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 Government 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.
Mike Pitts
Deputy Challenge Director – Transforming Construction of Innovate UK
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About Catalyst Science Discovery Centre, Innovate UK: Innovate UK holds funding competitions for businesses and research organizations in sectors, including emerging technologies.
Jens Madrian
Executive Director of NEOM
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About NEOM: NEOM is a government administration firm that offers economic growth, progressive laws, a healthy foundation and innovative solution.
Matt Lock
Director of Sales Engineers, UK of Varonis Systems
Matthew has 17 years’ experience in the field of Network Security, which includes extensive contracts with many global businesses, including BP and JPMorgan. Specialising in risk assessment, risk management, policy compliance, security reviews and managing network behaviour anomaly systems, Matthew now leads Varonis’ sales engineering team in the UK, Ireland and Middle East, ensuring the team is helping customers and partners from a range of sectors in data governance projects, and organizing, securing and managing their unstructured data.
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About Varonis Systems: Varonis Systems provides actionable data governance solutions for financial services, healthcare, energy, manufacturing and tech companies.
Matt Lock
Director of Sales Engineers, UK of Varonis Systems
Matthew has 17 years’ experience in the field of Network Security, which includes extensive contracts with many global businesses, including BP and JPMorgan. Specialising in risk assessment, risk management, policy compliance, security reviews and managing network behaviour anomaly systems, Matthew now leads Varonis’ sales engineering team in the UK, Ireland and Middle East, ensuring the team is helping customers and partners from a range of sectors in data governance projects, and organizing, securing and managing their unstructured data.
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About Varonis Systems: Varonis Systems provides actionable data governance solutions for financial services, healthcare, energy, manufacturing and tech companies.
Stephen Bonner
Executive Director, Regulatory Futures of Information Commissioner’s Office
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About Information Commissioner’s Office: The ICO is a U.K.-based independent body set up to uphold information rights.
Philip Marnick
Group Director, Spectrum of Ofcom
Philip Marnick has over 20 years of experience in the wireless communications industry. He is the group director of spectrum at [Ofcom](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ofcom#/entity), a communications regulator that regulates the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, and more. Previously, he served as the chief technology officer of SpinVox. Prior to joining SpinVox, Marnick served as vice president of industry development at O2. He was also the managing director of service planning for J-Phone Japan and the head of mobile multimedia for BT Group.
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About Ofcom: Ofcom is the UK’s communications regulator.
Cristina Data
Director of Insight and Analysis of Ofcom
Cristina is the Director of Spectrum Information and Analysis at Ofcom, Cristina and her team are responsible for providing insight on market trends and their impact on spectrum demand across all sectors. Cristina is also overseeing Ofcom commitment to promote further spectrum sharing in the UK. Before joining Ofcom Cristina worked for Red Bee Media (now Ericsson) heading market intelligence and research within Strategy, and prior to that she held group strategy/performance management positions at both Orange UK (now EE) and Telefonica. Cristina started her career joining the graduate management programme of the FIAT Group (Fiat Grade) working in the UK and Belgium. Cristina holds a degree in Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino and a Post graduate in international relationships.
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About Ofcom: Ofcom is the UK’s communications regulator.
Ian Macrae
Director of Market Intelligence of Ofcom
Ian currently works as Ofcom’s director of market intelligence.
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About Ofcom: Ofcom is the UK’s communications regulator.
Philippa Jayanathan
Director Of Operations – Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust of National Health Service
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About National Health Service: NHS is the UK’s biggest health website which employs people with a wide range of skills from software development to journalism.
Andreas Galatoulas
Data Science Director of AECOM
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About AECOM: AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of markets.
Chris Salmon
Executive Director, Markets of Bank of England
He has been the Bank of England’s Executive Director for Markets since June 2014. He is responsible for all Bank operations in financial markets; management of the Bank’s balance sheet and the UK’s official foreign exchange reserves on behalf of HMT; and delivering market intelligence for monetary and financial stability.
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About Bank of England: The Bank of England serves as the central bank of the United Kingdom.
Janet Hughes
Programme Director, Future Farming and Countryside Programme of Defra
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About Defra: Defra is the UK government department responsible for policy and regulations on environmental, food and rural issues.
