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 Director operating in the Developer Platform 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.
Steven Hartland
Senior Director, Sports & Live Entertainment of Unity Technologies
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About Unity Technologies: Unity provides multiplatform tools and services to developers of interactive content.
Dima Roznouski
Sr. Director, Managed Accounts – Operate of Unity Technologies
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About Unity Technologies: Unity provides multiplatform tools and services to developers of interactive content.
Graeme Ankers
Managing Director of FireSprite
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About FireSprite: FireSprite is a video game development studio.
Lee Carus
Art Director and Co Founder of FireSprite
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About FireSprite: FireSprite is a video game development studio.
Alex Rigby
Creative Director of Playdemic
Alex is focused on making sure the company produces the best-looking, most fun and highly innovative social entertainment apps in the world.
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About Playdemic: Playdemic is a gaming company that develops social games for mass market audiences.
Katherine Taylor-Jones
Finance Director of Immersive Labs
Katherine Taylor-Jones is an experienced and passionate Finance and Operations Director with broad scope and multi-sector experience. She currently works at Immersive Labs as a Finance Director.
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About Immersive Labs: Immersive Labs develops a platform that measures and improves cybersecurity skills across businesses.
Julian Bolton
Director of Engineering of Immersive Labs
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About Immersive Labs: Immersive Labs develops a platform that measures and improves cybersecurity skills across businesses.
Greg Craft
People and Talent Director of Immersive Labs
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About Immersive Labs: Immersive Labs develops a platform that measures and improves cybersecurity skills across businesses.
Kevin Breen
Content Director of Immersive Labs
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About Immersive Labs: Immersive Labs develops a platform that measures and improves cybersecurity skills across businesses.
Stuart Laidlaw
Customer Success Director of Immersive Labs
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About Cyberlytic, Immersive Labs: Immersive Labs develops a platform that measures and improves cybersecurity skills across businesses.
Mark Westney
Sales Director of Immersive Labs
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About Immersive Labs: Immersive Labs develops a platform that measures and improves cybersecurity skills across businesses.
Andy Davidson
Founder & Commercial Director of Lucid Games
Andy Davidson is a serial tech entrepreneur having co-founded more than 100 tech businesses either directly or through Nova throughout his career. Andy started as a software engineer before his entrepreneurial career where he has spent the past 12 years creating and managing growth-focused EIS & SEIS investment portfolios.
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About Lucid Games, Nova Growth Capital, We Are Nova: An independent videogame developer in Liverpool, UK.
Mark Craig
Founder & Programming Director of Lucid Games
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About Lucid Games, Lucid Games: An independent videogame developer in Liverpool, UK.
Jeff Lewis
Game Director of Lucid Games
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About Lucid Games: An independent videogame developer in Liverpool, UK.
Craig Howard
Founder and Creative Director of Lucid Games
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About Lucid Games: An independent videogame developer in Liverpool, UK.
Chad Wright
Founder & Technical Director of Lucid Games
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About Lucid Games: An independent videogame developer in Liverpool, UK.
Luis Garcia Hamilton
Director Inversiones of Agencia Argentina de Inversiones y Comercio Internacional
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About Agencia Argentina de Inversiones y Comercio Internacional: Agencia Argentina de Inversiones y Comercio Internacional providing consulting, information and facilitation services.
Gareth Edmondson
Studio Director of Creative Assembly
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About Creative Assembly: UK’s premier video game developers.
Tina Southall
Director of People of Gamesys Limited
Tina joined the Gamesys board as Director of People in 2014. Prior to this she was the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for Vodafone. During her career there she also headed up the Global sales team for Europe and prior to that worked on the development of new mobile media and content services. Prior to joining Vodafone, Tina was CRM Director of Avis Europe and also held senior Sales & Marketing roles at the RAC.
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About Gamesys Limited: Gamesys is a software developer and operator and currently operates several online social and real money slots in the United Kingdom.
Donald Beatson
Director, Excite Platform of Gamesys Limited
Donald Beatson is an experienced Technology leader with a background in embedded, mobile & gaming businesses. Currently Head of Player Services at Gamesys, Beatson’s previous role was at Marmalade Technologies as COO – providing day to day operational leadership. Prior to Marmalade, Beatson worked for 12 years at Accenture, Nokia and Symbian Software Ltd., helping to deliver the world’s first Smartphone platform – the Symbian OS.
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About Gamesys Limited: Gamesys is a software developer and operator and currently operates several online social and real money slots in the United Kingdom.
James Crombie
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Odyssey Resources
Mr. Crombie graduated from the Royal School of Mines, London, in 1980 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in mining Engineering, where he was the recipient of an Anglo American scholarship. Mr. Crombie held various positions with DeBeers Consolidated Mines and the Anglo American Corporation in South Africa and Angola between 1980 and 1986. He spent the next thirteen years as a mining analyst and investment banker with Shepards, Merrill Lynch, James Capel & Co. and Yorkton Securities. Mr. Crombie was vice president, corporate development of Hope Bay Gold Corporation from February 1999 through May 2002 and president and CEO of Ariane Gold Corp. from August 2002 to November 2003. Mr. Crombie was president, CEO and a director of Palmarejo Silver and Gold Corporation until the merger with Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation in December 2007. He was a director of Sherwood Copper Corporation until its business combination with Capstone Mining Corp. in November 2008. Mr. Crombie is also currently an officer or director or both of a number of publicly-traded resource companies.
