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 Consumer 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.
John Gilbert
GM & Regional VP of Sales of Yubico
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About Yubico: Yubico offers USB and wireless authentication solutions.
Tim Griffin
CEO / VP & GM Dell UK of Dell
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About Dell: Dell transforms computing and provides high quality solutions that empower people to do more all over the world.
Mark Cooper
Vice President and Managing Director, Avery Europe and Asia Pacific of CCL Industries
Mark Cooper is a Vice President and Managing Director, Avery Europe and Asia Pacific at CCL Industries.
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About Avery, CCL Industries: CCL is the largest label company in the world and provides innovative solutions.
Jamie Robinson
Vice President and Managing Director, Home & Personal Care Europe of CCL Industries
Jamie Robinson is a Vice President and Managing Director, Home & Personal Care Europe at CCL Industries.
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About CCL Industries: CCL is the largest label company in the world and provides innovative solutions.
Alex Owens
VP, Global Head of Data & Analytics of Unilever
Alex is currently CMI Vice President, Global Head of People Data Centres, AI & Data Governance at Unilever based in London. Prior to joining Unilever, he was Head of Insight & Analytics at Sainsbury’s and had joint accountability for the Nectar relationship. Previous to this, Alex had numerous Insight/Strategy and Analytics roles in Banking and Media. He started his career over 20 years ago at Millward Brown as Research Manager working across a range of large international FMCG clients e.g. Guinness Africa. After Millward Brown, Alex moved to the BBC where he formed part of the team that developed BBCi Player back in 2000 before moving to support the launch of Freeview. He then moved to BskyB during James Murdoch’s first reign before spending 5 years in banking, first with Capital One and then as Head of Strategy at Lloyds Banking Group. Alex earned a first class honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business & Economics from Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordons University.
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About Unilever: Unilever produces and supplies fast-moving consumer goods in food, home, and personal care product categories worldwide.
Patrick Hull
VP Future of Work of Unilever
Patrick Hull serves as the VP of Future of Work at Unilever.
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About Unilever: Unilever produces and supplies fast-moving consumer goods in food, home, and personal care product categories worldwide.
Bobby Ford
Vice President/Global CISO of Unilever
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About Unilever: Unilever produces and supplies fast-moving consumer goods in food, home, and personal care product categories worldwide.
Sarah Mansfield
VP Global Media Europe & Americas of Unilever
Sarah Mansfield has started at Unilever in June 2012. She is responsible for the European, North and South America Media Function supporting the local markets in best in class media plans and capabilities. Previously Sarah led Marketing Services for Unilever’s UK & Ireland business covering media and communications planning and implementation, digital best practice and brand PR. Prior to this Sarah held various roles at Barclays Bank PLC, the most recent as Global Head of Communications and Media at Barclaycard and previously as Head of Innovation Marketing responsible for launching new propositions such as contactless payments, mobile payments to the UK. Sarah has extensive media, communications and digital marketing experience across a number of industry sectors having also worked at various integrated agencies in account management and planning roles. Sarah studied in Sheffield and has a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and Marketing. In her spare time she enjoys running as well as music, playing the violin in a local orchestra.
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About Unilever: Unilever produces and supplies fast-moving consumer goods in food, home, and personal care product categories worldwide.
Nicky Clement
Vice President HR, Organisation Effectiveness & People Analytics of Unilever
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About Unilever: Unilever produces and supplies fast-moving consumer goods in food, home, and personal care product categories worldwide.
Britta Bomhard
Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer of Church & Dwight, Co
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About Church & Dwight, Co: Church & Dwight Co., Inc. develops, manufactures and markets a range of household, personal care and specialty products.
Sam Jones
Vice President of Torch Capital
Sam Jones serves as the Vice President at Torch Capital.
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About Torch Capital: Torch Capital is an early-stage consumer-focused venture capital firm.
Melissa Kantor
VP of People Analytics and Insights of The LEGO Group
Melissa Kantor is Vice President of People Analytics and Insights at The LEGO Group. She is an accomplished Programme and Changes Director with substantial experience delivering global HR, IT, Digital and Analytics initiatives for the world’s leading corporates across sectors, including the Big Four, global financial institutions, IT and bio-techs, as well as Silicon Valley-based start-ups. Her varied background also includes delivery of Finance, Supply Chain, Quote to Cash and other change initiatives.
