, producing many firsts in the field of diode-pumped solid-state lasers. He then spent a year working on laser research within the new Optical Research Centre (ORC), also based in Southampton. This was part of a government initiative to create centres of excellence for research within UK universities, and as such the ORC represented a £10M investment by the UK government. In 1991 he co-founded Microlase Optical Systems Ltd. Gareth then took the company from a startup to one having a turnover of around £3M and a worldwide reputation for excellence. The technical and financial success of this business eventually led to a trade sale to Coherent Inc (one of the world’s largest laser companies and NASDAQ listed) in 2000. Gareth continued as joint Managing Director until 2002, at which point the business had grown to 50 employees, had achieved a turnover of £7M, and occupied purpose-built prestigious premises within Glasgow, Scotland. He then acted as a technical consultant to several photonics companies, helping them to remain forward looking both in their R&D activities and in key areas of product design and manufacturing.
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About M Squared Lasers: M Squared Lasers develops and manufactures next-generation lasers and photonic instruments.
Brian Miller
Managing Director & Co-Founder of uFraction8
Dr Brian Miller is one of the original inventors of uFraction8’s technology. Following the successful PhD where the technology was developed, he undertook a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship to learn the skills required for commercialisation of the technology. Furthermore, he has a background as a professional engineer and was involved in delivering high value projects in gas turbine control systems in industry.
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About uFraction8: uFraction8 develops microfluidics-based filtration systems to help bio-manufacturers to harvest biomass sustainably and more efficiently.
Ken Ritson
Group Managing Director and Co-Founder of EDS HV Group
Ken Ritson is Group Managing Director. Ken is responsible for installation contracts and services/project management within EDS. Ken started his career with a UK Electricity Company and progressed to a Training & Development Engineer. In 1993 he joined a UK contracting firm as Contracts Manager, and formed EDS in 1994. As a founder member of EDS Ken has a vast experience from installation, training and development through management of multi-million pound companies. Ken’s practical, commercial, business and industry knowledge has left him well placed to deliver solutions to clients in the most challenging situations.
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About EDS HV Group: EDS HV Group engages in the design and installation of wind farm construction projects.
Malcolm Paice
Managing Director of Keystone Group
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About Keystone Group: Keystone Group manufactures and supplies steel lintel, offsite components, roof windows, offsite construction, GRP components and chimneys.
Bruce Renfrew
Managing Director of Renfrew Group International
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About Renfrew Group International: Award winning Renfrew Group are a full service, product design consultancy.
Ian Foley
Managing Director of Equipmake
Ian Foley is the Managing Director at Equipmake Ltd.
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About Equipmake: Equipmake’s mission is to provide State of the Art control System Solutions for niche and specialist markets.
Carl-Petter Halvorsen
Managing Director of equityfor
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About equityfor: Re inventing Venture Capital Investment. Providing investment access for institutional and accredited investors.
Nigel Hall
Founder & Managing Director of WHP Engineering
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About WHP Engineering: WHP Engineering is a multi-disciplined, engineering company dedicated to providing both standalone and turnkey solutions.
Phill Adamson
Managing Director & Co-Founder of Paragon Rapid Technologies Ltd
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About Paragon Rapid Technologies Ltd: A leading product development and production support company, offering prototyping, manufacturing and supply chain management solutions.
Costas Pantelides
Managing Director of Process System Enterprise
Costas Pantelides has been the Managing Director of PSE since 2005. He was one of the original founders of the company, and has also served as its Technology Director since the establishment of the company in 1997. Costas holds B.Sc.(Eng.) and PhD degrees from Imperial College London and an MS degree from MIT. He is the author of over 100 scientific papers on the design and implementation of general-purpose process modelling tools, numerical methods for large-scale simulation and optimisation, and molecular modelling. He is currently also a part-time professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial. Costas has more than 25 years’ experience in process modelling technology, having played a leading role in the development of the gPROMS® and SPEEDUP technologies. His contributions to process systems engineering were honoured by the 1998 Beilby Medal and Prize, awarded jointly by the UK Society of Chemical Industry, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Materials. In 2007, he led the winning team for the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, the UK’s most prestigious prize for engineering innovation.
