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 Executive Director operating in the Information Technology space. If you think a Executive 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.
Paul Morris
Non Executive Director of Willis Towers Watson
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About : Willis Towers Watson is a global advisory and solutions company that helps clients around the world turn risk into a path for growth.
Maria Lam
Non-Executive Director of QPQ
Maria Lam is a Director at QPQ.
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About QPQ: QPQ is a network infrastructure to enable a digital universe.
Stephen Rice
Non-Executive Director of QPQ
Stephen Rice is a Non-Executive Director at QPQ.
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About QPQ: QPQ is a network infrastructure to enable a digital universe.
Coline McConville
Non Executive Director of 3i Group
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About 3i Group: 3i is an international investment manager focused on mid-market Private Equity, Infrastructure & Debt Management.
Rich Khatib
Co-founder and Executive Director of Huma Therapeutics
Drives company strategy, operations and finance. His career in EMEA & US, include CEO of a $1B impact investment foundation of the Oceanic Bank International. Previously he kick-started Mondus, a leading European electronic procurement firm, as vice president and 1st team member. In 2001 Mondus sold to Telecom Italia for a total deal of €400 million, delivering a 10X return on the original investment of VC firm 3i. He studied business in Germany and holds a DPhil majoring in economics from Oxford University.
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About Huma Therapeutics: Huma provides a digital health platform used for predictive care and research.
Gunish Rai Chawla
Executive Director, Enterprise Architecture of Vista Consulting Group
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About Vista Consulting Group: Vista Consulting Group (“VCG”) is the operating and consulting arm of Vista Equity Partners.
Michelle Senecal de Fonseca
Non Executive Director of FDM Group
Michelle Senecal de Fonseca has developed a career of more than 25 years in international telecommunications and technology by managing large-scale corporations and small entrepreneurial start-ups owned by both the public markets and private equity. Currently, Ms Senecal de Fonseca is a non-executive Director of the FDM Group, a FTSE listed IT services company. Until the beginning of 2016, she was the Director of Cloud & Hosting Services, a global line of business for Vodafone Group Enterprise. With operational experience in more than 50 countries on all continents, she has primarily worked with Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Fidelity Data Networks, NextiraOne, Worldport, Global One, Sprint International and US West International. Ms Senecal de Fonseca’s executive positions have ranged from Managing Director and CFO to head of Sales and Marketing, Corporate Development, Strategic Planning, and Corporate Communications. From 2007-2011, Ms Senecal de Fonseca worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) where she managed the Telecom, Media and Technology banking team and its associated €3 billion investment portfolio within the international financial institution. Ms Senecal de Fonseca holds a dual degree in Business and Political Science from the University of Kansas and Masters in Business from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona where she also serves on the school’s Global Council. She has served on the boards of a variety of American, European and CIS tech companies as well as US educational institutions and UK non-profits. She has dual British/American citizenship, was named as one of the 100 Women to Watch of 2016 by Cranfield University School of Management as part of their annual Female FTSE Board Report and acknowledged as one of the telecom industry’s most influential leaders by Global Telecom Business Magazine per their selection of the Global Telecom’s Power 100.
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About FDM Group: FDM Group is a professional services provider with a focus on IT and business recruitment for graduates and veterans.
Kay Andrews
Executive Director of Agilisys
Kay is the Executive Director of Agilisys, and has more than two decades of global IT and Business Services experience. Kay was the former CEO of Agilisys and now holds the role on the Agilisys Board focused on expanding key client relationships and setting the direction for expansion and growth of the company. Her track record of achievement demonstrates her ability to combine sustainable business growth with effective customer management and service delivery. Prior to working at Agilisys, Kay spent 13 years at Perot Systems and 3 years as Executive Director for Local Government at Liberata. Kay holds a first class degree in Mathematics and an MBA.
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About Agilisys: Agilisys is an innovative IT and business software and services providers.
David Mason
Non-Executive Director of Chess ICT
David is a company chairman, entrepreneur and chartered electronics engineer with experience of both private and listed companies. He has outstanding business expertise and in-depth experience of the Telecommunications industry, combined with a solid financial and engineering background. As non-exec chairman and later exec chairman of this AIM listed business, David was instrumental in building Synchronica from an embryonic software company into one of the world’s leading mobile messaging businesses with 92 carrier clients and 11 handset OEMs. Raised over £20m of growth funding, made five acquisitions and sold to Myriad AG for £37 million in April 2012. In March 2011, David has become a non-executive Director of Chess Telecom.