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About The LEGO Group: The LEGO Group is a family-owned company that specializes in the development of children’s creativity through playing and learning.
Jeanne Bolger
Vice President Venture Investing of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Jeanne Bolger, MB BCh BAO, Vice President, Venture Investments, joined Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) in 2013. She is based in London, UK. Dr. Bolger has over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in management roles across R&D, Commercial and Business Development (BD). She spent 11 years in Licensing and Acquisition (L&A), most recently as Global Head of Scientific Licensing for Johnson & Johnson’s Pharmaceutical business, having joined Johnson & Johnson in 2005 from the Business Development group at GlaxoSmithKline. In 2009, Dr. Bolger became Vice President, Alliance Management at Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, working with Pfizer and Elan. Dr. Bolger received her medical degree from University College Dublin. She also holds diplomas in Child Health (NUI) and in Finance and Accounting (ACCA). She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland (RAMI). Dr. Bolger has served as the sole pharma industry representative on two Irish government taskforces seeking to enhance the commercialization of IP from Irish academic centres. She is a visiting lecturer on the MSc Pharmaceutical Medicine curriculum at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
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About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Pulmocide: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Matt Hiscock
VP of Harry’s
Matt Hiscock is General Manager UK of Harry’s Inc., a company that manufactures and sells razor blades and grooming products to brands and consumers all over the world. Harry’s was founded in 2013 in the United States with its headquarters in New York City, Eisfeld, Germany and London, England. Matt joined Harry’s in 2016 and lead the brands launch into the UK market in June 2017. Formerly, Matt was Marketing Director for British clothing retailer, Boden, running all global commercial activity across eight dedicated markets. He spent seven years at leading online fashion store, ASOS, where he had multiple roles, most notably as Head of Operations overseeing international markets, web production, CX and visual merchandising. Previous to ASOS he worked at British multinational retailer Marks & Spencer for eleven years where he managed the Middle East and Central EU franchise businesses before joining French Connection, a UK-based global fashion and homeware label. Matt currently lives in Brighton with his fiancé, Emma, and two daughters.
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About Harry’s: Harry is a developer of an online platform used to sell shaving equipment and accessories for men.
Julia van Tuyll
Vice President of Investor Relations of Lion Capital
Julia van Tuyll is a Vice President of Investor Relations at Lion Capital. Prior to joining Lion Capital, Julia was employed by Vision Capital where she was involved with the implementation of the fund raising programme including raising capital from new and existing relationships. She was previously with the European Department at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in London. Julia graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where she obtained an Honours Degree in International Politics.
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About Lion Capital: Lion Capital is a consumer-focused investor passionate about investing in brands about which people are passionate.
Bo Ekberg
SVP International of NJOY
Bo Ekberg joined NJOY in early 2013 leading NJOY’s international expansion outside the US, having previously worked as a start-up entrepreneur in London. Prior to this Bo accumulated 20 years of international FMCG business experience in both Western and Central Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and Russia holding various senior Sales, Marketing and General Management positions during this time. Following service in the Danish Royal Life Guards, Bo earned his Masters in Economics and Political Science from the University of Copenhagen and his Executive MBA from INSEAD in France. A native of Denmark, Bo is married with two children and resides permanently in London, England.
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About NJOY: NJOY is a distributor and manufacturer of e-cigarettes and vaping products for dult smokers and vapers.
Hubert Patricot
Executive Vice President and President, European Group of Coca-Cola Enterprises
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About Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners: Coca-Cola Enterprises is a marketer, producer, and distributor of non-alcoholic drinks.
Stephen Moorhouse
Vice President, General Manager – Northern Europe of Coca-Cola Enterprises
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About Coca-Cola Enterprises: Coca-Cola Enterprises is a marketer, producer, and distributor of non-alcoholic drinks.
Scott Bourgeois
Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer & Group Controller of Coca-Cola Enterprises
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About Coca-Cola Enterprises: Coca-Cola Enterprises is a marketer, producer, and distributor of non-alcoholic drinks.
Nik Jhangiani
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Coca-Cola Enterprises
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About Coca-Cola Enterprises: Coca-Cola Enterprises is a marketer, producer, and distributor of non-alcoholic drinks.
