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 Semiconductor 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.
David Haynes
Sr Director Business Development of Lam Research
David gained a B.Eng and PhD in Materials Engineering from Swansea University. His PhD thesis was in the field of organic semiconductors for electronic and optoelectronic applications. In his professional career, David has accrued more than 20 years of experience in the Semiconductor Capital Equipment and research instrumentation sectors with STS, SPTS and Oxford Instruments. Focused on new technology development, he has a strong process background in plasma etch and deposition for optoelectronics, photonics, MEMS, Power and RF Electronics, as well as advanced chip packaging technologies. Building on this technical knowledge, David has a proven track record in developing strategic business partnerships; specialising in new technology developments and introduction of enabling process capabilities to leading semiconductor fabs worldwide. David Joined Lam Research in June 2016 and is currently Senior Director of Strategic Marketing in Lam’s Customer Support Business Group.
Follow David Haynes:
About Lam Research: Lam Research supplies wafer fabrication equipment and services to the worldwide semiconductor industry.
Chas Moloney
Marketing Director of Ricoh Company
Chas Moloney has been Marketing Director at Ricoh UK since September 2005, where he has been fundamental in helping to restructure and grow the sales and marketing division – developing and bringing Ricoh UK’s professional print and Managed Document Services propositions to market and focusing heavily on building strong customer-supplier relationships. Under his stewardship, the Ricoh UK sales and marketing teams have built a reputation for providing premium solutions and services that are relevant to customers’ business situations, and that address real business needs.
Follow Chas Moloney:
About Ricoh Company: Ricoh is a global technology company provide office imaging equipment, document management systems and IT services.
Chris Shore
Director of Endpoint Ai Ecosystem of Arm Holdings
Follow Chris Shore:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Robin Randhawa
Technical Director for System Software of Arm Holdings
Robin Randhawa is a Technical Director for System Software Architecture with Arm’s Open Source Software group. He is responsible for open source software strategy focusing on safety critical deployments, primarily autonomous functions. Robin has been with Arm for 12 years working in various operating system themed roles. Prior to joining Arm, he worked with MIPS in the Linux kernel group.
Follow Robin Randhawa:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Rob Coombs
Director, ATG, and Director of Ecosystem and Alliances, SSD of Arm Holdings
Follow Rob Coombs:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Andrew Hopkins
Director, System Technology of Arm Holdings
Andrew leads the development of UltraDebug® and an associated technical marketing package. He is experienced in all aspects of computer architecture including SoC design, system level development support and embedded systems engineering. He has managed large multi-institution engineering programs with elite international partners. He has 4 patents pending, numerous technical publications and has served as a referee for several IEEE, IET and Elsevier journals. Andrew obtained a top first in Computer System Engineering from the University of Kent in 2003 where he also took the IEE (IET) prize for the highest placed BEng.
Follow Andrew Hopkins:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Stefano Cadario
Director Software Product Management of Arm Holdings
Follow Stefano Cadario:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Grant Likely
Software Senior Technical Director of Arm Holdings
Grant is a well known Linux engineer who got his start building embedded Linux systems. Grant soon picked up maintainership of several platforms and subsystems including Devicetree, SPI and GPIO, and played a major part in cleaning up support for embedded platforms in Linux. Grant has also helped support the Linux developer community in the organization of several community conferences and having served as chair and board member of the Linux Foundation’s Technical Advisory Board. He currently is a senior technical director at Arm in the Open Source Software group where he is responsible for networking and SmartNIC software architecture. Previously roles include Distinguished Technologist at HPE, and a Linaro Fellow.
Follow Grant Likely:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Mike Eftimakis
Director of Business Innovation Strategy of Arm Holdings
Follow Mike Eftimakis:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Tom Conway
Director, Product Management of Arm Holdings
Follow Tom Conway:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Sujil Kottekkat
Technical Director of Arm Holdings
Follow Sujil Kottekkat:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Phillip Burr
Senior Director, Business Transformation and Portfolio Management of Arm Holdings
Follow Phillip Burr:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Colin Alexander
Director of Networking Marketing, Infrastructure Line of Business of Arm Holdings
Colin has worked for ARM for the last 5 years helping to deliver the appropriate system-level ARM IP and eco-system support for the networking infrastructure. At ARM, he focuses on the needs of the cellular infrastructure requirements to support the diverse latency, throughput and power targets for 4G and now 5G. Colin interacts closely with a mix of ARM partners, OEMs and network operators. Previously, Colin has held numerous positions in a range of established and start up companies working to meet Infrastructure and Networking industry requirements.
