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 COO’ operating in the Security 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.
Kate Toumazi
Chief Operating Officer of Privitar
As Chief Operating Officer, Kate is responsible for driving an execution focus across the organisation and ensuring day-to-day operation of the business is efficient. Prior to joining Privitar, Kate held several global leadership positions in businesses geared for transformation or growth at Thomson Reuters, and has extensive experience in pricing and commercial strategy. She balances operational excellence with practical delivery and is passionate that the customer perspective is core to all initiatives. Kate started her career qualifying as a UK Chartered Accountant in professional practice at Andersen. Kate has a BSc in Economics from the University of Nottingham.
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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.
Kunal Sharma
Cofounder & COO of AppsPicket
Kunal is a serial entrepreneur having cofounded iRunway- an intellectual property firm that helped clients drive successful outcomes in excess of $1.5 billion. Also part of founding team at Pangea3 and Evalueserve. He has studied entrepreneurship from London Business School, and has done his Masters and Bachelors from IIT Delhi.
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About AppsPicket: Frictionless secure two factor authentication based on innovative cryptographic protocol.
Antoine Grisay
Co-Founder and COO of Shipfix
Antoine Grisay is a co-founder and COO at Shipfix.
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About Shipfix: Shipfix operates as a data and community platform that helps with the operational efficiency in the maritime industry.
Ian Welch
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Callsign
Ian Welch is the COO of Callsign. Previously he held positions at Ladbrokers and Ascot Racecourse. Ian has a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from Coverntry University
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About Callsign: Delivering digital trust through simple secure customer interactions
Jennifer Coyle Byrne
COO of G-Research
Jennifer Coyle Byrne is the Chief Operating Officer at G-Research.
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About G-Research: G-Research is a research and technology company that specializes in Quantitative Research and IT Infrastructure.
Peter Rochelle
Chief Operating Officer of Arqit Limited
Peter ‘Rocky’ Rochelle is the Chief Operating Officer at Arqit.
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About Arqit Limited: Arqit develops a quantum encryption platform.
Paul Guthrie
Chief Operating Officer of Envelop Risk
Envelop Risk COO & Co-Founder | Chair and co-founder at VALR | QxBranch co-founder. Over a decade of experience in strategy consulting, complex market analysis, and emerging technology as Senior Economist and Director of Business Development for Bryce Space and Technology. Paul holds a master degree in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in Philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. He is a former member of the USRowing National Team and current Olympic development rowing coach.
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About Envelop Risk, VALR: Envelop Risk is a global specialty cyber and emerging risk underwriting firm.
Stephen Dracup
Chief Operating Officer of Chess ICT
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About Chess ICT: Chess ICT provide services including product supply and installation, storage, hosted and cloud solutions.
Haydn Clulow
Chief Operating Officer of Atomic Weapons Establishment
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About Atomic Weapons Establishment: AWE has been central to the defence of the United Kingdom for more than 50 years.
Grant Wyatt
COO of MIRACL
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About : Miracl enables security solution and managed service providers to meet strong authentication needs of businesses in regulated industries.
Neil Woodcock
Chief Operating Officer of Tarmin, Inc.
Neil Woodcock Chief Operating Officer Leveraging 28 years of leadership experience and a wealth of business and technology expertise, Neil Woodcock joins Tarmin as the Chief Operating Officer where he will be responsible for global operations. Neil will be directing all Tarmin corporate strategy, including overseeing infrastructure, streamlining processes and building a global organizational culture aligned with Tarmin’s aggressive growth projections. Prior to joining Tarmin, Neil spent 28 years at IBM serving in various capacities. Neil holds a degree in Engineering from the University of Leicester and management certifications from Henley College of Management.
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About Tarmin, Inc.: Tarmin delivers GridBank Data Management Platform the premier Data Defined Storage solution.
Paul Zimmerman
COO of Invotra Ltd
An accomplished executive in the technology sector for nearly 20 years, having joined Amazon.com in 1999. Communications & Technology Currently COO of Invotra, an enterprise Intranet-as-a-Service, used by 200,000 end users in the UK and the US. Customers include the UK’s Home Office, Department for Works & Pensions (DWP), Department for Transport (DfT) and HMRC. In America, the venerable environmental organisation Sierra Club became a customer in 2017. I’m a public speaker and guest lecturer on diverse subjects ranging from entrepreneurship to the future of communications in the workplace to accessibility to Brexit’s impact on the UK. Ecommerce CEO for online gift and gadget site Firebox.com from 2010 to 2012, and COO of Stanley Gibbons’ ecommerce operations in Jersey from 2013 to 2014. Prior to this, I served Play.com as Marketplace Director in 2010 and Head of Business Development from 2005-2010. Previously I was a senior manager at both Amazon.com’s UK division, Amazon.co.uk (4 years), and Woolworths Group (2 years), where I led the business units responsible for driving e-commerce retail sales for both physical and digital music products. Specialties digital communications strategies, ecommerce, consulting and stakeholder engagement, p&l management, general management, product management, marketplace strategies, vendor management, purchasing, user experience & web design, SEO, search technologies, content management systems, digital distribution technologies, competitive analysis and research, market analysis and research, international experience
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About : Enterprise Intranet and Portal solutions for organisations worldwide
George Georgiou
Chief Operating Officer of TiG Data Intelligence
George Georgiou is the COO of TIG. He is passionate about driving customer service operations to deliver a consistent first class service as well as innovation.