Julian Taylor
Executive Director – Asia Pacific of Scottish Enterprise
Julian Taylor is Scottish Enterprise’s Executive Director, Strategy and Economics. He is responsible for helping set the overall direction of SE – in response to the Government Economic Strategy – and the evidence base that supports this. He works closely with a range of public and private partners and his experience includes advising a number of major companies at a senior level. Julian has over 20 years’ experience of international economic development in a wide variety of roles and has been with Scottish Enterprise since 1997. He was educated at the Universities of Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne, Dortmund and Herriot Watt and is a member of Glasgow University’s Adam Smith Business School Advisory Board.
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About Scottish Enterprise: Scottish Enterprise is Scotland’s main economic, enterprise, innovation and investment agency.
Jane Martin
Managing Director Of Business Services of Scottish Enterprise
Jane is responsible for setting the direction and delivering functions which underpin our operational delivery in Scotland and overseas. This includes digital service transformation and alignment with other public sector partners delivering business support; global and domestic communications; marketing; exhibitions and events; customer research and intelligence. She also oversees SE’s international and business networks, including Globalscot, and our stakeholder and partner engagement, including government and parliamentary relations. Jane has been part of the Scottish Enterprise team for over 14 years. Immediately prior to taking up her current role in November 2014, Jane held the position of Director of Marketing and Communications. Before joining Scottish Enterprise, Jane spent 10 years with number of roles in communications, mainly in local government. Jane has a BA (hons) from the University of Glasgow. She is also a board member of the Scottish Parliamentary Business Exchange and an active panel member for DSL Business Finance Ltd, a not for profit business lending organisation.
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About Scottish Enterprise: Scottish Enterprise is Scotland’s main economic, enterprise, innovation and investment agency.
Johanna Hutchinson
Director of Data and Data Science – Dept of Health and Social Care of Cabinet Office – GOV.UK
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About Cabinet Office – GOV.UK: Cabinet Office – GOV.UK is the cabinet branch of the United Kingdom government.
Adrian Kamellard
Director: Government Commercial of Cabinet Office – GOV.UK
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About Cabinet Office – GOV.UK: Cabinet Office – GOV.UK is the cabinet branch of the United Kingdom government.
James Duncan
Deputy Director, PSN CTO of Cabinet Office – GOV.UK
James Duncan is a CTO, Worldwide Sales at Joyent,
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About Cabinet Office – GOV.UK: Cabinet Office – GOV.UK is the cabinet branch of the United Kingdom government.
Ciaran Martin
Director General Cyber Security of GCHQ
Ciaran Martin is Director General for Government and Industry Cyber Security in the U.K. He is a member of the GCHQ Board and the SIRO. Prior to joining GCHQ in February 2014, Ciaran was Constitution Director at the Cabinet Office. In this role, he was the lead official negotiator for the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Scotland in the run-up to the Edinburgh Agreement in 2012 on a referendum on independence for Scotland. Previous Cabinet Office roles included Director of Security and Intelligence, from 2008 to 2011, and Head of the Cabinet Secretary’s Office from 2005 to 2008. Before that, Ciaran spent 6 years at HM Treasury and 3 at the National Audit Office, after graduating from Hertford College, Oxford in 1996.
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About GCHQ, National Cyber Security Centre, Weston Digital Imaging: GCHQ is one of the three UK Intelligence Agencies and a part of the UK’s National Intelligence Machinery.
Ulrike Esther Franke
Research Assistant to the Director of European Council on Foreign Relations
Ulrike joined ECFR in 2015 as Research Assistant to the Director, working part time while finishing her PhD in International Relations at the University of Oxford. Ulrike holds a BA from Sciences Po Paris and a double summa cum laude MA degree from Sciences Po Paris (Affaires internationales/Sécurité internationale) and the University of St. Gallen (International Affairs and Governance). Before joining ECFR, Ulrike was Managing Editor of the St. Antony’s International Review (STAIR), Oxford’s Journal of International Affairs. Ulrike was also part of UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson’s research team, working on drone use in counterterrorism contexts. Prior to this she worked as a part-time research assistant at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London.
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About European Council on Foreign Relations, European Council on Foreign Relations: The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is the first pan-European think-tank.
