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 Tools 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.
Nigel Abbott
Regional Director, NEMEA of GitHub
Nigel Abbott is the Regional Director, NEMEA at GitHub.
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About GitHub, GitHub: GitHub provides code hosting services that allow developers to build software for open-source and private projects in organizations.
Rajh Das
Sector Director, Manufacturing and Resources UK of Microsoft
Rajh Das joined Microsoft in April 2008 where he has held various account management and sales leadership roles. He now leads the Manufacturing and Resources team for the UK. Before joining Microsoft, Rajh held sales and leadership roles at EMC, Xerox and IBM. He secured an undergraduate degree in Production and Operations Management from the University of Nottingham in 1997 and an MBA from CASS Business School in 2007. Rajh was born in Warrington but now lives in Winchester with his wife and three daughters. He’s a fan of all sports and plays tennis and football.
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Martin Carazo
Programme Director, Dynamics Global Domain EMEA of Microsoft
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Sam Bramwell
Modern Workplace Solutions Director of Microsoft
Sam Bramwell is Sales Director for Microsoft’s Healthcare Sector. She has worked in the global technology sector for 20 years in a variety of roles, including, marketing, business development, operations and sales. Sam has worked in both large global organisations and start-ups across the world. She has worked at Microsoft for 10 years, is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusivity and is the Chair of the Women@Microsoft UK Board.
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Joy Hartigan
Director and Payroll Global Process Owner of Microsoft
Joy Hartigan is a Director and the Process Owner for Global Payroll at Microsoft. She has over 20 years of experience in payroll covering all levels of payroll roles from Payroll Administrator through to Head of Payroll. She has also managed multiple payroll system implementations, worked in payroll consulting as a Payroll Subject Matter Expert and in payroll supplier relationship management. She has a breadth of experience in dealing with all aspects of payroll both in service delivery and payroll strategy.
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Richard King
Sales Director for Manufacturing of Microsoft
Richard King joined Microsoft in 2005 where he has held various account management and sales leadership roles. He now leads the Manufacturing team for the UK. Before joining Microsoft, Richard held sales and leadership roles at HP. He secured an undergraduate degree from the University of the West of England. Richard lives in Wokingham with his wife and two children.
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Adrian Cutler
Global Agency Director of Microsoft
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About Cuttlefish Group, MakeITaplan, Microsoft, Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Martyn Gooding
Creative Director of Microsoft
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Robert Epstein
Windows Product Marketing Director of Microsoft
Robert Epstein has been in the IT industry for over 20 years. He has run his own IT solutions business and spent time in the IT channel working with industry names including HP and Intel. He has been at Microsoft for over 15 years in various roles including Small Business Audience lead and OEM. He is currently UK Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft 365 including Windows 10 and is responsible for helping all partners from SMB to Enterprise understand the value of Windows 10 and Office Pro Plus He was also responsible for leading the launch of Windows 10 in the UK.
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Andrew Nagle
Global Account Director, EMEA of Microsoft
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Symon Garfield
Director – Digital Strategy and Innovation (Worldwide Financial Services) of Microsoft
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Sam Carlisle
Sr. Director – External Partner Relations of Microsoft
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche
Director of Microsoft
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Steve Dunbar
Internet of Things Commercial Director – Middle East & Africa of Microsoft
Steve Dunbar has over 25 years of experience in the IT sector having held senior sales & marketing leadership positions at companies such as Lotus Software, IBM & Avnet. He’s been with Microsoft for 10 years, and currently leads Microsoft’s IoT strategy for the UK. His remit now is to grow Microsoft’s Internet of Thing’s commercial opportunities with customers & partners.
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About Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Zsolt Pocsaji
Senior Director, Personalisation of Optimizely
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About Optimizely: Optimizely is a platform that provides digital experience solutions.
Paul Thomas
Founder and Managing Director of Lead Forensics
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About Lead Forensics: Lead Forensics is the B2B software that identifies anonymous website visitors, providing full contact details and customer journey insight.
