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 VP’ operating in the Energy space. If you think a VP’ 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.
Charles Chipchase
Vice President & Assistant General Counsel of Riverstone Holdings
Mr. Chipchase is a Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of Riverstone. He is based in London. Prior to joining Riverstone in February 2014, Mr. Chipchase was General Counsel of Tercel Oilfield Products, a private equity-owned oilfield services company specializing in providing drilling, completions, and downhole services to the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining Tercel Oilfield Products, Mr. Chipchase was an Associate at Vinson & Elkins LLP, where he focused on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions work in the energy sector. Mr. Chipchase received his M.A. in History from Edinburgh University and his Diploma in Law and Legal Practice from the College of Law. He is licensed to practice law in England and Wales.
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About Riverstone Holdings: River Stone is a private investment firm founded in 2000.
Kevin Wang
Vice President of Riverstone Holdings
Vice President at Riverstone Holdings.
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About Riverstone Holdings: River Stone is a private investment firm founded in 2000.
Gerard Penning
Executive Vice President Human Resources Downstream of Shell Oil Company
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About Shell Oil Company: Shell Oil Company is an oil and gas company that explores and produces energy products.
Diana Kennedy
Vice President & Strategy, Architecture and Planning of BP
Diana has been with BP for over 7 years, firstly leading the Strategy and Architecture function for the Enterprise Systems group, and latterly for the Upstream Business. In addition, Diana led the Information and Big Data Agenda for the BP until February 2017 when she was appointed Vice President, Strategy, Architecture and Planning for BP. Prior to BP, Diana was Head of Architecture for British Gas, part of the Centrica group, where she led the solutions team for the retail transformation of British Gas. Diana started her career in consulting, firstly with Boston Consulting Group and subsequently PwC, where she held senior design and architecture roles, predominantly in the financial services and insurance sector. Diana holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, a post-graduate degree in Computer Science and an MBA. She has three young children and enjoys competing for Great Britain in Masters Athletics in her spare time.
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About BP: BP delivers heat, light and mobility products and services to people all around the world.
Chris Thomas
Vice President & Head of Strategy and Business Development and Group Company Secretary of Seven Energy
Chris has over 25 years’ experience in corporate finance generally and, for the last 17 years, in the exploration and production sector. Previously, Chris was a founding director and group company secretary of Melrose Resources, the former London Stock Exchange FTSE 250 listed international E&P company with interests in EMEA and the US. Chris is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
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About Seven Energy: Seven Energy is an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas exploration, development, production and distribution company.
David Bunch
Vice President Retail Sales and Operations & Chairman SDSA of Royal Dutch Shell
David has been with Shell for 17 years – in a number of marketing & sales roles. Prior to his appointment as Vice-President Marketing, David was General Manager Retail Lubricant Sales for the Americas within the Global Commercial organization.After graduating in Psychology and Economics, David completed an MBA at the London Business School and then began his career in Asia, moving to Europe and then the US – where prior to joining Shell he worked with Sony, in the PlayStation division; Japan Steel, in new product development; and Anderson Consulting, in the Retail practice.
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About Royal Dutch Shell: Royal Dutch Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemicals companies.
James Cullens
Executive Vice President Human Resources of SNC Lavalin
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About Atkins, SNC Lavalin: SNC-Lavalin is an engineering and construction group.
Clive Thomas
Senior VP of Global Sales of Autogrid
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About Autogrid: AutoGrid Systems organizes energy data and employs big data analytics to generate real-time predictions that create actionable data.
Dwight Smith
Sr VP Finance & Administration of NextGen Security
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About NextGen Security: NextGen Security provides integrated physical and electronic solutions for regulated entities and facilities in key vertical markets.
Dwight Smith
Sr VP Finance & Administration of NextGen Security
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About NextGen Security: NextGen Security provides integrated physical and electronic solutions for regulated entities and facilities in key vertical markets.
Chloe MacEwen
Senior Vice President of Argus Media group
Chloe MacEwen is Senior Vice-President, Global Public and Regulatory Affairs, based in London. She joined in 2014 and is responsible for Argus’ engagement with policy makers, legislators and regulators around the world. Chloe qualified as a solicitor at Simmons & Simmons and then worked as a competition lawyer at Herbert Smith before spending ten years working as a regulator at the Competition Commission, Office of Fair Trading and DG Competition, European Commission. Prior to joining Argus Chloe had worked as Head of International Policy at Lloyds Banking Group overseeing the bank’s engagement strategy with policy makers on a broad range of financial services and competition issues. Chloe was educated at Kings College London where she gained a LLB and LLM
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About Argus Media group: Argus Media group is a global energy and commodity price reporting agency.
