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 Hospitality 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.
Abel Campos
Director of Franchising of McDonald’s
Abel was appointed Head of Franchising for McDonald’s UK in October 2016, following a successful 20 year career with the brand spanning Operations and Franchising. He joined the business in 1997, progressing from a local restaurant team to overseeing a number of restaurants as a Consultant in the region. Abel worked in a number of roles throughout the southern region before being promoted to the position of Director of Franchising responsible for ensuring high standards of operational excellence across his group. Abel now heads up the UK franchising strategy and is also responsible for the recruitment of new franchisees.
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About McDonald’s: McDonald’s is a global foodservice retailer generating revenue through company-owned restaurants, franchise royalties, and licensing pacts.
Robert Milton
Chairman of the Board of Directors of United Airlines
Robert Milton is a Member of the Board of Directors at United Continental Holdings Inc. since April 2016. Robert was Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. and was Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada. Having joined Air Canada in 1992 in a consulting capacity, Robert moved from the role of Senior Director of Scheduling to Vice President of Scheduling and Product Management, Senior Vice President of Marketing and In-Flight Service and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Robert became President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada in 1999. Robert is currently the Lead Director of Air Lease Corporation, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and a Trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation Inc. Robert was a past Member of the Board of Directors of US Airways, Inc., and was also a past Chairman of the Board of Governors of IATA (The International Air Transport Association). Robert graduated in 1983 from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Industrial Management.
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About Air Canada: United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 5,000 flights each day to more than 370 destinations throughout the world.
Toby Horry
Brand and Content Director of TUI Group
Toby Horry is the brand and content director at TUI.
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About TUI Group: TUI Group is an international tourism and hospitality organization that offers a range of tour, flights, cruises, and more.
Siobhan Thomas
Global Talent Acquisition Director of Intercontinental Hotels Group
Siobhan Thomas has worked with several high-profile companies such as Credit Suisse, Sky, and Taleo optimizing, implementing programs, tools, and capability to attract the right talent. Currently, she is the Global Resourcing Director at IHG overseeing the Global Resourcing Centre of Excellence working with key stakeholders to scope future resourcing needs/priorities and deliver recruitment technologies, policies, processes, and training.
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About Intercontinental Hotels Group: IHG is one of the world’s leading hotel companies
Duncan Glendinning
Company Director of The Thoughtful Bread Company
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About The Thoughtful Bread Company: The Thoughtful Bread Company is an artisan bakery based in Bath, England, offering hand crafted, earth-friendly bread and bread products.
Lewis Hamilton
eCommerce Director of Soho House
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About Soho House: Soho House is a private members’ club for people in the creative industries.
Mark Elwig
Co-Founder and Commercial Director of Staff Heroes
Proven Commercial leader with a track record of driving growth through technology sales with Enterprise customers across multiple sectors including Hospitality, Retail, Travel and Entertainment. Experienced go-to market strategist and sales leader. Deal brokering at a global level. International experience within EMEA and US. Focus, drive and great people skills having lead several sales, business development and client account teams for both Fortune 500 and start-up organisations. Experience in setting up and building out sales and marketing teams from scratch and most recently co-founding and running the commercial arm of an innovative staffing marketplace start-up, operating within the Hospitality sector in the UK. Specialties: Business development, Sales, business strategy, account management, client services, licensing, white label, B2B partnerships, European & Global sales, SaaS software sales, launching a start-up.
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About eBay Advertising, mydeco, Staff Heroes: Staff Heroes is an on demand & AI technology marketplace reinventing the world of work, connecting businesses and workers more efficiently.
Mark Gretton
Director of Crave Interactive
Mark is the former CTO at TomTom and was a Director of Psion Computers. Mark is highly respected as a leading technologist.
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About Crave Interactive: Crave Interactive is the leading provider of cutting-edge in-room tablets designed for hotels of any size.
Colin Stacey
Finance Director of Kleek
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About Kleek: Kleek offers access to high-end venues, clubs and events.
Giles Kendall
Operations Director of Punch Taverns
Giles was appointed to the role of Operations Director for the national Punch core business in March 2016. He joined Punch as a Regional Operations Director in 2004, following the acquisition of Pubmaster, then progressing to the role of Operations Director, looking after 1,500 core estate pubs in the South, responsible for delivering sustainable sales and profit growth. He has been fully involved in the ongoing change program, putting our pub Partners at the center of everything we do. This has been helped by his previous experience of running his own small company and understanding first hand the challenges this involves. Giles started his career with Allied Domecq as a graduate and worked in a range of field and office-based roles during his 19 years with the group. He held a number of senior positions including Marketing Director for Ansells in the Midlands and his final role as National Managing Director for 700 unbranded managed houses for Allied Domecq Leisure. He left to set up and run his own “grab & go” stores in London, based on the Pret a Manger offer but with a healthier twist. He sold up in 2001 and returned to the pub sector with Pubmaster.
