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 Search Engine 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.
Jon Buss
Managing Director of Yext
He is a Managing Director, EMEA at Yext.
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About Yext: Yext is a knowledge engine platform that helps brands deliver official answers.
Bridget Mills-Powell
Content Director of Lyst
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About Lyst: Lyst is a global fashion search platform that allows users to browse through thousands of online fashion stores.
Stéphane Moracchini
Director of Engineering Retail Checkout / Engineering Manager of Lyst
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About Lyst: Lyst is a global fashion search platform that allows users to browse through thousands of online fashion stores.
Patrick Wehrmann
Group Managing Director & CEO, StepStone UK of StepStone
Patrick Wehrmann joined StepStone 2012 as member of the supervisory board. In February 2014 he was appointed to his current role as Group Managing Director with specific responsibilities for the group businesses (Totaljobsgroup, Jobsite, SAON UK) in the UK, Mergers and Acquisitions and international HR. Before joining StepStone as Group Managing Director, Patrick served as Managing Director of Axel Springer Digital Classifieds. In this position he held several supervisory and advisory board positions in the digital classifieds businesses of Axel Springer worldwide. Previously, he was Commercial Publishing Director / CFO of the BILD Group and the Axel Springer Magazine Division as well as COO/CFO of the Axel Springer Magazine and International Division. In the beginning of his career he held several positions in the French, German, US and UK businesses of Axel Springer. Patrick graduated in Business Administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) at European Business School (EBS) in Oestrich-Winkel. He also studied at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Dijon (France) and at the University of Colorado.
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About StepStone: StepStone is a leading international provider of software and services for the human capital management sector.
Patrick Simpson
Managing Director, Renewals of CPA Global
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About CPA Global: CPA Global provides intellectual property services.
Shane Lake
Co-Founder and Managing Director of hungryhouse
Shane Lake is co-founder and managing director at Hungryhouse.
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About hungryhouse: hungryhouse is a U.K.-based online platform for takeaway and food delivery that provides a wide range of cuisines and dishes.
Bruce Palmer
Founder and Director of Elemental Digest
Bruce has over 40 years’ experience developing process engineering solutions to food management and waste innovation. It was his experience, vision and creativity which identified the need for a circular solution to meat protein production and the declining health of the soils. With over 6 years of development, research and optimisation he has realised his ambition creating a unique, patented process, that capture valuable assets previously lost from the human food chain and has added value to the other waste streams by creating a novel organo-mineral fertiliser. Bruce founded a successful pet food business (Forthglade) which he owned and ran between 1972 and 2010 before selling up to Private Equity. As he says “we can’t afford to waste waste!”
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About Elemental Digest: Elemental Digest is an international food and industrial waste problem into value-added end products.
Jon Townsend
Director of Technology & Information Security and Chief Information Officer of National Trust
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About National Trust: We are a charity and completely independent of Government. We rely for income on membership fees, donations and legacies, and revenue
Julie Walters
Founder & Executive Director of Xperiome
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About Xperiome: Xperiome is a global healthtech company that delivers deep insights in rare disease experiences
Marc Mapes
Executive Director of HiringSolved
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About HiringSolved: HiringSolved makes hiring faster and easier through smart software tools. Automating inbound and outbound recruiting with AI based tech.
Jonathan Nicol
Founder & Managing Director of Stratajet
Jonny Nicol Ranked as one of Aviation Week’s Top 10 Leaders of European Business Aviation (at EBACE 2016), Jonny Nicol has undoubtedly risen to be one of the most prominent and influential figures in the private aviation industry. A military man through and through, Jonny is adamant that preparation is the key to success. This is why his vision to revolutionise the private jet industry took five years to develop. Having trained as a fighter pilot and served as an officer and pilot for a decade with the British Army, Jonny Nicol left the British Armed Forces to pursue a career as a an entrepreneur. A self-taught computer scientist, Jonny developed a passion for using technology to disrupt typically traditional industries, his first two businesses doing precisely that in the recruitment and military sectors. After selling the second business to Hewlett Packard’s EDS Defence, Nicol spent time as a freelance commercial pilot, during which time he was struck by the archaic and inefficient nature of private aviation. Noting that old-fashioned systems, such as the means of booking a private jet over the phone via a broker, were holding back the industry from advancing in line with other travel innovations, Jonny set about building a system that could bring private jets into the modern age. Reinventing the industry was no mean feat, involving five years of highly advanced computer programming and overcoming major hurdles, but Stratajet, dubbed ‘the world’s most sophisticated price comparison site,’ is the result. The first of its kind, Stratajet is the world’s fastest private jet booking service. With a technology sophisticated enough to filter through all the necessary variables that go into calculating the cost of flights, it’s the only platform that gives customers direct access to the private jet market. It returns accurate costs of a large range of aircraft in seconds, all of which can be booked instantly. Streamlining an old-fashioned and time-consuming booking process, Stratajet is solving the major problems hampering private aviation; inefficiency and wastage. By cutting costs for aircraft operators and in turn driving down prices for the passenger, Stratajet is making private jet travel more widely accessible to the mainstream traveller.
