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 COO’ operating in the Banking space. If you think a COO’ 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.
Tony Lissaman
Chief Operating Officer Private Equity of 3i Group
Tony Lissaman In his role as Chief Operation Officer (COO), Tony is responsible for the operational running of 3i’s international Private Equity business. His responsibilities include the strategic development of the business, financial planning and reporting, business processes and systems, resource management, portfolio monitoring and valuations. Having previously qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, Tony joined 3i in 1998 initially working in 3i’s Group Finance team. Over his career at 3i, Tony has been involved in the reshaping of 3i’s Private Equity business, including its international development and integration. Tony has a Geography degree from Loughborough University and is a qualified chartered accountant.
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About 3i Group: 3i is an international investment manager focused on mid-market Private Equity, Infrastructure & Debt Management.
Austin Kimm
COO, Co-Founder of Crypterium
Former CEO of Renaissance Life and Pensions (Russia & Ukraine) and CEO Renaissance Insurance Group. Austin led company to #1 Position for Life Insurance in Russia (by written premium – approx $250m per annum) and Top 10 Position for voluntary pensions in Russia ($800m assets under management. Company was sold for approx $200m in 2013. Former CEO of Workle, a high-profile digital startup with over $30 million business turnover and 200 000 active users in 2015, specializing in creating sales forces via online training and support systems Director for Strategy at PayQR, an electronic payment systems pioneer with a market valuation exceeding $20 million.
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About Crypterium: Crypterium mobile app allows instant payments in cryptocurrency. Whatever you can do with your money, you can now do with your crypto.
Eimear O’Connor
Chief Operating Officer of Form3
Eimear leads operations and project delivery at Form3. She joined from Barclays where she was Retail and Commercial Director for Pingit, responsible for the global development and commercial management of the retail customer base for this award winning open market payments platform. Prior to this, Eimear led the Corporate Mobile Payments Team at Barclays where she was responsible for the product design, development and launch of the Barclays Pingit for corporates product set. Eimear has also held positions including Vice President of Strategy at Visa Europe and Business Consultant at both BearingPoint and Capco, working on multiple assignments in the UK and globally. Eimear holds a BSc. Finance from University College Cork and a MBS Strategic Management and Planning from the Smurfit Graduate School of Business, University College Dublin.
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About Form3: Form3 is a cloud native payments-as-a-service platform that designs, builds, and runs the technology that powers the future of payments.
Adrian Toner
Chief Operating Officer of First Derivatives
Adrian initially joined the Board of First Derivatives plc in September 2005 as a Non-Executive Director. In July 2010 he joined the Executive Team as Chief Operations Officer and has responsibility for the Group’s Human Resources, Facilities Management and Corporate IT functions. Prior to joining First Derivatives plc, Adrian spent eighteen years with Allianz in London and Ireland where he became of Head of Allianz in Northern Ireland and Associate Commercial Director-Allianz Ireland plc. During his career he has developed expertise in directing and controlling organisational operations in accordance with the company’s strategy and growth objectives.
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About First Derivatives: First Derivatives is a provider of products and consulting services to the largest finance, technology and energy institutions.
Martin Leonard
Chief Operating Officer of Castlight Financial
Martin is responsible for driving Castlight Financial’s growth as the company continues to develop web-based financial products and forge effective relationships with financial retailers across the UK and internationally. Having previously worked for both Equifax and Callcredit, his extensive industry expertise in credit risk, market intelligence, anti-fraud and verification issues means he understands the nuances of our clients’ businesses and is ideally placed to work with them to develop and implement solutions.
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About Castlight Financial: Castlight provides real-time, affordability & financial capability analysis the Affordability Passport & Categorisation as a Service.
Neil Ambler
COO & Co-Founder of Banked
Neil leads our fundraising and continually fine-tunes our business strategy, while keeping the day-to-day finances healthy.
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About Banked: Banked is a fintech company that provides an account-to-account payment software platform offering an alternative to card schemes.
Charlotte Hogg
Chief Operating Officer of Bank of England
She took up her role as Chief Operating Officer at the Bank on 1 July 2013. She read economics and history at Oxford and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. She entered the Bank of England in 1992 as a graduate entrant, but left in 1994 to join McKinsey in Washington.
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About Bank of England: The Bank of England serves as the central bank of the United Kingdom.
Samuele Pinta
Founder and COO of Satispay
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About Satispay: Satispay is a fintech company that provides a bank account enabled mobile payment platform.
Richo Strydom
COO of Bankable
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About Bankable: Bankable develops white-label payment solutions including e-wallets, remittance services, P2P money transfers and prepaid card programmes.
