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 Vice President operating in the Consulting space. If you think a Vice President 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.
Umashankar Lakshmipathy
Senior Vice President & Regional Head (EMEA) of Infosys
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About Infosys: Infosys is a provider of consulting, technology, and outsourcing, and next-generation services.
Sally Moore
Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances of IHS Markit
Sally Moore is senior vice president and global head of strategic alliances at IHS Markit. She is responsible for corporate development and the company’s strategy and relationships with partners. Sally provides companywide leadership of third party content licensing, content acquisition, and mergers and acquisitions. Sally leads the company’s fin-tech strategy, including its investment in Illuminate Financial Management, a venture capital fund. She joined Markit in 2006, where she led the European credit business and global loan business. Previously, she spent six years at Thomson Reuters, as co-head of the Loan Pricing Corporation’s operations in Europe and later as a senior vice president and co-head of sales in North America.
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About IHS Markit: IHS provides information and analysis to support the decision-making process of businesses and governments in regards to various industries.
Will Meldrum
Senior Vice President, Employee Experience of IHS Markit
Will Meldrum is senior vice president and head of employee experience at IHS Markit. He joined Markit in 2005 as director of acquisitions and strategic development, subsequently launching and managing Markit BOAT and Markit MSA. Prior to Markit, Will worked at Deutsche Bank where he managed the bank’s interests across a diverse portfolio of strategic investments with a focus on industry consortia, electronic trading systems and data. He holds an MA from Edinburgh University and an MBA from London Business School.
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About IHS Markit: IHS provides information and analysis to support the decision-making process of businesses and governments in regards to various industries.
David Nish
Vice President, Technology of GP Bullhound
Dave is Vice President of Technology at GP Bullhound. Prior to joining the firm, he was at worldwide transport and logistics firm APL. Dave also worked for managed services provider Green Fields Technology in London and IX Group in South Africa. Dave grew up in Durban, South Africa.
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About GP Bullhound: GP Bullhound is a technology advisory and investment firm that provides transaction advice and capital to entrepreneurs and founders.
Javed Huq
Vice President of GP Bullhound
Javed is a Vice President at GP Bullhound, based in the Manchester office. Prior to joining the firm, he spent 5 years at Rothschild where he advised on a wide range of UK and international engagements including private equity and corporate transactions, IPOs and fundraisings. Before that, Javed worked at Deloitte LLP in the Corporate Finance M&A Advisory team, focusing on a range of mid-market transactions. Javed graduated from the University of Manchester with a BA (Hons) in International Business, Finance and Economics.
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About GP Bullhound: GP Bullhound is a technology advisory and investment firm that provides transaction advice and capital to entrepreneurs and founders.
Euan Davis
Associate Vice President of Cognizant
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About Cognizant: Cognizant is a professional services company, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era.
Matthew Locsin
Vice President of Publicis Sapient
Matt Locsin is a Vice President at Publicis Sapient, where he leads the firm’s practice for innovation and drives Digital business transformation. He works with leaders and their teams to conceive, develop, and launch ‘what’s next’ and helps organisations to build their innovation competencies.
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About Publicis Sapient: Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation platform.
Dan Harrington
Executive Vice President, Consulting & Support Services of Teradata
Dan Harrington is executive vice president of consulting and support services for Teradata, reporting to Vic Lund. He is responsible for leading the global consulting organization focused on helping customers architect, implement and manage the analytic ecosystem, including Teradata products on premises, in the cloud, and open-source technologies. In addition, he guides the customer services organization as they deliver world-class support to customers around the globe, and the development of analytical business solutions. Dan has experience in all facets of the business, including sales, services, marketing and engineering and has held multiple leadership roles, including head of Teradata’s international sales and services organization, research and development and worldwide marketing. Dan started his career with NCR Corporation in 1985 in Dallas, Texas as a sales person, eventually becoming district sales manager for major commercial accounts. In 1991, he was appointed director of marketing for the U.S. communications industry. In 1993, he took on responsibility for NCR’s global expansion into the communications industry as assistant vice president for Worldwide Communications Industry Marketing. In 1994, he became vice president, Teradata Product Management, and in 1995 he was appointed vice president, Worldwide Teradata Marketing, where he helped successfully guide the company’s growth in data warehousing. Three years later he was named vice president, Worldwide Marketing for Teradata’s computer business. His European assignment began in 1999 when he was appointed area manager of Teradata Northern Europe and subsequently Dan became vice president of sales for Teradata Europe. During his assignment, the region achieved major growth in sales, profitability and new strategic customers. In 2005, he returned to the U.S. to head up Teradata’s Global Customer Services business and continued to hold positions of increasing responsibility. Based in Rancho Bernardo, CA, Dan earned a Master’s degree in business management and graduated with distinction from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Angelo State University, graduating summa cum laude.