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About Process System Enterprise: Process System Enterprise offers process modeling software and model-based innovation services for the process industries.
David Barnes
Managing Director of Adi
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About Adi, Worldview Learning: Adi is an engineering company that provides automation, waste systems, automotive, electrical and installation services for various sectors.
Jane Gardner
Managing Director of EUROPEAN RESILIENT FLOORING MANUFACTURERS’ INSTITUTE
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About EUROPEAN RESILIENT FLOORING MANUFACTURERS’ INSTITUTE: ERFMI offers a wide variety of durable, flexible, and impermeable flooring products made of both synthetic and natural materials.
John Hansen
Managing Director and CEO of ETher NDE
John was Senior Staff Engineer for Eddy Current NDT at GE Inspection Technologies, St Albans, UK (previously Hocking NDT). John is the immediate past Chairman of the BINDT Trade Group as well as being a BINDT Council Member, BINDT UK Engineering Council Representative and ordinary member of various other committee and for ASTM he serves on the Electromagnetic and DICONDE Committees .Johns Eddy Current NDT wealth of knowledge and passion is well regarded in the industry and this teamed with Mike’s overall NDT market expertise has allowed ETher NDE to be built on a very solid foundation. With a combined industry experience of nearly 70 years, Mike and John quickly went to work to build a team based on non-destructive testing knowledge, passion and skill.
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About ETher NDE: ETher is a manufacturer of Eddy Current Testing (ECT) non-destructive testing NDT equipment.
Stephen Hayes
Managing Director of BECKHOFF
Stephen has over 25 years experience in control systems and is MD at Beckhoff UK. In 2004 he started IA (Integrating Automation Ltd) as a Beckhoff SI for building controls which has developed creating secure IoT gateways and IoT lighting controls. Stephen graduated in Engineering from Kings London.
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About BECKHOFF: Beckhoff implements open automation systems based on PC Control technology.
Justin Pringle
Managing Director of Prototype Projects
Justin manages the commercial, consulting and planning sides of the business, including sales and marketing activities. As well as planning the direction of the business, Justin is responsible for investment in new machinery and technologies to ensure that capacity is always ahead of customer demand.
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About Prototype Projects: Prototype Projects is a specialist prototyping and production parts manufacturer based in Royston.
Nick Pummell
Managing Director of Low Power Radio Solutions
Nick joined the LPRS team in 2015 following 18 years working within the wireless electronic component, M2M and IoT technologies eco-systems. Nick is a true believer in M2M / IoT, having seen many times the ability of the technologies to provide innovative, profitable and disruptive new business and services.
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About Low Power Radio Solutions: LPRS is a global leader in low power RF solutions for OEMs.
Phil Blewitt
Managing Director of NETA Training Centre
Phil Blewitt is the managing director at NETA Training Group. Prior to joining NETA Training, Phil served as the senior vice president of business development at Site Group International Limited. Before that, he has held various executive positions at Petrofac Training Services.
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About NETA Training Centre: NETA Training is a vocational training provider that delivers a wide range of commercially and Government funded engineering training.
Phil Blewitt
Managing Director of NETA Training Centre
Phil Blewitt is the managing director at NETA Training Group. Prior to joining NETA Training, Phil served as the senior vice president of business development at Site Group International Limited. Before that, he has held various executive positions at Petrofac Training Services.
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About NETA Training Centre: NETA Training is a vocational training provider that delivers a wide range of commercially and Government funded engineering training.
Ben Smart
Managing Director of Whitham Mills Engineering
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About Whitham Mills Engineering: Whitham Mills Engineering designs, manufactures, installs and maintains high-quality waste processing equipment to customers.