Follow Colin Alexander:
About Arm Holdings, OpenFog Consortium: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Antonio Priore
Director of Functional Safety of Arm Holdings
Antonio Priore works for Arm as Director of Functional Safety. He leads the functional safety related processes and strategy in Arm where he is responsible for showing support for multiple safety related standards. Antonio is a Chartered Engineer with a career spanning more than a decade in Functional Safety Engineering across different domains including Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial and Railway.
Follow Antonio Priore:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
David Maidment
Director Secure Devices Ecosystem & Director IoT Devices Strategy of Arm Holdings
Follow David Maidment:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Pablo Fraile
Director of Ecosystems and Director of Home Segment of Arm Holdings
Follow Pablo Fraile:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Aditya Bedi
Director of Product Management of Arm Holdings
Follow Aditya Bedi:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Geraint North
Senior Director, Client Computing and Machine Learning Tools of Arm Holdings
Follow Geraint North:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Govind Wathan
Director of Product Management of Arm Holdings
Follow Govind Wathan:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Kinjal Dave
Director Solution Management of Arm Holdings
Follow Kinjal Dave:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Rod Watt
Director Vehicle Architecture and System Analysis of Arm Holdings
Follow Rod Watt:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Daniel Owens
Director of Product Management, Models of Arm Holdings
Daniel Owens is the Director of Product Management for Models at Arm, responsible for simulation products at Arm. Daniel has over 20 years experience in embedded electronics and has previously held management positions for CodeWarrior, Realview and DS-5 software development tools.
Follow Daniel Owens:
About Arm Holdings: Arm Holdings is a multinational semiconductor company that designs, produces, and licenses IP for digital electronic product development.
Eamonn O’Hare
Independent Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Dialog Semiconductor
Eamonn joined the Board in May 2014 as an independent non-executive Director. He was appointed as Chair of the Audit Committee in December 2014 and was replaced by Alan Campbell in July 2015. Eamonn has spent over two decades as CFO of some of the world’s fastest-growing consumer and technology businesses. From 2009 to 2013, he was CFO and main board member of the UK’s leading entertainment and communications business, Virgin Media Inc. and led its successful sale to Liberty Global Inc. in 2013. From 2005 to 2009, he served as CFO of the UK operations of one of the world’s largest retailers, Tesco plc. Before joining Tesco he was CFO and Board Director at Energis Communications and led the successful turnaround of this high profile UK telecoms company. Prior to this Eamonn spent ten years at PepsiCo Inc. in a series of senior executive roles in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Eamonn spent the early part of his career in the aerospace industry with companies that included Rolls-Royce PLC and BAE Systems PLC.
Follow Eamonn O’Hare:
About : Dialog Semiconductor makes energy-efficient, highly-integrated, and mixed signal ICs for mobile, IoT, and solid state lighting applications.
Ivor Guiney
Technical Director of Paragraf
Ivor’s experience is in physics, engineering and semiconductor materials, with focuses on solid state device development, epitaxial growth advancement and novel materials development. He has taken the lead on projects which have developed new combinations of functional materials with a view to linking innovative science with real-world applications. Throughout numerous projects, Ivor has taken charge of material deposition and characterisation for electronic and optoelectronic devices to solve issues endemic to the semiconductor industry. Ivor has held positions both in the commercial world of capital equipment manufacture and academia as a senior physicist at the University of Cambridge. He also sits on the Institute of Physics Semiconductor Committee.
Follow Ivor Guiney:
About Paragraf: Paragraf develop and deliver game-changing, commercial-quality, graphene-based electronic devices using contamination-free technology.
John Halfpenny
Director of Paragraf
John has a successful track record as a Director and CXO of several high tech and clean tech companies with experience in company level transactions in all areas of the business life cycle, including start up to sale, and floatation on AIM. John has considerable commercial experience from holding senior positions within global companies such as ARM and Texas Instruments. He has extensive international commercial experience, having negotiated IP licensing, outsourced manufacturing, distributor and joint venture agreements with organisations across Europe, Asia and the US. John has a Masters’ degree in Engineering Science from The University of Cambridge and currently holds a variety of non-executive and advisory positions within the science community, John is also a Fellow of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Follow John Halfpenny:
About : Paragraf develop and deliver game-changing, commercial-quality, graphene-based electronic devices using contamination-free technology.