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About Teradata, Teradata: Teradata is the connected multi-cloud data platform company. Our enterprise analytics solve business challenges from start to scale.
Lance Miller
Assistant Vice President of R&D Marketing of Teradata
Lance Miller is Assistant Vice President, R&D Marketing, for Teradata where he is responsible for marketing all services. Mr. Miller’s is a subject-matter expert in several areas of the software industry including: databases, data warehouses, decision support (DSS/EIS), data visualization, CRM, and very large database technologies. Before joining Teradata, Lance was Chief Technology Officer (CTO), CIO, and VP, Software Development for Customer Insight Company, CIO for Woodward-Clyde, VP Software Development for Cray, and VP Software for Solbourne. Lance holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an MBA (Strategic Marketing) from Chadwick University.
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About Teradata: Teradata is the connected multi-cloud data platform company. Our enterprise analytics solve business challenges from start to scale.
Anna McIlreavy
Vice President of Sard Verbinnen & Co
Anna McIlreavy is a Vice President in SVC’s London office. She advises clients on a wide range of special situations, including mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism, regulatory issues, executive leadership transitions, litigation, and crises. Prior to joining the firm in 2014, Anna worked in the MENA region for UK Trade & Investment, where she was based in Abu Dhabi and led the UK government’s business relations with investment entities from countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. In this role, she worked on cross-border transactions and regulatory issues across a range of sectors, including infrastructure, energy and real estate.
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About Sard Verbinnen & Co: Sard Verbinnen & Co is a leading strategic corporate and financial communications firm.
George Lawrie
Vice President & Principal Analyst of Forrester Research
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About Forrester Research: Forrester is a research and advisory firm that provides businesses with business and technology-related consulting services.
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.
Robert Kernahan
Vice President of Capgemini
Rob Kernahan has done tours of duty throughout the full IT life-cycle with responsibilities across programs and services, at scale, which has led to an in-depth understanding of how IT should work and how to deliver it effectively.
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About Capgemini: Capgemini provides consulting, technology, and digital transformation services.
Fotis Karonis
Executive Vice President, Group Leader 5G and Edge of Capgemini
Fotis is the chief technology officer for EE, responsible for the IT and network development strategy and implementation. Fotis has overseen IT since EE was formed in 2010 with the merger of Orange and T-Mobile. Prior to his role at EE, he held the role of chief information officer for Romtelecom. Prior to that, he worked at Athens International Airport, as director of information technology and the telecommunications business unit. In this role, Fotis planned, implemented and ensured round-the-clock integrated IT services and infrastructure to the airport that serves over 16 million passengers and five million visitors every year. Prior to this, he worked with Cap Gemini and Alcatel in France.
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About Capgemini: Capgemini provides consulting, technology, and digital transformation services.
Liam Waite
Vice President UK of Talentful
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About Talentful: Talentful specialises in helping companies to elevate their talent acquisition strategy.
Michael Charalambous
Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President Of Commercial Operations of FuelPlus
Michael joined FuelPlus in 2016 and is responsible for global marketing and communications, based in their UK office. Michael has been helping scale-up great technology companies for nearly 20 years. Prior to joining FuelPlus, he was the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Director of Marketing for Diligent Corporation, a $100m Delloite top 50 growth company. Michael started his career at British Airways and has held senior marketing roles at Siebel Systems, Oracle, Carbon Trust and Opower. Michael has a degree in aeronautical engineering and a masters in strategic marketing.
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About FuelPlus: The FuelPlus Group is the leading provider of fuel administration and management software to the aviation industry.
Arif Shivji
Senior Vice President, Business and Corporate Development and Development Operations of Drugabilis
Dr Shivji is a co-founder of Ziarco and was previously Vice President of Development Operations and Business Development. Dr Shivji has a broad experience of drug discovery, development and commercialization and has contributed to bringing 10 commercially available products to the market, through various leadership roles in pharmaceutical sciences and global project management. Prior to Ziarco, he was in Pfizer’s Business Development group. In this role, he was responsible for in-licensing, out-licensing and research collaborations with universities, medical research institutions, governments and companies for Pfizer’s Allergy and Respiratory and Anti-Infectives businesses. Dr Shivji has a degree in Pharmacy, and a PhD in Biophysics from the University of Nottingham, under the direction of Professors’ Martyn Davies, Saul Tendler, Clive Roberts and Phil Williams. His post doctoral research was sponsored by Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) Pharmaceuticals and focussed on understanding the role and mechanism of beta amyloid deposition in Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr Shivji has authored and co-authored a number of scientific papers, abstracts and patents and regularly contributes to scientific and business development meetings. He is currently also a visiting professor at the University of Reading.
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About Drugabilis: Drugabilis specializes in solid form characterisation and formulation development for human and animal health.
