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 Business Intelligence 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.
Paul Wright
Managing Director (UK / FR / ME / TR) of AppsFlyer
Paul Wright Based in London, Paul leads AppsFlyer’s growth and expansion in the UK market. Paul has worked in the online marketing industry for over 18 years, building and shaping businesses for some of the worlds largest agencies, advertisers and technologies.
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About AppsFlyer: The world’s top brands use AppsFlyer to build great products, create exceptional experiences, and preserve customer privacy.
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Ailsa Williams
Managing Director of Teneo
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About Teneo: A New York-based corporate advisory firm
Barry Borhani
Associate Director of Ernst & Young
A senior executive with over 30 years’ experience in Oil & gas and engineering; recent roles in Global super majors (BG-Group/Shell), Big 4 Consultancy (EY and PwC) and Management Contracting companies (KBR, Halliburton). Strong project management /Project controls , contract and procurement, analytical expertise obtained whilst working on major global programs ($100MM to $23 Billion) in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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About CPEC.ai, Ernst & Young, Harvey Milton: Ernst & Young is a provider of assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.
David Pybus
Director of Ernst & Young
David Pybus is a Director in the EY Cybersecurity team and routinely helps clients with improving their cybersecurity programmes. David has twenty years experience in cybersecurity, much of it gleaned from previous roles in industry. He has first hand experience of managing the securing, scanning and patching of systems going from long since out of support operating systems all the way through to considering how to manage the patching levels of modern cloud and mobile environments
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About Ernst & Young: Ernst & Young is a provider of assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.
Thomas Bull
Director of Ernst & Young
Tom Bull is a Director in the FinTech team at EY, based in London. He has led a range of research projects in the sector for the UK Government and the European Commission, including analysis of the FinTech ecosystem, P2P lending and crowdfunding sectors. He also leads major research work by EY including the EY FinTech Adoption Index, which identifies level of traction that FinTech is gaining with consumers. Tom’s background is in corporate finance and has worked on both cross boarder and domestic M&A processes. He has led acquisition and disposal processes for clients across various European countries as well as within Asia.
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About Ernst & Young, Ernst & Young: Ernst & Young is a provider of assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.
Olivier de Trogoff
CEO @ Maje invest and member of the Board of Director @ ClicData of ClicData
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About : ClicData is a provider of cloud-based dashboard systems that are designed to improve business efficiency through better reporting.
Heleen Snelting
Director Data Science EMEA of TIBCO
Heleen Snelting is Director Data Science EMEA at TIBCO, where she and her team help TIBCO customers optimise business and operational processes through the use of advanced analytics. She previously held international roles at market- and shopper research company IRI. Heleen is passionate about knowledge sharing and is an active TIBCO Community contributor.
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About TIBCO: TIBCO unlocks the potential of real-time data for business to make faster, smarter decisions.
Simon Kirby
Senior Director, Customer Success of Qlik
Simon is the Director of Financial Services Industry Solutions at Qlik and works with customers and partners to build value driven solutions for banks, insurers and capital markets firms. Simon has over twenty five years’ experience working in the insurance and banking sectors with a focus primarily on Audit, Risk Management and Regulation at companies including RSA Insurance Group, PWC and The Royal Bank of Scotland. Prior to joining Qlik in 2015, Simon worked for the Financial Services Authority in the UK where he headed a team of insurance regulators supervising the activities of over thirty companies in complying with regulations such as Solvency II.
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About Qlik: Qlik simplifies the way people use data by making it a natural part of how they make decisions.
Martin Willcox
Director, Big Data (International) of Teradata
Martin Willcox leads Teradata’s International Big Data CoE, a team of Data Scientists and Technology Consultants charged with assisting customers to realise value from their Analytic data assets – and with articulating Teradata’s Big Data strategy and the nature, value and differentiation of Teradata technology and solution offerings to prospective customers, analysts and media organisations across the International region. Martin holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Sheffield and a Postgraduate Certificate in Computing for Commerce and Industry from the Open University. He is married with three children, is a trainee glider pilot – and a terrible guitarist.