Lisa Turner
Marketing Director of Lead Forensics
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About Lead Forensics: Lead Forensics is the B2B software that identifies anonymous website visitors, providing full contact details and customer journey insight.
Cyril Duprat
Director of Business Development of Mux
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About Mux: Mux is a video platform designed to make video streaming and analytics possible for every development team.
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.
Alex Wilson
Director Market Development of Wind River
Alex Wilson oversees business development activities for the Industrial market in EMEA for Wind River, responsible for Industrial programs. Prior to Wind River, Alex worked at British Aerospace on Automated Test Equipment for various Inertial Navigation Systems using VME and RTOS technology. He then worked as a Field Applications Engineer (FAE) for Motorola Computer Group working with 68k and PowerPC VME boards and 3rd party Real Time Operating Systems. He joined Wind River in the UK as an FAE in 1996 supporting VxWorks and Tornado. In 2002 he became European Business Development Manager for Wind River focusing on the Aerospace and Defence market. Alex obtained a BSc(Eng) in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, London in 1986.
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About Wind River: Wind River is a technology company that develops, runs, and manages device software.
Andrew Stickland
Director, Customer Success of Contrast Security
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About Contrast Security: Contrast Security is a modernized application security, embedding code analysis, and attack prevention directly into the software.
David Sommer
Co-Founder & Product Director of Kudos
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About Kudos, Project Counter: Kudos offers web-based tools and services to help researchers, institutions, publishers, and funders increase the impact of their research.
Melinda Kenneway
Executive Director & Co-Founder of Kudos
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About Kudos: Kudos offers web-based tools and services to help researchers, institutions, publishers, and funders increase the impact of their research.
Charlie Rapple
Director & Co-founder of Kudos
I’m a geek marketer, and have spent my whole career at the cutting edge of the scholarly communications sector. I have an insatiable interest in new techniques and technologies, about which I speak and write regularly. I’m passionate about breaking down barriers and improving relationships between everyone involved in research dissemination, and as such am an enthusiastic volunteer for the industry association UKSG. I am also an Associate Editor of Learned Publishing. I hold a BA from the University of Bristol and a postgraduate MDip in Marketing. Prior to co-founding Kudos, I was a strategic marketing consultant with TBI Communications, and had previously held various management roles at CatchWord, Ingenta and Publishing Technology.
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About Kudos: Kudos offers web-based tools and services to help researchers, institutions, publishers, and funders increase the impact of their research.
John Ribbins
Creative Director of Roll7
John Ribbins is the Co-Founder at Roll7.
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About Roll7: Roll7 make games that are Simple to Play.
Thomas Hegarty
Director of Roll7
Thomas Hegarty is the Co-Founder at Roll7.
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About Roll7: Roll7 make games that are Simple to Play.
Dinesh Majrekar
Director of Innovation of Civo
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About Civo, ServerChoice: Cloud hosting specialists running the the world’s first Kubernetes service powered by Rancher Lab’s K3s.
Jason Perkins
Managing Director of Curve Digital
Jason Perkins currently works as the Managing Director for Curve Digital. He previously worked at blue52 limited as the Director.
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About Curve Digital: Indie developer & publisher of fine video games.
Shane Morgan
CTO / Director of Developing Experts
Shane has extensive experience as a web and application developer and is the Founding Director of CD2, a web and software company specialising in bespoke platform builds.
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About Developing Experts: Bridging the gap between education and industry through our online curriculum.
Paul Thomas
Co-Founder & Development Director of Cupris Health
Paul Thomas is the Co Founder & Development Director at Cupris Health.
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About Cupris Health, PD HIVE: Cupris Health develope communication software and smartphone-connected medical devices.
Julian Hamann
Medical Director of Cupris Health
Julian Hamann is the Consultant ENT & Thyroid Surgeon at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.
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About Cupris Health, Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Queen Victoria Hospital: Cupris Health develope communication software and smartphone-connected medical devices.