Graham Palmer
Sales Director of Intel Corporation (UK)
Follow Graham Palmer:
About Intel, Intel Corporation (UK), Self-Employed: Intel Corporation manufactures microprocessors for desktop and notebook PCs, servers, and workstations.
Shash Patel
Director & Information Risk Management & Privacy of Air Products and Chemicals
In this role he is responsible for overall Information Governance, including Risk assessments and response activities which encompass the evaluation, mitigation and reporting of information and privacy risks facing the Company. This includes leading an enterprise wide Information Risk Management (IRM) program covering Intellectual Asset Protection (IAP), Data Privacy (acting as the Data Privacy Officer) and Enterprise Records Management. He is currently Co-Chair of Spectrum Europe (The European chapter of Air Products’ LGBT+ Employee Resource Group) and is on the Tech Partnership Degrees Employer Board. His volunteering activities are focused on STEM related mentoring, education and awareness with Tech Partnership Degrees and charities such as SATRO and TeenTech. Previous business roles include in the Air Products’ Corporate Risk Office, as Director of Intellectual Asset Protection. Prior to that, he has held various IT leadership roles including Global Director of Business Relationship Management and Director of IT Security, Compliance and Risk Management. Over his career he has lived and worked in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States of America.
Follow Shash Patel:
About Air Products and Chemicals: Air Products supplier of industrial gases and equipment, specialty and intermediate chemicals, and environmental and energy systems.
Godfrey Ainsworth
Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of IQE
Godfrey Ainsworth qualified as a Chartered Accountant and was employed by Coopers & Lybrand before becoming an audit partner and then corporate finance partner with Spicer & Oppenheim. He founded Gambit Corporate Finance in 1992, a practice specialising in the provision of corporate finance services where he was Managing Partner until his retirement from the firm on 30 November 2009. He has held several Non-Executive Directorship appointments, including assignments for 3i plc and the Welsh Development Agency. He has provided advice to IQE (formerly EPI) since its inception and was appointed to the Board in 1997. He was appointed to the Board of IQE Plc in April 1999, and was appointed chairman in February 2002.
Follow Godfrey Ainsworth:
About : IQE is the global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor wafer products.
David Grant
Senior Independent Director of IQE
David Grant has a background in engineering and technology and was appointed to the Board of IQE Plc in September 2012. He was Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University from 2001 to 2012. Previously he held leadership positions in a number of international businesses including United Technologies Corp., Dowty Group plc and GEC plc. He has been a Vice-President of the IET, and was a Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2007 to 2012. He was awarded the IEE’s Mensforth Gold Medal in 1996 and in 1997 he was made a CBE for his contribution to the UK’s Foresight Programme. He has a PhD in Engineering Science from the University of Durham. Sir Grant was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to engineering, technology, and skills.
Follow David Grant:
About : IQE is the global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor wafer products.
Howard Williams
Director of Operations of IQE
Howard Williams has held a number of positions within both Manufacturing and Service industry sectors, with roles ranging from Engineering Management to General Management. He was a member of the founding team of EPI in 1988 and was appointed Operations Director for EPI in 1996. He was appointed General Manager of IQE Inc in 2002 and General Manager of IQE (Europe) Limited in 2003. He was subsequently appointed Chief Operations Officer in 2004 and was appointed to the Board of IQE Plc as Operations Director in December 2004.
Follow Howard Williams:
About IQE: IQE is the global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor wafer products.
Phillip Rasmussen
Group Finance Director of IQE
Follow Phillip Rasmussen:
About IQE: IQE is the global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor wafer products.
Bianca Cefalo
Director of International Business Development of Carbice Corporation
Bianca Cefalo is the Director of International Business Development at Carbice Corporation.
Follow Bianca Cefalo:
About Carbice Corporation: Carbice is developing a product used to dissipate heat away from product packaging to stop electronic devices from overheating.
Huw Davies
CEO, Founder, Director of Trameto
Huw Davies is a technology business leader with general management, founder roles, product marketing, business development and sales. He has worked in both start-ups and multi-national corporate organisations. His experience spans global business development, operational and financial management, licensing technology transfer, and collaborative research/commercial partnering. Huw’s background is in semiconductors and consumer electronics and he has extensive experience of working in Silicon Valley. He holds a BSc and PhD from Cardiff University and an Executive MBA from the University of Bath.