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About Teradata, Teradata, Teradata, Teradata: Teradata is the connected multi-cloud data platform company. Our enterprise analytics solve business challenges from start to scale.
Simon Presswell
Managing Director, Broadcast & Education of Ascential Plc
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About Ascential Plc: Ascential is a global information company that enables smart decision-making for business.
Rony Seamons
Chief Operating Officer & Director Of Operations of AMPLYFI
Rony Seamons is the Chief Operating Officer and Director Of Operations of AMPLYFI.
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About AMPLYFI: AMPLYFI is a privately held company that provides software platform capable of intelligently harvesting open source data from the internet.
Ben Hargreaves
Director – Head of Government & Public Sector UK & Nordics of Bureau van Dijk
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About Bureau van Dijk: Provide company information solutions that can make you more efficient.
Andy Walker
Marketing & Operations Director & Founding Member of Yumpingo
Andy Walker is a Marketing Director at Yumpingo.
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About Yumpingo: Yumpingo is an internet company that specializes in customer engagement and analytics platforms designed for the Hospitality Industry.
Tony Haifeng Guo
Innovation Director of Valuechain.com
Haifeng Guo obtained a degree in Finance in South China University of Technology in 2003, after which he studied Master of Science in e-Business in the University of Liverpool and graduated with distinction and Student of the Year in 2004. He then started his PhD research in the application of Cloud Computing to optimise Supply Chain Management with full scholarship supported by EPSRC. At the same time, he started working at a high technology spinout from University of Liverpool with his first project developing ERP systems and supply chain management portals for companies such as Perkins, Novartis and container shipping companies. Haifeng co-founded Valuechain.com and leads the offshore development team in Wuhan China. He is passionate about developing innovative technologies using latest cloud and mobile technologies.
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About Valuechain.com: Valuechain.com enables global manufacturing customers, suppliers and partners to connect, collaborate and increase competitiveness.
Philip Agnew
Director of Product Marketing of Brandwatch
Phillip Agnew is the Director of Product Marketing at Brandwatch.
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About Brandwatch: Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence and social media listening platform.
Andy Hume
Director of Engineering, Application Infrastructure of Brandwatch
Andy Hume is Director of Engineering at Brandwatch, where he leads the Application Infrastructure team. This team is responsible for application hosting strategy and manages infrastructure and tooling across multiple public clouds and on-premise (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Serverless). Prior to this, Andy has held a range of software engineering and management positions at companies like Microsoft, Twitter, The Guardian, and Clearleft.
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About Brandwatch: Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence and social media listening platform.
Martin Sutton
Partnership Director of Peak
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About Peak: Peak is a decision intelligence company that provides a platform to offer data analysis services.
Li Wang
Managing Director of Biosite Systems
Li is a founding member of the Biosite team. Li oversees strategic direction and commercial operations, ensuring value is delivered to all clients. Li has a strong background in algorithm system design and development.
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About Biosite Systems: Biosite delivers biometric fingerprint technology solutions to the Construction sector.
Greg Reynolds
Research Director of Biosite Systems
Greg is a founding member of the Biosite team & has a background in signal processing & machine learning. He created the first version of Biosite. Greg is responsible for hardware, firmware & new product R&D.
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About Biosite Systems: Biosite delivers biometric fingerprint technology solutions to the Construction sector.
Kyle Hill
Global Director, Digital Sales and Service of Avanade
Kyle Hill a South African born Dynamics enthusiast, now based in London. He currently has the pleasure of being part of the presales team at Hitachi Solutions.His main focus is on Dynamics 365 with a slant to the more traditional CRM flavour of things. He also has a keen interest in IoT, Connected Field Service, the Bot Framework and the Adobe Experience cloud. He has a strong technical passion which he has coupled to a sound understanding of the Dynamics 365 platforms and this enables him to focus on creating innovative and value-generating solutions.
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About Avanade, Hitachi Europe: Avanade provides innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions and design-led experiences on the Microsoft ecosystem.
Ben Brabyn
Non Executive Director of Global Fund Media
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About Global Fund Media: Global Fund Media connects all the institutional investment sectors with actionable market intelligence.