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About Odyssey Resources: Odyssey Resources Limited Odyssey Resources Limited is a Canadian-based junior exploration company.
Alexander Mark Lemon
President,Co-Founder & Executive Director of Mkango Resources
Mr Lemon is a graduate of the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London (MSc Mineral Exploration) and Oxford Brookes University (BSc Geological Sciences) He has 21 years experience in mineral exploration and business development and from 1994 to 2001 was the Managing Director of a Gold Mining company, which owned and operated a producing gold mine in Central Asia, where he gained extensive operating experience in emerging markets including government negotiations and project management. From 2001 to 2005, he worked for a family office Allied Commercial as an investment advisor. Mr Lemon is a founding Director and President of Mkango Resources Limited which listed on the TSX.V in January 2011 and is a founding director of its major shareholder Leo Mining and Exploration Limited. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society and a Member of the Southern African Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.
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About Mkango Resources: Mkango Resources Ltd. is a mineral exploration and development company.
William Dawes
Chief Executive Officer, Co-founder & Executive Director of Mkango Resources
William Dawes is a graduate of Bristol University (BSc Geology) and Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London (MSc Mineral Exploration with distinction). Having trained as a geologist in South Africa, he worked as a mining analyst based in London and then for Rio Tinto’s exploration division. Subsequently, he gained significant global mining transaction experience in the metals and mining team of Robert Fleming & Co, Chase Manhattan Bank and JPMorgan. Mr Dawes was a founding director of Mkango’s major shareholder, Leo Mining and Exploration (Leominex) and since 2004 has been involved in the exploration and evaluation of a variety of projects throughout Central Asia, Middle East and Africa. He has 12 years’ experience in exploration and business development and 9 years in mining finance, mergers and acquisitions. He is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
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About Mkango Resources: Mkango Resources Ltd. is a mineral exploration and development company.
Sefton Hill
Game Director, Co-Owner & Co-Founder of Rocksteady Studios
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About Rocksteady Studios: Rocksteady Studios is a multi-award winning videogame developer based in London, England. Located in a spacious, purpose built converted.
Tim Hanagan
Game Code Director of Rocksteady Studios
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About Rocksteady Studios: Rocksteady Studios is a multi-award winning videogame developer based in London, England. Located in a spacious, purpose built converted.
Darren Mills
Co-Founder and Studio Director of Sumo Digital
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About Sumo Digital: Sumo Digital Ltd is an independent game development studio.
Eddie Powell
Finance Director of Cambridge Nutraceuticals
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About Cambridge Nutraceuticals: Cambridge Nutraceuticals develops and markets supplements scientifically proven to deliver more of the good.
Claire Hopkins
Customer Success Director of RIVIAM Digital Care
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About RIVIAM Digital Care: RIVIAM Digital Care is a secure cloud platform and digital services for health and social care organizations.
Laurie Reynolds
Managing Director of AquamatiX
Laurie Reynolds is a Chartered Systems Engineer; he spent 35 years with Thames Water, the largest water utility in UK, as an automation and asset management specialist. Projects included the London Water Control Centre and Ring Main which transformed the supply of water to London from a manual intensive process with high losses and inefficiency, to a demand-driven, automated process coordinated from a state-of-the art control centre. Over 3000 flow and pressure sensors were installed throughout London and the Thames Valley monitoring the distribution network, the project won a water industry innovation award for pressure and leakage management. Laurie also managed the delivery of a programme to automate 350 wastewater treatment plants and 750 wastewater pumping stations, and automation of one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in Europe.Subsequent to Thames Water he worked as a consultant in pumping, pipelines and process optimisation, and Technical Director of a new start-up company developing a unique model-based condition monitoring system for critical motor-driven applications such as pumps. He was also responsible for evelopment of asset management and standards for critical power systems in a major UK telecommunications company.He set up Aquamatix in 2011 to complete the work he began in Thames to try to introduce reusable, modular, reusable standard software for water management.
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About AquamatiX: Aquamatix is a software company specialising in the real-time control and development of smart water and wastewater infrastructure.
Laurie Reynolds
Managing Director of AquamatiX
Laurie Reynolds is a Chartered Systems Engineer; he spent 35 years with Thames Water, the largest water utility in UK, as an automation and asset management specialist. Projects included the London Water Control Centre and Ring Main which transformed the supply of water to London from a manual intensive process with high losses and inefficiency, to a demand-driven, automated process coordinated from a state-of-the art control centre. Over 3000 flow and pressure sensors were installed throughout London and the Thames Valley monitoring the distribution network, the project won a water industry innovation award for pressure and leakage management. Laurie also managed the delivery of a programme to automate 350 wastewater treatment plants and 750 wastewater pumping stations, and automation of one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in Europe.Subsequent to Thames Water he worked as a consultant in pumping, pipelines and process optimisation, and Technical Director of a new start-up company developing a unique model-based condition monitoring system for critical motor-driven applications such as pumps. He was also responsible for evelopment of asset management and standards for critical power systems in a major UK telecommunications company.He set up Aquamatix in 2011 to complete the work he began in Thames to try to introduce reusable, modular, reusable standard software for water management.
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About AquamatiX: Aquamatix is a software company specialising in the real-time control and development of smart water and wastewater infrastructure.
Josh Carson
Director and Designer at GearedApp of GearedApp
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About GearedApp: Creating Exceptional Mobile and Web Platforms.