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About Punch Taverns: Punch Taverns is one of the UK’s largest leased pub companies, with a portfolio of more than 3,300 pubs nationwide.
Jackie Burn
HR & Services Director of Punch Taverns
Jackie Burn was appointed to the role of HR and Services Director in August 2015. Jackie joined Punch in 2005 and was appointed as HR Director in 2011. Whilst Jackie started her career in financial services, she has more than 15 years experience in the licensed trade sector and has held roles within both managed and leased pub businesses. She is responsible for the overall HR strategy within Punch, including employee engagement, reward, learning and development and internal communication. She is the Chair of Punch Community Promise – the company’s volunteer and charitable program and is also a trustee for both Homestart (a charity supporting young families) and the Burton Breweries Charitable Trust.
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About Punch Taverns: Punch Taverns is one of the UK’s largest leased pub companies, with a portfolio of more than 3,300 pubs nationwide.
Stuart Gallyot
Director of Legal Operations of Stonegate Pub Company
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About Stonegate Pub Company: Stonegate Pub Company operate over 690 pubs and bars across the UK, within a wide variety of formats.
Amanda Langford
Founder Director of Blue Badge Style
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About Blue Badge Style: Blue Badge Style provides a retail merchandising system offering style guides for less physically-abled users.
Paul Mounsey
Director of Blue Badge Style
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About Blue Badge Style: Blue Badge Style provides a retail merchandising system offering style guides for less physically-abled users.
Remi Lefevre
Director, Luxury Brands of Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group
With 15 years of experience in travel & hospitality, Remi Lefevre is a brand & commercial marketing pro with a flair for growth stories. From kitchen to HQ, he has built his reputation as the ever-curious achiever, leading brand, digital and country marketing efforts for hundreds of hotels, thousands of home rentals and fast-growing food disruptors. Specialised in brand identity, product positioning and growth, he most recently headed acquisition for scale-ups Farmdrop and Hostmaker wherehe revisited their approach to new customers around reduced CAC, maximised LTV and systematic messaging.
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About Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, The Growth Works: Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group is the largest independent boutique hotel and restaurant business in the US.
Tom Williams
Co-founder & Director of Business Development of Rota
Tom Williams is a co-founder of Rota, a mobile app that connects a variety of hospitality venues with trained and vetted staff, offering better working conditions, value and quality to all stakeholders.
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About Rota: SAAS Mobile and desktop Apps to provide Total Workforce Technology for the whole workforce (internal and external)
John Wood
Director and Co Founder of Kitchen Cut
John Wood is one of the founding members of Kitchen CUT. He draws on his 35 years’ Food & Beverage experience across job functions including Executive Chef, F&B Director, Restaurateur, Multi Outlet Operations Director and F&B consultant to help give Kitchen CUT it’s unique edge. During his career he’s achieved a Michelin Star, 4 AA Rosettes and 8 out of 10 in the Good Food Guide. His International experience has amassed at some of the best known establishments in the world, including The Savoy, The Dorchester and Cliveden in the UK; the Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg; the Mount Nelson in Cape Town; the Island Shangri-la in Hong Kong and the World-famous Burj-al-Arab in Dubai to name a few.
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About Kitchen Cut: Kitchen CUT is a unique online software solution for F&B professionals, helping you to manage your kitchen operations more efficiently.
Rafael Bejerano
Director of AB Hotels
Rafael (Rafi) Bejerano is a Director at AB Hotels, UK.
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About AB Hotels: AB Hotels is a collection of three family-owned unique hotels.
Emma Howe
Sales Director of The Advanced Sales Network
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About The Advanced Sales Network: The Advanced Sales Network is a recruitment agency and consultancy that provides a practical sales solution.
Daniel Yates
Managing Director and Founder of Pitchup.com
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About Pitchup.com: Making it a doddle to book campsites in 65 countries. Member of Financial Times FT1000 fastest-growing companies in Europe 2018/19/20.
Regina Borda
Managing Director of Pizza Hut
Regina Borda serves as the Managing Director at Pizza Hut in Europe, Canada, and United Kingdom.
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About Pizza Hut: Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise known for Italian-American cuisine including pizza and pasta.
Paul Myall
Head Of Sales and Sales Director of Tugo Food Solutions
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About Tugo Food Solutions: Tugo is an award-winning B2B foodservice company at the cutting edge of food retail.
Sean Donkin
Managing Director of Inn Collection
With an 18-year career in the hospitality sector, Sean has an outstanding track record in the market. As well as maintaining the high quality, service and facilities for customers that mark out The Inn Collection Group, Sean’s focus is leading the growth and expansion of the company, both within and further afield from its North East heartland. He is responsible for the ongoing operations and investment of the group’s units via the Board. Sean joined the business as general manager of the group’s top-performance unit, The Bamburgh Castle Inn in Seahouses in 2008. A former swimmer, sporting enthusiast Sean enjoys rugby and shooting.