Kenny Leitch
Product & Pricing Director of RSA Insurance Group
Kenny Leitch is a Product & Pricing Director at RSA.
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About RSA Insurance Group: RSA is a multinational insurance group.
Kenny Leitch
Product & Pricing Director of RSA Insurance Group
Kenny Leitch is a Product & Pricing Director at RSA.
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About RSA Insurance Group: RSA is a multinational insurance group.
Mark Maydon
Director of Crowd Connected
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About Crowd Connected: Pioneering a new generation of big data location intelligence
Goolshun S Belut
Managing Director of Smplicity
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About Smplicity: Smplicity is a London based salesforce partner that focuses on improving business performance with Salesforce
Vadim Chobanu
Managing Director of Enapps
Vadim graduated in Accounting and Finance from the University of Southampton. Having worked with ERP and accounting systems in a number of sectors, he became frustrated with what was on offer and in 2011 he co-founded Enapps to specifically challenge Sage & Tier 1 ERP systems.
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About Enapps: Enapps is an unique Business Management Software Solution Company.
Philip Carnelley
Research Director of IDC
Philip Carnelley is AVP for IDC’s European Software Group, and has over 20 years’ experience of working in the IT industry as an analyst, consultant, and applications developer in a variety of industries around Europe. He leads IDC’s European research on enterprise applications and analytics, with a particular focus on big data and cognitive/AI software and solutions and their implications for digital business transformation. He heads IDC’s multi-disciplinary European Cognitive/AI Research Practice, and he also oversees IDC’s European Software Tracker analyst team. He is also tasked with writing and presenting on broader enterprise software trends and the impact of emerging software technologies in the European region. He is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at industry events.
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About IDC: IDC provides market intelligence solutions, advisory services, and events for the information technology and other related markets.
Philip Carnelley
Research Director of IDC
Philip Carnelley is AVP for IDC’s European Software Group, and has over 20 years’ experience of working in the IT industry as an analyst, consultant, and applications developer in a variety of industries around Europe. He leads IDC’s European research on enterprise applications and analytics, with a particular focus on big data and cognitive/AI software and solutions and their implications for digital business transformation. He heads IDC’s multi-disciplinary European Cognitive/AI Research Practice, and he also oversees IDC’s European Software Tracker analyst team. He is also tasked with writing and presenting on broader enterprise software trends and the impact of emerging software technologies in the European region. He is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at industry events.
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About IDC: IDC provides market intelligence solutions, advisory services, and events for the information technology and other related markets.
Tony Xu
Founder and Managing Director of Perfocal
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About Perfocal: Perfocal is the easiest way to hire an awesome photographer, on-demand.
Richard Corner
Director and CEO of Alscient
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About Alscient: Alscient specialise in IT consultancy, software development and systems integration.
Ian Foley
Client Director of Movvo
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About Movvo: Movvo is a global technology company strategically positioned at the intersection of the retail industry, artificial intelligence and custom
Mike Fish
CEO and co-found of E-Numeracy and Director of BigData4Analytics
Mike Fish is founder and CEO of award-winning education software start-up E-Numeracy. E-Numeracy uses AI to help those who struggle with numeracy – one third of the population – to rebuild their confidence with numbers and to improve their employability. In addition Mike is director of AI & Analytics consultancy BigData4Analytics, whose clients include EY, Investec, Grant Thornton and Zurich Insurance.
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About BigData4Analytics: Management Consultants in Big Data
Jackie Down
Director of BigData4Analytics
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About BigData4Analytics: Management Consultants in Big Data
Neelendra Nath
Director of Innovitas
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About : Innovitas is an innovation intelligence and design company based in London.
Harshdeep Singh
Director of Operations- EMEA of Cloudwick
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About Cloudwick: Leading Provider of Big Data Services and Solutions to the Global 1000
John Cridland
General Director of The CBI
John is a Board member of Business in the Community and a UK Commissioner for Employment and Skills.He was Vice Chair of the National Learning and Skills Council between 2007-2010. He spent 10 years on the Low Pay Commission and the ACAS Council, and was also a member of the Council of Cranfield University and the Commission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance. John was educated at Boston Grammar School and has an MA in History from Christ’s College Cambridge.He joined the CBI as a policy adviser in 1982. John was Deputy Director-General from 2000 to 2010.John is married with two teenage children and lives in Bedfordshire. He was awarded a CBE for services to business in 2006 and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Lincoln in 2011 and the University of Bedfordshire in 2013.