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About Chess ICT: Chess ICT provide services including product supply and installation, storage, hosted and cloud solutions.
Mike Welling
Founder & Non-Executive Director of Camwood
Mike began his career in the IT industry in 1995 and currently serves as President & CEO of Rimo3, experts in complex data aggregation and business process management and is an Investor Director for Norskale, End User Management specialists and Fedr8, Cloud Migration Software Experts. Prior to this, Mike was CEO of AppDNA where he was responsible for all areas of the business, growing the company from a 2 person start-up to employing over 90 people & operating in 5 countries, selling in over 25 and eventually leading the sale of the business to Citrix in November 2011. Following the acquisition of AppDNA by Citrix, Mike served as General Manager & Vice President AppDNA at Citrix Systems, where he was responsible for the integration of AppDNA. Prior to AppDNA, Mike was founder and CEO of Camwood in 1999. Mike attended University of Brighton, UK where he studied business & finance and microprocessor and computer architecture.
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About Camwood, Fedr8: Camwood is an IT services business that specialises in application migration and portfolio management.
Tony Antoniou
Non Executive Director of Silicon Markets
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About Silicon Markets: Silicon Markets offers Forex and CFD tradings service to their clients.
Faisal Galaria
Board Member & Non Executive Director of Green Man Gaming
Faisal Galaria is the CEO of Blippar the Augmented Reality company. He previously served as Global Head of Business Development at Spotify Limited, as Managing Director of Europe and Asia at Kayak and was early member of the Skype team. At Skype as Director of Europe, he was responsible for key partnerships across the US, Europe the Middle East, with companies such as Sony, Bebo, British Telecom, Dixons and HP. Prior to joining Skype, he was a member of the Policy Executive of the UK’s telecom and media regulator Ofcom. At Ofcom, he played a senior role in the high-profile negotiation and valuation of distribution rights for Premier League Football and co-authored the Telecoms Strategy Review. He started his career in wireless and Internet consulting and was a senior member of Cluster Consulting, which was acquired by Diamond Technology Partners (NASDAQ: DTPI) for $930 million in 2000. He has been educated across Europe and graduated with honors from UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) with a Bachelor’s in Management Sciences in the UK. He also holds an MBA from IESE in Spain.
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About Blippar, Gocompare.com, Green Man Gaming, Superdry: Green Man Gaming is a global pure play e-commerce and technology business in the video games industry.
Pascal Baker
Non Executive Director of RPA Supervisor
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About RPA Supervisor: RPA Supervisor accelerate digital transformation by reducing cost and increasing insight and control of your business processes.
Julian McGougan
Executive Director of techUK
Julian supports 5G, digital communications infrastructure, spectrum, the Space sector, and drones for trade association techUK. Julian joined techUK from communications infrastructure company Arqiva, where he ran the policy team, responsible for relations with regulators, politicians and Whitehall. Prior to this Julian was the Digital Policy Adviser at the BBC, where he was on the launch teams for Freeview and Digital UK. Anticipating convergence, prior to the BBC Julian provided policy advice for both the television and telecoms regulators, before they merged into Ofcom. A spell in the Treasury preceded this, helping to privatise a whole range of public companies and working on a couple of Budgets.
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About techUK: techUK offers information technology services to small and medium businesses.
Mahmoud Farhadiroushan
Executive Director of Silixa
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About Silixa: Silixa is a provider of fiber-powered data solutions for the natural resources and mining sector.
Rob Ferguson
Executive Director of CoInvestor
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About CoInvestor: Alternative asset investment platform connecting advisers and investors with premium tax-efficient, capital growth and yield investments
Emma Priestley
Executive Director, Customer of Board Intelligence
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About Board Intelligence: Board Intelligence is a SaaS business with a mission to improve the quality of decision making in the boardroom
James Fleet
Executive Director & Consulting Partner of Four Eyes Insight
James is a clinical workforce efficiency specialist. James has significant experience in clinical workforce productivity and transformation within Health and works closely with Hospitals to secure sustainable efficiency improvements, optimum productivity and high levels of performance. James has previously worked within the NHS as an Executive Director and also led PwC’s health workforce consulting team, which involved him working with a large range of FT’s and Trust’s, as well as the Department of Health and NHS regulators – Monitor, NTDA and the CQC. James has led the delivery of major efficiency and productivity programmes, with huge success.