Mike Prettejohn
Director of Netcraft
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About Netcraft: Netcraft is an Internet services company based in Bath which provides Internet data mining and anti-cybercrime services.
Tim Kay
Deputy Director – Technology of Department for International Trade
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About Department for International Trade: DIT is responsible for promoting UK trade across the world and ensuring the UK takes advantage of the huge opportunities open to us.
Alexander Milne
Head of Financial Services and Director, Kenya of Department for International Trade
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About Department for International Trade: DIT is responsible for promoting UK trade across the world and ensuring the UK takes advantage of the huge opportunities open to us.
Kasper Barfoed
Director DIT Denmark of Department for International Trade
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About Department for International Trade: DIT is responsible for promoting UK trade across the world and ensuring the UK takes advantage of the huge opportunities open to us.
Mark Norris
Assistant Director of Department for International Trade
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About Department for International Trade: DIT is responsible for promoting UK trade across the world and ensuring the UK takes advantage of the huge opportunities open to us.
Warren Leow
Director: Accelerator Programs & Investor Relations of Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre – MaGIC
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About Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre – MaGIC: Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre is focused on serving the Malaysian startup community.
Ashkan Jabbari
Director of Konsolute Ltd
Ashkan Jabbari is the co-founder and director at Konsolute.
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About Konsolute Ltd: Microsoft Gold Partner headquartered in London offering professional services and products for the Microsoft Cloud
Ian Levy
Technical Director of National Cyber Security Centre
Ian Levy is the Technical Director at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in the U.K. Prior to his current role, Levy worked as director at Syntaxis Technology and research fellow at the University of Warwick. Levy finished his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science at the University of Warwick.
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About National Cyber Security Centre: National Cyber Security Centre is the operational side of the Department in regard to network and information security.
Mary Basterfield
Non Executive Director, Vice Chair, Senior Independent Director & Audit Chair of The Royal Free
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About The Royal Free: The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust runs three hospitals in London, England.
Sean Green
Director of IT City of London Corporation and City of London Police of City of London
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About City of London: City of London Corporation is a government body that provides economic, social, and community development services.
Sarah Mulley
Executive Director, Communities & Skills of Greater London Authority
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About Greater London Authority: Greater London Authority is a government administration that provides citywide leadership and create policies to improve for all.
Nathan Pierce
Programme Director of Greater London Authority
Based in the Greater London Authority in the UK, Nathan Pierce is the Programme Director for Sharing Cities, a pan-European programme that tests out innovative smart city solutions across a number of major European cities, replicating and scaling what works through new business and investment models. He is also the Head of the Smart London team and is responsible for delivering the Mayors Smart London Roadmap. Nathan has 15 years’ experience across a range of public sector bodies having led on major service design and commissioning projects within London and at a European level. Nathan is determined to improve the lives of regular people by finding innovative ways to make government more sustainable, efficient and citizen focused.
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About Greater London Authority: Greater London Authority is a government administration that provides citywide leadership and create policies to improve for all.
Lucy Croucher
Managing Director of JSC International
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About JSC International: JSC International is an independent consultants providing expert regulatory and environmental risk assessment services to government.
James Drinkwater
Director of World Green Building Council
James Drinkwater leads the work of World Green Business Council’s Europe Regional Network, a community of over 20 national Green Building Councils, 9 regional partners, and over 4.500 members from across the buildings sector – and is a regular adviser to the EU and UN on sustainable built environment issues He has spearheaded ground-breaking initiatives that have seen major banks agree an EU-wide definition for ‘green mortgages’, over 2,000 organizations come together to establish ambitious building renovation strategies across over half of Europe and is now taking on the challenge of mainstreaming life cycle assessment and circular construction.
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About World Green Building Council: The World Green Building Council is a non-profit organization and a coalition of national Green Building Councils.
Richard Callard
Executive Director of UK Government Investments
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About BIS, UK Government Investments: UK Government Investments offers corporate governance, financial interventions, consulting, acquirement, and management of corporate assets.
Paulina Sygulska
Founder and Director of GrantTree
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About GrantTree: GrantTree was started in 2010 with the explicit aim of helping innovative tech companies to access government funding.