Michael Williams
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Glory Global Solutions
CFO since May 2014 and COO since April 2018, Michael is responsible for the company’s Finance, Supply Chain and IS functions. He joined Glory Global Solutions from Hitachi, where he was most recently European Finance Director. Michael’s extensive experience has included consistent delivery of growth and profitability in established global businesses as well as that of large-scale projects such as mergers, acquisitions and divestments. ‘Big Four’ accountancy firm qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Michael has led technical accounting conversion projects, process efficiency drives and IT implementations. He has also been instrumental in developing and bringing to market start-up solution businesses. He has experience across a range of sectors including retail, rail, manufacturing, leasing and motor.
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About Glory Global Solutions: Glory Global Solutions is a pioneer in the development and manufacture of money handling machines and systems.
Jonathan Hughes
Co-Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Pollinate
Jonathan Hughes is the Co-Founder, President & Chief Operating Officer at Pollinate International.
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About Pollinate: Pollinate Networks is a platform that works with banks to create data-driven experiences for merchants and consumers.
George Evans
Chief Operating Officer of Leumi UK
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About Leumi UK: Leumi UK is a financial service provider company.
David Roe
Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director, Europe of Paramount Commerce
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About Paramount Commerce: Paramount Commerce is a financial services company that enables customers to make purchases online directly from their bank account.
Azahara Egea
Co-Founder/COO of sync.
Co-Founder and COO at sync. A self-directed and a capable decision maker who manages and works with the team. I ensure that the business has the best working environment and processes needed for optimum operational efficiency by creating a performance culture with clear KPIs, employee reviews and pro-active improvements. I’m a primary director of event planning, recruitment and communication and I keep all departments coordinated and I’m heavily involved in determining the strategy and future goals of the company.
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About Find Exchange, sync.: We provide bank account aggregation and personal financial management service.
Ben Davies
Co-Founder and COO of Hugo Save
Ben Davies is the Co-Founder and COO at Hugo Save.
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About Hugo Save: Hugo is a digital account that helps you spend, save and invest, starting with gold.
Nikolai Hack
COO of Nucoro
Nikolai comes from a consultancy background with extensive experience across European bluechip clients in various sectors for BearingPoint (former KPMG). Nikolai has spent the majority of his career focused on operational excellence and process consulting projects as well as roles globally in business and policy. Nikolai has an MSc in Political Economy from LSE.
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About Nucoro: Nucoro enables financial institutions to build digital savings, investment and wealth management propositions at speed and scale.
Mohammad Shoaib Memon
Chief Financial Officer, COO of Europe Arab Bank
Mohammad Shoaib is an experienced finance professional with background in accounting, audit and advisory. He joined EAB from Ernst & Young LLP, where he worked in the Banking & Capital Markets practice. During his stay at Ernst & Young LLP he undertook various engagements with top tier international banks ranging from finance related advisory, accounting, audit and regulatory reporting. Prior to Ernst & Young, Mohammad Shoaib worked for four years with KPMG where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Mohammad Shoaib is a member of ICAEW, ACCA and ICAP.
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About Europe Arab Bank: Europe Arab Bank offer personal and private banking services, advisory investment management and corporate services.
Paul Hanratty
Chief Operating Officer of Old Mutual
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About Old Mutual: Old Mutual Group is an international investment, savings, insurance, and banking group.
Craig Peterson
Co Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Growth Capital Ventures
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About Carlton & Co, CoreHaus, Growth Capital Ventures: Growth Capital Ventures is a technology led financial services business.
Giovanni Contini
Co-Founder, COO & Head of Business Development of Euklid
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About Euklid: Euklid is the new way to manage savings and investments through thousands of different algorithms.
Nick Canfor
Chief Operating Officer of iMeta
As COO Nick is responsible for the day to day running of the business. As such he is responsible for Programme Management, Corporate Governance, HR, and Facilities. In addition he acts as Project Manager for two accounts. He has a proven track record of successfully delivering challenging IT projects to large organisations in financial services, retail and leisure sectors. These include The AA, Norwich Union, Going Places and Hogg Robinson. He also has extensive experience of creating startup companies on behalf of leading Life Assurance Companies.
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About iMeta: iMeta has been delivering client onboarding and entity data management technology to some of the largest banks and financial brokers.
Steve Fourie
Founder & COO of Upside Saving
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About Upside Saving: Upside is Intelligent Cashback as an API, fuelled by Open Banking.
James Mackonochie
COO & Co-Founder of OFF3R
James is the co-founder and COO at OFF3R. He has over 10 years of experience working at leading Management Consultancy firm Deloitte. James has a Business and Management degree from Manchester University and holds a number of professional qualifications in the field of technology delivery.
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About OFF3R: OFF3R helps you to learn how to invest and to compare investments from some of the best investment companies in the UK.