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About Four Eyes Insight: Four Eyes Insight is a medical productivity and clinical service consultancy, founded in 2013.
Brian Wells
Executive Director of Strategic Development of Four Eyes Insight
Brian trained as a Registered Nurse before specialising in theatres and anaesthetics, having a long clinical career before moving into management. Working for the Health Service inspectors, the Audit Commission and the Healthcare Commission, he led service improvement programmes across London healthcare organisations. Brian was most recently Director of Orthopaedics at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust where he provided senior leadership in the development and implementation of a new service delivery model for its elective orthopaedic services. His focus on medical workforce productivity, process standardisation and operational grip helped the clinical leadership deliver its high quality service in a sustainable way. Brian is a co-founder of Four Eyes Insight and has a BSc (Hons) degree in Health Studies and the Executive MBA.
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About Four Eyes Insight: Four Eyes Insight is a medical productivity and clinical service consultancy, founded in 2013.
David Ovadia
Founder CEO, Chairman and Non Executive Director of IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd
David Ovadia is a successful Chief Executive and Chairman with a proven record of achievement in the public and private sectors. He was a Director of Blenheim Natural Resources plc, previously Coburg plc, London AIM-listed companies investing in the global natural resources sector, CEO of Avenco Ltd and Chairman of South East African Mining (SEAM) Ltd, both junior explorers for gold and other minerals in Africa. He served as a Director of Spectrum General Partner Ltd and was previously the Director of International at the British Geological Survey, from which he spun out and was the founder Managing Director, and later Chairman, of IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd.
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About IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd: IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd provides geoscientific and geodata services to the global mineral exploration sector.
Colin Wallis
Executive Director of Kantara Initiative
Being based in New Zealand adds significant challenges of distance and time, but that hasn’t hindered Colin noticeably. With typical Kiwi pragmatism, he has cultivated an enviable understanding of North American and European identity programs, and a corresponding network of relationships with key stakeholders around the world.
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About Kantara Initiative: Kantara Initiative establishes new status as Autonomous Corporation. Kantara Initiative has changed its entity type by filing Articles.
Reggie James
Executive Director | Co-Chief Operating Officer & SVP of Marketing & Communications of Digital Brand Media & Marketing Group, Inc
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About : DBMM Group provides investment opportunity in the growing Digital Marketing & Social Media sector. Operating in NY, London & LA
Mark Sage
Executive Director of Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance
Mark Sage is the founder and managing director of Sagey11 Ltd. His company providers strategic and operational consulting on marketing and business development, focusing on building lasting partnerships especially for technology start-up and scale-up companies. With a background in telecoms (15 years with Orange) he has also worked with and led various Alliances and Associations. Mark is currently the Executive Director of the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA). The AREA is the only global non-profit, member-based organization dedicated to widespread adoption of interoperable AR-enabled enterprise systems AREA. With a focus on creating value and ROI for its members his goal is to develop a robust and active ecosystem for AR within the enterprise. His background includes a strong interest in mobile, AR, VR, and IoT and he is excited to work with AR customers, providers and research organizations.
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About Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance: AREA Webinar: Forecasting Enterprise AR Growth
Dan Fairs
Non-Executive Director of AutonoMe
Dan Fairs is a highly experienced engineering manager, software architect and consultant specialising in backend architecture and development, and technical team building and mentoring. Dan was Founder and Technical Director at SecondSync, and created the SecondSync data platform. SecondSync was acquired by Twitter in April 2014. Dan then went on to manage a team of engineers at Twitter UK until his departure in 2016.
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About AutonoMe: AutonoMe is a support provider delivering independent living skills to people with learning disabilities.
Crispin Swan
Executive Director and Co-Founder of Family Zone
Crispin Swan is the Executive Director and Co-Founder at Family Zone.
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About Family Zone: Family Zone brings together the best cyber experts, organisations and technologies into one easy-to-use system.
Andy Bates
Executive Director of Global Cyber Alliance
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About Global Cyber Alliance: Global Cyber Alliance is an international, cross-sector effort designed to confront, address, and prevent malicious cyber activity.
Paddy Byrne
Non Executive Director of Target Group
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About Target Group: Target Group is a provider of business process outsourcing and software solutions.
Margaret Coughtrie
Non-Executive Director of Cognitive Geology
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About : A specialist software provider for the oil industry
Giles Daubeney
Non Executive Director of eTeam
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About eTeam: All in one development agency for custom software solutions
Alexander Kendall
Executive Director of New Group Holdings
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About New Group Holdings: New Group Holdings operates in the technology industry.