David Terrar
Executive Director of ITBrix
David is the Founder and CXO of Agile Elephant, a digitial transformation consultancy and solutions provider. He also heads up D2C, a consulting firm which provides business and social media consulting and Cloud based solutions for content, collaboration, web publishing, online accounting and ERP. He is a director of EuroCloud UK, on the governance board of the Cloud Industry Forum, and Chaired techUK’s Software as a Service Group. This year he is one of the judges of the UK Cloud Awards. He is a regular speaker at digital, social business, social media and Cloud Computing events including keynoting at the CeBIT Social Business Arena in 2015, chairing London’s Cloud Computing World Forum in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and lecturing on digital at Henley Business School and INSEEC. Agile Elephant co-produces the London edition of the Enterprise Digital Summit London, and David organizes the Combined Social Business Sessions London (incorporating London Wiki Wednesdays), was one of the founders of CreativeCoffee Club and Amplified (the Network of Networks).
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About Agile Elephant, Bloor Research, Cloud Industry Forum, Cloud Industry Forum, EuroCloud, ITBrix: ITBrix’s WordFrame Community Platform covers blogging, wikis, RSS feed aggregation, document management and social networking, using
Tom Barber
Director of Meteorite BI
Tom Barber has been a vocal Open Source Business Intelligence proponent for many years and currently holds the post of VP Apache OODT. He is well known in the Pentaho community having instigated a number of Pentaho community meetings in the UK and Europe. He has extensive experience of information management, business intelligence, data warehousing, and data integration with a range of technologies. Tom is also the project founder of the Apache Licensed Saiku OLAP Analysis Tool. When not hacking Open Source technologies Tom is the Technical Director of Meteorite Consulting, an open source focussed Business Intelligence consultancy.
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About Meteorite BI: Meteorite BI is the creator and main developer of Saiku.
Thomas Kinniburgh
Director of Product and Monetization of Ayopa Games
With years of mobile games industry experience, Tom has been a key contributor to some of the largest mobile gaming franchises. Starting his career as a hands-on producer at Chillingo, Tom helped to establish the publishing process and worked with talented development studios such as Rovio, Zeptolab, 11-bit and Mokus Games. He worked directly with each of these previously unheralded partners to create worldwide hits and award-winning franchises. As a mobile game producer with Chillingo, Tom was responsible for helping developers to create their best content specifically for mobile platforms. As the transition into free-to-play began, Tom showcased key skills working with EA as well as helping major license-holders such as NBC and Fox Digital to move into the mobile space. Tom then sought further opportunities in the free-to-play genre, moving into a production and game management role with Wooga, the largest free-to-play development studio in Germany. There, he brought his experience and knowledge to help the company transition from Facebook to mobile. With Wooga, Tom honed his expertise specifically in game design and monetization of a variety of hit franchises, as well as immersing himself in the groundbreaking data-driven approach needed to create hit free-to-play mobile games. Tom has now decided to return to his indie game publishing roots with Ayopa Games. He’s keen to advise and collaborate with indie developers on creating and managing hit new mobile brands that really resonate with players globally. Together with Johnny Coghlan, Tom guarantees genuine publishing prowess for Ayopa Games and its indie development partners, enabling them to succeed and perform in the hugely profitable and highly competitive mobile gaming industry.
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About Ayopa Games: Ayopa Games is an independent game publisher for mobile platforms.MacGuffin’s Curse is a game developed by this company.
Justine Cross
Managing Director of EMEA Channels
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About EMEA Channels: EMEA Channels develops appropriate channel programs for the targeted region of businesses.
Christopher Dean
Managing Director of Digital Tactics
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About Digital Tactics: Digital Tactics is a technology consultation company that works with businesses in a variety of capacities.
Christopher Dean
Managing Director of Digital Tactics
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About Digital Tactics: Digital Tactics is a technology consultation company that works with businesses in a variety of capacities.