Andrew Walker
VP Strategy of Cheniere Energy Inc
Dr. Andrew Walker is the Vice President for Strategy and Communication for Cheniere. He is located in London and is responsible for the Strategy and Market Outlook of Cheniere. Until October 2015 he was Vice President for Global LNG – and prior to that Head of LNG Strategy – at BG Group where he worked for over 20 years before joining Cheniere. During his career in LNG he has been located in Singapore, Egypt, the USA and UK and has worked on numerous LNG projects including Atlantic LNG in Trinidad and Tobago, Egyptian LNG, and Dragon LNG in the UK.
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About Cheniere Energy Inc: LNG Terminals. Cheniere is among the leading companies in North America strategically pursuing the development of LNG terminals.
Giora Salita
Executive Vice President, Business Development and M&A of Etrion
Mr. Salita has over 15 years of executive experience in the renewable energy, technology and private equity sectors. Prior to joining Etrion, Mr. Salita was one of the founding members of Sunray Renewable Energy Ltd., a leading solar power developer in Europe and the Middle East that was acquired by SunPower Corporation, a leading U.S. solar energy company, in 2010. Subsequently, Mr. Salita held the position of Vice President Utility Power Plants International at SunPower, where he led the marketing, sales and business development teams responsible for project development, engineering, procurement and construction of utility-scale solar parks. Mr. Salita graduated from the Warwick Business School with a bachelor’s degree in management sciences and attended the development program for owners/directors at INSEAD Business School in France.
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About Etrion: Etrion Corporation is an independent power producer that develops, builds, owns and operates utility-scale solar power generation plants.
Jonathan Banyard
SVP Europe, Africa & Middle East of Polarcus
Jonathan Banyard has over 20 years’ experience working in the energy industry, with a focus on the Seismic Data Library business. Prior to joining Polarcus, Jonathan worked for Arcis Seismic Solutions Corp, a subsidiary of TGS, where he held several Management positions. In addition to his most recent role as Managing Director, Jonathan was also a Multi-Client Seismic Data Library Manager and Director of Sales & Project Management within the same company. He has also held senior Sales and Marketing roles within the seismic industry, including CGG. Jonathan joins the Polarcus team as SVP Europe, Africa and Middle East.
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About Polarcus: Polarcus is an innovative marine geophysical company.
Kayleigh Bottomley
VP And Founder of Storm4
Kayleigh Bottomley is the Founder and VP at Storm4.
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About Storm4: Storm4 is a specialist GreenTech recruitment marketplace, connecting organizations with the senior talent to drive their mission.
Jonathan Carpenter
Vice President, New Energy Services of Petrofac
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About Petrofac: Petrofac is a provider of oilfield services to the international oil and gas industry. It is registered in Jersey, with its main corporate
Hugh McEvoy
Senior Vice President Product of Sefaira
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About Sefaira: Sefaira is a provider of software for high-performance building design.
Sam Boswell
VP of Software Engineering of Dare
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About Dare, deciphered_: Dare is an energy technology company that offers asset optimization, data science, analytics software, and trading expertise solutions.
Julian Hughes
Senior Vice President, US of Intelligent Energy
Julian is based out of our San Francisco Bay Area office and heads up the Group’s Commercial activity as well as US operations. Prior to joining Intelligent Energy, Julian held senior positions within the automotive industry at General Motors (Vauxhall) and TWR Group (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) which then led into the Cleantech sector with Microgen Engine Corporation where he held the position of CEO. Microgen developed and manufactured Stirling engines for the CHP, Military and Solar markets. In addition to his role as Group Corporate Development Director, Julian is also a Non-Executive Board Member for IECHP Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Intelligent Energy.
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About Intelligent Energy: Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company offering fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies.
Vishnu Aggarwal
Deputy VP Origination and Renewables Trading of SmartestEnergy
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About SmartestEnergy: SmartestEnergy is a different type of energy company.
John Lewis
VP Product Management, Marketing and Partners, and CSO of Telensa
Jon has over 20 years’ experience in leadership and innovation roles at global technology companies including NEC, Toshiba and Motorola. These roles have covered fundamental research, product development and sales. Jon joined Telensa to broaden the company’s application portfolio and open new market segments. He holds a number of patents and has a PhD in engineering.
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About Telensa: Telensa makes wireless smart city control systems, including the worlds most deployed smart streetlight solution.
Nigel Preston
Co-Founder & Vice President Product Management of Azuri Technologies
Nigel has 30 years’ global experience of embedded electronic systems development and manufacture. Previous positions include a variety of senior roles with Motorola’s Automotive business unit including European Design Centre Director, and more recently he was COO International Operations for Pi Shurlok. Nigel is a Chartered Engineer and holds a B.Eng. and PhD in Electronic Engineering from the University of Liverpool.
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About Azuri Technologies: Azuri brings affordable solar power to off-grid rural africans.
Jerry Stokes
Executive VP Europe of Moixa Technology
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About Moixa Technology: Developer of distributed energy storage, aggregation and smart DC technologies
John Tinson
VP, Sales & Marketing of Ilika
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About Ilika: Ilika accelerates the development of new materials for energy and electronics applications