Axel Bindel
Executive Director of HSSMI
Axel Bindel is the executive director at HSSMI.
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About HSSMI: HSSMI is an innovation institute for manufacturing that helps companies develop and take measures towards their strategic general goals.
Mark-Paul Buckingham
Non-Executive Director of Reactec
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About Reactec, Xi Engineering Consultants: Reactec is the market leader in monitoring and management support solutions for hand and arm vibration syndrome
Paul Bailey
Non-Executive Director of Bailey Fisher Executive Search
Paul co-founded Bailey Fisher Executive Search in 1998 and led the growth of the business as Managing Director for 20 years during which time he built the board and management teams for some of the most innovative companies to have emerged from the European technology market. After a successful exit in July 2018, he took on the role of Executive Chairman. Paul was named in the 2016 Maserati 100 and was recognised as one of the most influential business people in Cambridge in 2017. He has held advisory roles with NESTA Impact Investments and New Wave Ventures. Paul joined Martlet Capital in 2019. He is also currently Entrepreneur in Residence at Cambridge Enterprise.
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About : Bailey Fisher is an independent executive search firm finding & attracting individuals who have a fundamental impact on business growth.
Alastair Brown
Non Executive Director of Icon Solutions
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About Icon Solutions: An independent IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider serving financial institutions across the globe.
Jonathan Wright
Non Executive Director of Testing Circle Limted
One of the most experienced deal makers in the recruitment and staffing sector with over 20 transactions to his name – realising a total value in excess of £350M. Working as an advisor to the board to produce and execute strategic development plans leading to a value realisation event.
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About Hallam Medical Ltd, Testing Circle Limted: Testing Circle Limited, a software testing consultancy firm, offers services to mobile, finance, retail, media, and technology businesses.
Simon Devonshire
Non-Executive Director of Local Data Company
Passionate about the success of entrepreneurs he is the co-founder of several businesses – he is an active stakeholder in several ventures and an enthusiastic ambassador of the business community. Simon ran the SME division of O2 UK for five years , a £750m P&L – doubling the number of business customers in that time. Appointed to the position of Director Wayra Europe in 2012 – his dream job. He has previously worked on a diverse range of brands.
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About Coding Cupboard, Local Data Company, O2: Local Data Company is the UK’s most accurate retail and leisure location data business.
Richard Mill
Non-Executive Director of Corporate Modelling
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About Corporate Modelling: Corporate Modelling develops transformative software to address critical business operations efficiency issues.
Eunice Ball
Founder & Executive Director of Africa Technology Business Network
Eunice is a social entrepreneur whose mission is to see Africa emerge as a leading global tech hub. She previously founded a tech startup in Uganda and now runs the Africa Technology Business Network, a London-based social enterprise working to drive growth and impact in the African technology ecosystem by enabling investment, skills exchange and collaboration opportunities with the UK. ATBN’s work includes the Africa Technology Business Forum London, an annual gathering of Africa-focused global investors and innovators; and #HerFutureAfrica a programme helping to put women at the forefront of innovation in Africa by supporting them to launch high-impact businesses using technology. Eunice is a regular speaking on tech in Africa and is passionate about supporting organisations, startups and entrepreneurs, particularly women to leverage technology as a tool for addressing social and developmental challenges in Africa.
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About Africa Technology Business Network: ATBN is a social enterprise and global network focused on accelerating technology innovation for sustainable growth in Africa.
Eunice Ball
Founder & Executive Director of Africa Technology Business Network
Eunice is a social entrepreneur whose mission is to see Africa emerge as a leading global tech hub. She previously founded a tech startup in Uganda and now runs the Africa Technology Business Network, a London-based social enterprise working to drive growth and impact in the African technology ecosystem by enabling investment, skills exchange and collaboration opportunities with the UK. ATBN’s work includes the Africa Technology Business Forum London, an annual gathering of Africa-focused global investors and innovators; and #HerFutureAfrica a programme helping to put women at the forefront of innovation in Africa by supporting them to launch high-impact businesses using technology. Eunice is a regular speaking on tech in Africa and is passionate about supporting organisations, startups and entrepreneurs, particularly women to leverage technology as a tool for addressing social and developmental challenges in Africa.
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About Africa Technology Business Network: ATBN is a social enterprise and global network focused on accelerating technology innovation for sustainable growth in Africa.