Leendert Den Hollander
Vice President and General Manager of Coca-Cola Enterprises
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About Coca-Cola Enterprises: Coca-Cola Enterprises is a marketer, producer, and distributor of non-alcoholic drinks.
Jakub Kamecki
VP Business Development and Partnerships of TG0
Experienced Business Development Manager with a demonstrated history of working in software and technology industries. Skilled in Sales, Partnerships and Alliances, Management, Strategic Leadership, and Product development. Holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from University College Dublin Smurfit Business School.
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About TG0: TG0 is an R&D start-up creating novel 3D controls.
Anders Hakfelt
Global VP of Product & Marketing of Ultraleap
Anders has over 20 years’ experience in strategy, marketing and innovation. Over the past seven years Anders has been at the forefront of digital innovation and customer experience transformation, creating and delivering new propositions for a wide range of blue chip clients. He joined Ultrahaptics from Accenture, where he was a Director and member of the management team in their Digital Design and Innovation company, Fjord. Prior to Accenture, Anders was head of Strategic Business Development, EMEA, for frog Design. He has also worked in commercial and strategic roles in a variety of companies, from automotive and gaming to tech startups and strategy consulting. Anders has also been a business mentor for the Prince’s Trust.
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About Ultraleap: Ultraleap is working to create the most remarkable connection between people and technology.
Robert Blenkinsopp
VP Product of Ultraleap
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About Ultraleap, Ultraleap: Ultraleap is working to create the most remarkable connection between people and technology.
Mickey Nasiri
Vice President Software of Roost
Vice President Software at Roost.
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About Roost: Roost is a Sunnyvale, CA-based developer of affordable smart home technology.
Alan Flower
Senior Vice President – CTO EMEA & Global Head, Cloud Native Labs of HCL Technologies
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About HCL Technologies: HCL Technologies is a global IT services company, working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses.
Colin Hutchison
Vice President of International of Edgewell Personal Care
Colin joined Energizer in 2004 as Vice President Europe for Wilkinson Sword. In 2006 he led the successful integration of the Personal Care and Household Divisions in Europe. After the Playtex acquisition, he became Vice President for Personal Care in Europe and led planning for the distribution expansion of Hawaiian Tropic and the Hydro brand launch. After the American Safety Razor acquisition, Colin was appointed Vice President and General Manager for EPC’s Private Brands Group. Overseeing strategic development for the global private label wet shave business, he reshaped the portfolio and developed a roadmap for growth through NPD and distribution expansion. Additionally, he led the integration of most functions into the wider Personal Care business structures. Prior to Edgewell, Colin worked for a number of consumer goods businesses based in Europe including United Biscuits and the Campbell’s Soup Company. He held various positions in sales, marketing, and general management that latterly included international responsibilities.
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About Edgewell Personal Care, Energizer Holdings: Edgewell Personal Care manufactures and markets a diversified range of personal care products.
Wissam Jabre
Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President of Dialog Semiconductor
Wissam joins Dialog after serving as Corporate Vice President of Finance at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) since 2014. Between 2003 and 2014, Wissam Jabre held various executive positions at Freescale Semiconductor, including Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, Vice President Global Pricing, Chief Financial Officer of the Networking & Multimedia Solutions Group as well as senior roles within Corporate Treasury. During this period he gained extensive experience in accounting, financial planning, treasury, procurement, and merger and acquisition integration. He began his career at Schlumberger, gaining international experience in the Middle East, Europe and North America, before joining Motorola in 2000. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree and received an MBA from Columbia Business School, New York in 1998.
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About Dialog Semiconductor: Dialog Semiconductor makes energy-efficient, highly-integrated, and mixed signal ICs for mobile, IoT, and solid state lighting applications.
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.
Richard Lagani
Executive Vice President of MMRGlobal
Richard Lagani is an Senior Management Professional
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About MMRGlobal, MMRGlobal: MMRGlobal provides secure, easy-to-use multilingual personal health records (PHRs) and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions.