Mike Thompson
Director for Technical Development of Access Partnership
Mike Thompson As Director for Technical Development, Mike provides technical and engineering guidance to network operators in the terrestrial and satellite markets. With over 25 years of experience in regulatory engineering, Mike has a long record of providing innovative solutions to market entry, network expansion and integration problems that arise from hardware limitations, regulatory restrictions and frequency management problems. Mike is a chartered engineer (CEng.), and a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET). He has managed regulatory programmes within a global network operator, including interaction with bodies such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Conference of European Post and Telecommunications administrations (CEPT). Prior to joining the private sector, Mike was a team leader within the UK Radiocommunications Agency.
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About Access Partnership, University of Essex: Access Partnership Ltd. provides consulting services in the areas of international ICT trade, regulation, and licensing.
Colin Thomson
Director – Regulatory Engineering of Access Partnership
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About Access Partnership: Access Partnership Ltd. provides consulting services in the areas of international ICT trade, regulation, and licensing.
Kathryn Corrick
COO and Research Director of Represent
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About Represent: Building the tools for a better democracy.
Rhiannon Thompson
Director and Head of London Property Practice of Lex Communications
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About Lex Communications: Lexington Communications is the UK’s leading independent public affairs and communications agency.
Simon Friend
Non Executive Director and Member of the Audit and Risk Committee of Guy’s and St Thomas’
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About Bevan Brittan, Guy’s and St Thomas’, Jewish Care: Guy’s and St Thomas’ is a health care provider that offers excellent treatment for cancer, renal, orthopaedic and cardiovascular services.
Nicky Parker
Director of Business Change and Transformation of Manchester City Council
Nicky Parker is a senior transformation manager with experience of managing complex change in large public sector organisations. She has designed and developed new delivery models and target operating models across the public sector and led on public sector savings programmes and wider public sector reform. She is the Director of Business Change and Transformation at Manchester City Council where she has been supporting the development of the new Manchester Local Care Organisation an integration of health and social care services across Manchester communities. More recently, Nicky has been leading the development of a digital eco-system for technology enabled care across Manchester.
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About Manchester City Council: Manchester City Council provides essential services for Mancunians, employers, investors and visitors.
Ollie Bray
Strategic Director of Education Scotland
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About Education Scotland: Education Scotland is a Higher education, in a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government .
Oscar Martí
Director of Catalonia Trade & Investment
Oscar Martí holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations from UAB (Barcelona). He completed further studies in International Politics and Economics at LSE (London) and PKU (Beijing). He spent time working for the European Institute of Public Administration and the United Nations Regional Information Centre in Brussels, before joining the Singapore office of Catalonia Trade & Investment in 2010. Since 2015 he has been the Director of Catalonia Trade & Investment in London.
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About Catalonia Trade & Investment: Helping international companies invest in catalonia since 1985.
Rachel Maclean
Founder and Director of Skilled and Ready
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About Skilled and Ready: Skilled and Ready is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which runs an innovative, business and government supported employability award.
Rachel Maclean
Founder and Director of Skilled and Ready
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About Skilled and Ready: Skilled and Ready is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which runs an innovative, business and government supported employability award.
Mark Lambert
VP of Sales & Marketing, Managing Director for EMEA Region of Advantech Wireless
Mark Lambert is VP of Sales & Marketing, Managing Director for EMEA Region at Advantech Wireless.
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About Advantech Wireless: Advantech Wireless is the leading wireless broadband communications provider for Commercial, Critical Infrastructure & Government.
Tony Smith
Managing Director of Fortinus Global
Global Border Management Consulant. Former Director General, UK Border Force and SRO for UKBA London 2012 Olympic Border Security Programme. Over 40 years experience in global border management and border security programs and operations.
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About Fortinus Global: Fortinus Global is a international consultancy company offering the very best advice available in border security, immigration.
Tony Smith
Managing Director of Fortinus Global
Global Border Management Consulant. Former Director General, UK Border Force and SRO for UKBA London 2012 Olympic Border Security Programme. Over 40 years experience in global border management and border security programs and operations.
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About Fortinus Global: Fortinus Global is a international consultancy company offering the very best advice available in border security, immigration.
Alison Saunders
Director of Public Prosecutions of Crown Prosecution Service
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About Crown Prosecution Service: The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for criminal prosecutions in England & Wales.