Follow Huw Davies:
About Trameto: Trameto is developing energy management devices for micro energy harvesting technologies enabling the elimination of batteries in the IoT.
Laurence Strong
Founder, COO, Director of Trameto
Laurence Strong is an experienced technical marketer with an electronic engineering background in the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries. He navigates the space between engineering development and customer sales by representing the voice of the customer to ensure a product is fit for market, managing resources to ensure timely delivery and developing partnerships to accelerate development and shorten time to revenues. Laurence has experience working at early stage start-up companies through to global corporations. Laurence has a 1st class BEng degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham.
Follow Laurence Strong:
About Trameto: Trameto is developing energy management devices for micro energy harvesting technologies enabling the elimination of batteries in the IoT.
Chris Allen
Director of Universal Smart Cards
Follow Chris Allen:
About Universal Smart Cards: Universal Smart Cards (USC) provide a range of smart cards, card readers and printers.
Kevin Loveman
Technical / Operations Director of Universal Smart Cards
Follow Kevin Loveman:
About Universal Smart Cards: Universal Smart Cards (USC) provide a range of smart cards, card readers and printers.
Raakhee Thakrar
Director of Finance of Universal Smart Cards
Follow Raakhee Thakrar:
About Universal Smart Cards: Universal Smart Cards (USC) provide a range of smart cards, card readers and printers.
Raakhee Thakrar
Director of Finance of Universal Smart Cards
Follow Raakhee Thakrar:
About Universal Smart Cards: Universal Smart Cards (USC) provide a range of smart cards, card readers and printers.
Peter Ward
Managing Director of Anvil Semiconductors
Peter has had an extensive industrial career in the development and manufacturing of Silicon power and RF devices in both large organisations (STMicroelectronics and Plessey) and start-ups. He has worked in every aspect of the industry from basic technology research, through product development, to managing RF and Power device business units.
Follow Peter Ward:
About Anvil Semiconductors: Anvil Semiconductors develops small power converters using innovative silicon carbide power semiconductor switches.
Ranganath S. Kempanahally
Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of ElitePLUS Semiconductor Technologies
R K is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of elitePLUS, responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, Business, Strategy, Quality and Engineering services of the company. R K has over 17 years of experience in the semiconductor industry as a Technical Lead, Verification consultant, Business Development Manager and has held several engineering and mid-management positions in both product and service companies. A hands on verification engineer, deployed advanced verification solutions for complex verification projects for several global companies in USA, Europe and in India. Prior to founding elitePLUS, R K held Consulting and technical Lead roles at various start-ups to multi-national companies. In his last role, he was a Director of Engineering at EnSilica, an IP and Design Service company in the UK, was responsible for Leading Verification Engineering and Services and has helped them to set-up an overseas design centre in India. R K has a Master’s Degree in Electronics from Mangalore University, India and an Executive MBA from Cranfield School of Management in the UK.
Follow Ranganath S. Kempanahally:
About ElitePLUS Semiconductor Technologies: ElitePLUS Semiconductor Technologies is an IP and Design services company.
Michael Pepper
Co Founder, Chief Scientific Director of TeraView
Michael has held positions in the University of Cambridge concurrently with positions at Plessey and then GEC. Professor of Physics in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University 1987-2009, he was invited by the Toshiba Corporation to create and head their first corporate research laboratory outside Japan. The Toshiba Cambridge Research Centre, now known as the Cambridge Research Laboratory of Toshiba Research Europe Ltd, opened in 1991 with Professor Pepper as Managing Director. Professor Pepper is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and the recipient of many prizes and honours for his work on semiconductors. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has extensive connections throughout the University of Cambridge, UK and EU universities, institutes and with corporations throughout the world. He received a knighthood in 2006 for his services to physics and since 2009 is Pender Professor of Nanoelectronics at University College London.
Follow Michael Pepper:
About TeraView, University College London (UCL): TeraView develops terahertz instruments which can generate, detect and manipulate radiation to characterize a wide range of materials.
Kieran O’Leary
Managing Director and Principal Consultant of Mixed Signal Systems
Follow Kieran O’Leary:
About Mixed Signal Systems, Upstart Jobs: Mixed Signal Systems offers product development and consultancy services in the electronics, technology, and semiconductor industries.