Giovanni Dolci
Vice President, Theatre Development and Managing Director, Europe and Africa of IMAX
Giovanni Dolci joined IMAX Corporation in October 2012 as Vice President, Theatre Development. In January 2017 he was also appointed Managing Director Europe and Africa, where he is responsible for growing and expanding the IMAX theatre network across the two continents. He previously served as Director of Business Development and Commercial Operations at Arts Alliance, where he was in charge of negotiations with cinema exhibitors and film distributors throughout EMEA to support the market’s transition to digital projection technology and where he helped establish a worldwide digital distribution platform. Prior to Arts Alliance, Giovanni Dolci worked in film financing and oversaw a number of projects based in New Zealand, Italy and the UK. He has a degree in Economics and Management from Bocconi University in Milan and an MSc in Management from Cass Business School in London. He is a Junior Fellow of the Aspen Institute Italy.
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About IMAX: IMAX Corporation is one of the world’s leading entertainment technology companies, specializing in immersive motion picture technologies.
Ramchander S.
Vice President of Global Marketing of Castrol
Ramchander A.S. is a Vice President of Global Marketing at Castrol.
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About Castrol: Castrol is a worldwide leader in high performance lubricants for the automotive, industrial, marine and aerospace industries.
Hervé Fontaine
Vice President – Enterprise and Business Development of HTC Vive
Vice President Virtual Reality B2B and Business Development at HTC. Hervé leads the development of HTC’s new Virtual Reality business, HTC Vive, in the professional segment as well as business development activities with large software partners and start-ups in Europe. From virtual showrooms for car brands, VR solutions for engineers or architects, to VR based teaching platforms for learning through experience in VR, virtual reality offers boundless opportunities to enhance the way we work with colleagues located across the world, learn or entertain ourselves with friends even when they are thousands of kilometres away. Hervé joined HTC in 2012 leading European sales for HTC smartphone business. He previously worked for Sony Group where he held various Sales and Marketing leadership positions at Sony Ericsson’s European Headquarter as well as in China as well as for France Telecom (Orange) in France and in Japan.
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About HTC Vive: HTC Vive is a virtual reality headset developed by HTC and Valve Corporation.
Arun Gupta
Vice President, ServiceNow Global Delivery of Crossfuze
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About Crossfuze: Crossfuze is a provider of consulting, design, implementation services, and resale of the ServiceNow® technology platform.
Pam Charris
Vice President Global Marketing of Nualight
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About Nualight: Nualight is a LED retail lighting company specializing in illuminating refrigerated displays and fresh food displays.
Wouter Beek
Vice President of uPnP Forum
Wouter is a home networking architect at Cisco System SPVSS. He started his career in Philips at the Physics Labs, where he worked on simulation applications for cathode ray tubes. Later he migrated to Applied Technologies, also a department of Royal Philips Electronics. Among one of the many topics that he tackled, he started working on home network connectivity. Later he moved to the Television department where he functioned as technology leader in home connectivity. Wouter moved to Cisco Systems and functions as home networking architect. In this role he is the main representative of Cisco Systems in the UPnP standardization organization and currently acting as Director on the UPnP Steering Committee and has technical responsibilities among others as UPnP Compliance Committee Chair and IOT Datamodel chair. His contributions in the UPnP Forum are now standardized in UPnP: AV3 AV4, Multi-Screen and other specifications of the UPnP Forum.
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About Cascoda, Open Connectivity Foundation, uPnP Forum: UPnP Forum is an industry initiative of members working to enable easier device-to-device interoperability and better home networking.
Wouter Beek
Vice President of uPnP Forum
Wouter is a home networking architect at Cisco System SPVSS. He started his career in Philips at the Physics Labs, where he worked on simulation applications for cathode ray tubes. Later he migrated to Applied Technologies, also a department of Royal Philips Electronics. Among one of the many topics that he tackled, he started working on home network connectivity. Later he moved to the Television department where he functioned as technology leader in home connectivity. Wouter moved to Cisco Systems and functions as home networking architect. In this role he is the main representative of Cisco Systems in the UPnP standardization organization and currently acting as Director on the UPnP Steering Committee and has technical responsibilities among others as UPnP Compliance Committee Chair and IOT Datamodel chair. His contributions in the UPnP Forum are now standardized in UPnP: AV3 AV4, Multi-Screen and other specifications of the UPnP Forum.
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About Cascoda, Open Connectivity Foundation, uPnP Forum: UPnP Forum is an industry initiative of members working to enable easier device-to-device interoperability and better home networking.