Marcus Sawyerr
Global Head of Digital & Innovation / Senior Vice President of The Adecco Group
Marcus Sawyerr, global head of digital & innovation at The Adecco Group.
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About The Adecco Group: The Adecco Group is a provider of talent solutions and staffing services to automakers and aerospace companies.
Kent McCammon
Executive Vice President of Corporate Development of PRA Group
Kent is responsible for the company’s global development including mergers and acquisitions. He was appointed to his current role in 2015. Prior to that he was responsible for global strategy and business development and directed PRA’s fee-for-service businesses. He joined the company in 2007 as senior vice president, strategy and business development from Shamrock Holdings, the investment arm of the Disney family, where he was managing director. While at Shamrock from 2004 to 2007, he helped raise $1.25 billion to fund activist investments in publicly traded companies. Prior to Shamrock, Kent conducted business development for Trader Publishing, LLC in the Trader Ventures group from 2003 to 2004. From 1995 to 2003, Kent directed equity research and capital management for Atlantic Capital Management and Scott & Stringfellow. He was an associate at Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., from 1994 to 1995, and started his finance career as an analyst in New York at Smith Barney Inc. in the early 1990s. Kent has an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
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About PRA Group: PRA Group offers the following broad range of debt buying solutions and business and government services.
Chris Lagow
Senior Vice President & General Counsel of PRA Group
Chris is responsible for the company’s global legal, regulatory and government relations functions. He was named general counsel in January 2016 after serving as PRA Group’s deputy general counsel since 2011. Chris has been practicing law for 15 years and joined PRA in 2006 after working in private practice for law firms in New York and Virginia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from James Madison University and a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law. He has served on the board of directors of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Council of the Virginia Bar Association’s Corporate Counsel Section.
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About PRA Group: PRA Group offers the following broad range of debt buying solutions and business and government services.
Chris Graves
Executive Vice President, Core Acquisitions of PRA Group
Chris directs all of PRA’s Core Acquisitions and Core Operations in the Americas. He was appointed to his current role in 2015 after serving as executive vice president of core acquisitions since 2013. Chris has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. He joined PRA in 2006 as vice president, portfolio acquisitions and was appointed to senior vice president, core acquisitions in 2009. Prior to joining PRA, he was vice president of acquisitions and group manager for the Credit Recovery Services division of Capital One. He previously served as vice president and regional manager at Signet Bank and First Union. Chris has an MBA from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Wake Forest University, and graduated from the Consumer Banking Association’s Graduate School of Retail Bank Management at the University of Virginia. Chris serves on the board of directors and the executive committee for VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Virginia.
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About PRA Group: PRA Group offers the following broad range of debt buying solutions and business and government services.
Tim Bardell
Head of Consulting and Vice President of NTT DATA UK
Tim Bardell is the Head of Consulting and Vice President at NTT DATA UK.
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About NTT DATA UK: NTT DATA UK is a consulting and IT service provider to manufacturing, banking public sector, telecom, and financial services.
Mark Brown
Vice President of Software Solutions and Services of Sword GRC
Mark joined Active Risk in April 2000 from SunGard. Prior to that Mark held senior management and consulting roles with Coopers & Lybrand and Lazard Brothers in London. Mark holds a Bachelor of Business Studies in Information Systems and Finance and is an Associate Chartered Accountant with the New Zealand Society of Accountants. He has held several executive roles within the company as both a founding director involved in the launch of Active Risk Manager in 2000, the IPO of the company in 2005 and is now the member of the Management team with responsibility for Product Management, Pre-sales and Consulting Services.
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About Sword GRC: Sword GRC is a software solutions company that specializes in risk, compliance, governance, audit & policy management services.
John Frain
Vice President of Global Support of Sword GRC
John joined Sword Active Risk in 2011, working as a Business Analyst in the Development Team. Prior to Sword Active Risk, John worked in software development for 18 years, predominantly in Retail Finance, Logistics, and Supply Chain environments. John has a BSc from the University of York, in Information Technology, Business Management, and Language.
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About Sword GRC: Sword GRC is a software solutions company that specializes in risk, compliance, governance, audit & policy management services.
James Bullock
Senior Vice President & General Manager of Tacit Knowledge
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About Tacit Knowledge, Tacit Knowledge: Tacit Knowledge is a Silicon Valley-based digital commerce consultancy that develops enterprise software to address extensive data problems.
Nick Patience
Co-Founder and Research Vice President of 451 Research
Nick Patience has over 20 years experience in the technology industry in the US and Europe, and manages 451 Research’s software analyst team. Probably best known as being a co-founder of The 451 Group, Nick helped grow that company into a significant force in the technology industry analyst market in the US and Europe, as well as developing into a thought leader in the information management sector of the software industry. A highly experienced and adaptable marketing professional, Nick moved to the vendor side with Recommind, running product marketing and strategy, and then influencer relations and competitive intelligence, all the while remaining one of the company’s principal global evangelists. Nick now manages 451 Research’s software analyst team, spanning software development, DevOps & IT Ops, through data platforms and analytics to business applications. Nick will join a multi-angle panel discussion in which the conversation will focus on how digital transformation has impacted the world of IT research and Analyst Relations, and perhaps more importantly, how this will continue to do so in the future.