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About Stratajet: Stratajet is a real-time private jet booking platform using the power of technology to give its passengers total control and freedom.
Kevin Gibbons
Managing Director of BlueGlass Interactive
A leading light in the search industry, SEOptimise founder Kevin Gibbons is a web expert with over 10 years’ experience. He has specialised in the field of search engine marketing since 2003, advising a wide range of industry sectors on increasing their online visibility by using the latest search engine marketing techniques. A highly respected expert blogger on the latest developments in search engine marketing, Kevin writes regularly for SEOptimise, Econsultancy and Search Engine Land, plus he is highly followed on Twitter. At SEOptimise Kevin oversees the search marketing team, the strategy of online marketing projects, client account management and promotes the business within the search industry.
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About BlueGlass Interactive, Re:signal, WeLoveDates: BlueGlass Interactive is a digital marketing agency providing integrated SEO, content marketing, and paid search services.
Diana Campbell
Managing Director of Zoek
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About Zoek: Zoek is the new job search site and app that uses state of the art technology to find you the perfect job match.
David Bezem
Non-Executive Director of Harvey Nash plc
David joined the Board of Focusrite in November 2014 bringing with him more than 25 years of experience of providing merger and acquisitions and general corporate finance advice to UK small and mid-market public and private companies. Most recently he was a Managing Director at Altium Corporate Finance between 2009 and 2011 and, prior to that, a Managing Director at Close Brothers Corporate Finance where he worked between 1999 and 2008. David qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1984. Currently, David is a Non-Executive Director at Harvey Nash Group Plc where he is also Chairman of the Remuneration Committee.
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About : Harvey Nash operates as a global employment agency in London, United Kingdom.
Steve Shinn
Managing Director of LocallyCompared
Steve is the managing director of LocallyCompared.com, the UK’s local business comparison website.
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About Disputed, LocallyCompared: LocallyCompared.com is the first local business comparison site. Business owners don’t have the time to spend hours improving their online
Chris Mackie
Director and Founder of 205 Media LTD
Chris Mackie is a Director and Founder of 205 Media LTD.
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About 205 Media LTD: 205 Media is a creative agency that offers a range of personalized services to its clients.
Rachel Cornish
Managing Director of ExtraDigital
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About ExtraDigital, ExtraDigital, Mynurva: Internet Marketing & Development Agency
Phil Lewis
European Technical Director of Search Technologies
Phil Lewis has worked with search engines for more than 20 years, and has expertise with a wide range of search engine technologies including FAST, SharePoint, Solr, Endeca and Elasticsearch. Phil has participated in and managed some of Europe’s largest and most complex enterprise search projects within the pharma, publishing.
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About Search Technologies: Search Technologies specializes in the design, implementation, and management of search and big data applications.
Mike Brooksbank
Managing Director & VP EMEA of Pingar
As Managing Director, Pingar API Limited, VP EMEA, Mike Brooksbank manages Pingar operations in the United Kingdom Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Mike’s work at Pingar comes after 24 years in the software industry, where he has held senior and executive positions in sales and management. His recent experience includes work as Managing Director UK and Vice President EMEA for Kofax image capture and business process automation solutions. Earlier in his career, Mike held executive and senior management positions at Citadon, Xchange Inc, Serena Software, and Systar Limited. And, before working in the software industry, Mike served as an officer in the Royal Air Force.
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About Pingar: Pingar offers products and services that enables businesses to find, organize, and manage content.
John Scott Cothill
Company Director of We Lead Media
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About We Lead Media: Creators of value.
Hannah Thorpe
Business Director of Found.
Hannah is Head of SEO at White.net, and works with clients to produce multi-platform campaigns through every stage from ideation through to completion. Hannah’s role covers everything from leading complex technical strategies, to creating innovative content campaigns and harnessing data to drive results. With experience speaking at multiple conferences, including BrightonSEO, Search London and SEONow and a regular blogging slot on State of Digital, Hannah is always happy to share tips and debate the controversies of the latest changes in technical SEO best practice.
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About Found.: Through Search, Social & Mobile.
Anna Moss
Director of FireCask
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About FireCask: FireCask is an online marketing agency provides content marketing, SEO and social media marketing.
Anna Moss
Director of FireCask
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About FireCask: FireCask is an online marketing agency provides content marketing, SEO and social media marketing.
Sam Rutley
Managing Director of PushON
Sam Rutley is a managing director at PushON.
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About PushON: Award winning full-service eCommerce agency with offices in Manchester, Bristol & Edinburgh
Simon Wharton
Director Business Strategy of PushON
Simon Wharton is a director business strategy at PushON.
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About PushON: Award winning full-service eCommerce agency with offices in Manchester, Bristol & Edinburgh
Stacey MacNaught
Search Director of Tecmark
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About Tecmark: Tecmark is a search engine optimization company that helps build digital assets.