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About Inn Collection: The Inn Collection, a hospitality and pub company, owns and operates a chain of pubs and inns in North England.
Rupert Gutteridge
Sales and Marketing Director of Guestline
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About Guestline: A Shrewsbury, UK-based provider of software for the hospitality sector.
Andrew Williams
Development Director of Guestline
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About Guestline: A Shrewsbury, UK-based provider of software for the hospitality sector.
Tim Radford
Non-executive Director of Timico
Tim founded Timico in 2004 and continues to be a member of the company’s Board. Earlier in his career, following the sale of his corporate entertainment business, Chatters Entertainment, Tim founded the Project Telecom Group in 1987 and managed its development and growth as an independent telecommunications service provider. The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2000 and continued to grow rapidly, achieving revenues of £330m in 2002. In September 2003, the company was successfully sold to Vodafone for £162m.
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About Timico: Timico is an end-to-end managed cloud service provider of supplying business strength IP solutions.
Chris Webster
Group Transformation Director of Hand Picked Hotels
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About Hand Picked Hotels: Hand Picked Hotels is a collection of country house hotels including with spa & health clubs.
Robert Bailes
Managing Director of Dineindulge
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About : A Private Chef Hire Service – Bringing the Restaurant to You
Jazz Ghosh
Director of The Foodfellas
Jazz has worked in the food industry all of his life and is the creative driving force within The FoodFellas. He is one of the leading people responsible for generating interest in American, Mexican and Tex–Mex cuisine within the UK and European Foodservice market, having worked as an executive chef for some of the leading brands, then as a consultant chef responsible for menu design and for many years as a food supplier. Jazz has created literally hundreds of exciting and innovative products and dishes which are used in restaurants across the UK today.
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About The Foodfellas: The Foodfellas is supplies innovative, authentic, high quality food products from around the world to the foodservice market in the UK.
Tony Levy
Director of The Foodfellas
Tony has spent the last 25 years working in the food industry, having set up or been involved in managing various food manufacturing, importation and distribution businesses. He is involved in all commercial aspects of the business, including sales.
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About The Foodfellas: The Foodfellas is supplies innovative, authentic, high quality food products from around the world to the foodservice market in the UK.
Simon Bernstein
Director of The Foodfellas
Simon is passionate about good food. A trained chef, his entire working career has been spent in food. Prior to forming The FoodFellas, Simon headed up the national accounts team at a leading food wholesaler / distributor, managing the accounts of some leading UK pub and restaurant chains.
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About The Foodfellas: The Foodfellas is supplies innovative, authentic, high quality food products from around the world to the foodservice market in the UK.
Marc Werter
Director of The Foodfellas
Marc has been involved in food importation and distribution for many years, with a leading national importer distributor. He manages the operational and logistics functions of the business and is also involved in all commercial aspects, including sales.
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About The Foodfellas: The Foodfellas is supplies innovative, authentic, high quality food products from around the world to the foodservice market in the UK.
Sean Parry
Director of Neat Services
Sean Parry is the director at Neat Services.
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About Neat Services: London’s premium domestic cleaning service.
Na’ím Anís Peymán
Director of Paymán Club
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About Zeevou: Paymán Club is a provider of serviced accommodation, hotels, and short term lettings across the UK and Europe.
Erik Smyth
Founder and Director of Insignia Technologies
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About Insignia Technologies: Insignia Technologies develops smart pigments and ink-based sensing technologies for the food packaging industry.
Terry Blake
Business Development Director – EMEA of LEMON Mobile LLC
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About LEMON Mobile LLC: Location Enhanced Mobile Opt-In Network
Neil Sebba
Business Development Director of Tossed
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About Tossed: Tossed is on a mission to make healthy eating yummy!
Cavid Nadirov
Co-Founder & Director of GETGUIDED
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About GETGUIDED: GETGUIDED is capturing uncaptured data in tours & activities industry by bringing offline players to online using innovative tech solutions.
Rob Martyniak
Director & Co-Founder of Meatcure Restaurants
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About Meatcure Restaurants: Meatcure is a restaurant that provides fast food and is located in Harborough, England.
Chris Hill
Managing Director of New World Trading Company
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About New World Trading Company: New World Trading Company is a fast-growing pub and restaurant business headquartered in Knutsford, Cheshire.
Jonn Fredericks
Managing Director of Cypad
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About Cypad: Tablet-based meal ordering and kitchen management platform.
Roy Clark
Non Exec Director of Virtual Concierge
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About Virtual Concierge: Virtual Concierge is the luxury lifestyle loyalty club, like an hotel concierge for your personal life.