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About 451 Research: 451 Research is an information technology research and advisory company providing essential insight for the pioneers of the digital economy.
Sam Yardley
Executive Vice President, North America of Two Circles
Since joining Two Circles, Sam has led a number of projects for professional clubs and governing bodies, both in the UK and increasingly internationally, helping them grow commercial revenue across ticketing, membership, retail and hospitality. Sam has fused his passion for sport with his background as a strategy consultant at Accenture, where he worked with a range of multinational companies, government ministries, and start-ups, and learnt how to make a mean spreadsheet. Sam definitely makes a better fist of watching sport than participating in it. Recent career highlights include the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, the Soweto Derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, and finally seeing England beat a southern hemisphere side at Twickenham. Just don’t mention the last Ashes tour.
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About Two Circles, Two Circles: Two Circles is a sports marketing agency based in London.
Susan DeFazio
Vice President,APAC of KellyOCG
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About KellyOCG: KellyOCG offers businesses with outsourcing and consulting services on workforce management.
Jeni Tennison
Vice President and Chief Strategy Adviser of Open Data Institute
Jeni Tennison is a Technical Director & Deputy CEO at Open Data Institute.
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About Open Data Institute: Open Data Institute is an organization thats works to lead the movement of the open data in the web.
Christian Bower
Senior Vice President -Digital Services of Celent
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About Celent: Celent is a research and consulting firm.
Andy Nicholson
Senior Vice President of CIBER
Andy Nicholson is the senior vice president for the international client care organization. He is also a member of the Ciber Operating Committee and he leads the international market-facing sales force. His teams are responsible for identifying and developing segmentation strategies and solutions that will best serve our client’s needs. Before joining Ciber, he was founder and CEO of Hortor, an IT managed services company. Mr. Nicholson has more than 25 years of business and leadership experience across the technology sector. He is also non-executive director of K2C, which provides a full suite of fully integrated channels to market including Web, contact centers, mobile devices and social media. Prior to Hortor, he was the group managing director at ECS Group, an IT managed services company operating across the UK, India and South Africa. Mr. Nicholson has significant global experience from BT Global Services where he managed a £1.6b global services business. He was a member of the Global Services Board of Directors and has held numerous senior leadership positions including president of their Global Banking and Financial Markets Business.
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About CIBER, Hortor: CIBER, Inc. is a global information technology consulting, services and outsourcing company applying practical innovation through services
Nicholas Lakin
Vice President, Advisory Services of Kinapse
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About Kinapse: Kinapse provides advisory, capability building and operational services to the life sciences industries.
Peter Erceg
Senior Vice President of Lockton
Peter joined Lockton from EE in June 2016, the largest telecommunications company in Britain. As the CISO he was responsible for the security of the companies and their customer’s information. He led a team that covered all areas of Information and Cyber Security, Technology Risk Management and Business Continuity for the company. Prior to joining EE Peter was the VP of Information Security at Visa Europe, responsible for the protection for Visa’s sensitive data for the company which had a turnover of over €1 trillion per year.
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About Lockton: Clients across the globe count on Lockton for risk management, insurance and employee benefits.
Paul Lefrere
Vice President Innovation Strategy of Strategic Bridge
Through partnerships & as a senior executive, delivering globally & at scale, in these areas: – Building capacity for competitiveness (horizon scanning & risk management; analytics; new thinking, competencies, processes, networks & supply chains; open innovation), working with ministries, public & private institutions & corporates – Helping organizations & individual learners (regardless of sex and age) to transform knowledge, find value in it, share it (see website for free downloadable book), commercialize it if they want HOW By building ad hoc teams & partnerships (some are pro bono), which deploy cross-disciplinary approaches, evidence-based analysis & appropriate enabling technologies (eg agents, asynchronous & mobile communications, educational technologies, HR portfolios, recommender systems, re-usable objects) DRILLING DOWN: COMMERCIAL SECTOR – Codifying & exploiting knowledge & expertise (outcomes include: increasing net revenue from existing products & services; reducing the time & other resources needed to develop & market new products & services) – Identifying research findings available for exploitation or requiring action (in B2B, B2C markets) DRILLING DOWN: PUBLIC SECTOR – Leading transformative change & unlocking talent – Building personal & organizational capability in innovative & powerful ways – Sustainable business models using viable mixes of cost-recovery & openness
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About Strategic Bridge: Team of international professionals and a network of over 40 consulting partners across the globe.