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About ThirdSpace, TiG Data Intelligence: TIG is a provider of cloud services, unified communications, and infrastructure solutions.
Neil Larkins
Co-Founder & COO of Egress Software
Neil Larkins co-founded Egress Software Technologies in 2007 and currently serves as Chief Operations Officer, playing an instrumental role in shaping the strategic direction of the business, with particular emphasis on product and service development. Neil possesses a thorough understanding of the information security market and has helped Egress build a reputation on technological excellence. Working with both corporate and public organisations, he has helped deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet specific requirements for secure data exchange and collaboration, as well as compliance. Prior to Egress, he held executive management positions at Reflex Magnetics, Pointsec Mobile Technologies and Check Point Software Technologies. Neil serves as Chief Technology Officer, playing an instrumental role in shaping the strategic technical direction of the business, through product and service development. A regular speaker at information security and technology events, Neil has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Manchester.
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About Egress Software: Egress is a software company that specializes in human layer security designed to prevent accidental and intentional data breaches.
Daniela Menzky
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Angoka
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About Angoka, Auto Clubs International, CyNation, CyNation: ANGOKA is an IoT security company focused on protecting machine-to-machine communications for Smart Cities and Mobility.
Nick Lally
Founder & COO of Ravelin
Nick Lally is the Founder at Ravelin Technology Ltd.Nick Lally is an Employee at British Telecom, Hailo, NBC Universal, Canonical Ltd (Makers of Ubuntu), Village Roadshow Pictures. He holds Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of Australia in 2002 and studied at La Trobe University in 1999.
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About Ravelin: Ravelin is a smart fraud detection and prevention platform that helps companies stop online payment fraud.
Steve Regis
COO of ARX Defence
Steve Regis is the Chief Operations Officer & Co-Founder at ARX Defence.
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About ARX Defence: We design, manufacture and deploy effective and sustainable security.
Liliya Simova
Chief Operating Officer of C6 Intelligence
Liliya is the Chief Operating Officer, with overall responsibility for managing C6′s global, multilingual research team and enhanced due diligence strategy. Over the last six years she has gained in-depth knowledge and robust experience in the field of compliance risk analysis, related to AML, CFT, ABC and adverse media checks on high risk individuals and organisations. She joined C6 in 2008 and was initially responsible for creating and maintaining a vast database of Europe-based individuals and businesses with focus on PEPs, HNWIs and sanctions targets, as well as various research strategies, including risk-based EDD investigations. Before becoming COO, Liliya was also managing C6’s largest regional research team, covering Europe, Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, and took the lead in various in-house product development projects. She holds a bachelor’s degree in European Studies; a joint master’s degree in EU Law from Sofia University and the University of Nancy, France; and the ICA certificate in AML. Liliya speaks English, German, French, Bulgarian, Russian, Macedonian and Serbian.
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About C6 Intelligence: Pinpointing Risk – Know Your Customer, KYC, Anti-Money Laundering, AML, Enhanced Due Dilligence, EDD, Sanctions Screening
Rob Reid
Founder & COO of StayPrivate
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About StayPrivate: Founded in 2014, StayPrivate provides secure communication across the open internet.
Matt Johnston
COO of AppSecTest
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About AppSecTest: AppSecTest has developed the ASAnalyzer technology
Remigiusz Rynkowski
COO of Encedo
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About Encedo: Root of trust & secure enclave for cloud apps.
William Addison
Founder , Director & COO of SeeQuestor Ltd
William Addison is the Founder & Director at Scientific Venture Partners.
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About DUGUUD, Qbiotix, Scientific Venture Partners, SeeQuestor Ltd: SeeQuestor is designed to increase the speed at which police and security teams analyse video as part of investigations.
Howard Pritchard
COO of AVORD
Howard Pritchard is the chief operating officer at AVORD.
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About AVORD: AVORD is a penetration testing platform that provides a DBS checking for cyber-security testers.
Stuart Hargreaves
COO of Spambrella
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About Spambrella: ADVANCED EMAIL SECURITY FOR BUSINESS – Threat Protection, Phishing Protection, Email Continuity, Email Archiving, Encryption