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About The CBI: The CBI is the UK’s top business lobbying organisation.
Paul Sutherland
Commercial Director of BankBI
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About BankBI: BankBI is a Business Intelligence and Analytics for financial institutions.
Simon Goble
Co-Founder & Operations Director of BankBI
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About BankBI: BankBI is a Business Intelligence and Analytics for financial institutions.
Steven Randell
Publishing Director of Real Business
Steven Randell is Publishing Director at Real Business.
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About Caspian Media, Real Business: Read Business is an online platform that offers news, opinions, guides, interviews, advertising opportunities, and more.
Nick Henderson
Digital Director of Real Business
Nick Henderson is Digital Director at Real Business.
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About Real Business: Read Business is an online platform that offers news, opinions, guides, interviews, advertising opportunities, and more.
Mark Mulligan
Managing Director and Analyst of MIDiA Research
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About MIDiA Research: MIDiA Research is a media and technology analysis company that offers consulting and syndicated research services.
Stephen Worn
CTO & Managing Director of DatacenterDynamics
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About DatacenterDynamics: DatacenterDynamics is a full service B2B information provider tailored to professionals that design, build, and operate data centers.
Dimitra Christakou
Managing Director of Cambridge IP
Dimitra is the Managing Director of CambridgeIP. In the past she was the Head of Water Insight Services at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, where she was responsible for the product’s overall strategy and direction. In that capacity, Dimitra led a global team of research and data analysts to provide unique analysis, tools and data for decision makers evaluating their water related risks and opportunities. She previously held positions at Thames Water, Accenture and the Corporate Finance Practice of the Corporate Executive Board. Dimitra has extensive experience working with senior executives in the energy and cleantech sectors leading investment strategies for international utilities and major performance improvement projects. She is currently a member of the Corporate Water Disclosure Stakeholder Advisory Group (CWDSAG) for the UN CEO Water Disclosure Project. She is a frequent speaker on sustainability and resources efficiency, and cleantech investment; she has been quoted by Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, the Institutional Investor and other publications. She received her Bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Crete in Greece. Dimitra holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College of London and an MBA from London Business School.
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About Cambridge IP: Cambridge IP is a business intelligence provider that offers technology intelligence and innovation strategy products and services.
David Wadsworth
Chief Financial Officer & Managing Director, UK of WMC Global
David Wadsworth oversees the WMC Global Group’s strategic financial direction as he plans, manages, and reports on group finances. His more than 40 years in financial management ensure the success of the group’s entrepreneurial endeavors. David brings extensive management and business development experience as a chartered accountant, having specialized in mobile technology, marketing and media, and property companies. His expertise in managing and resourcing business development for venture capital and investment finance groups enables him to evaluate markets and identify financial and business opportunities for the WMC Global Group—supporting its continued growth. In his role as managing director, David leads his team in opening new opportunities in the United Kingdom, as well as pursuing new opportunities and markets in Europe, and manages the effective delivery of products and solutions to clients. David earned his MA in History at the University of Oxford.
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About WMC Global: Worldwide Brand and Customer Protection At Scale
Piers Alington
Managing Director of Feedback Ferret
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About Feedback Ferret: Feedback Ferret make it easy for companies to improve your customer experience using text analytics.
Piers Alington
Managing Director of Feedback Ferret
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About Feedback Ferret: Feedback Ferret make it easy for companies to improve your customer experience using text analytics.
Edward Farquhar
Director of Grace Personnel
With over 15 years of City experience specialising in SMEs, Ed has invaluable experience in guiding and working with management teams.
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About Grace Personnel: Grace Personnel provide recruitment for permanent and temporary office support personnel throughout Maidenhead.
Richard Terblanche
Executive Director EMEA of Fishtank Solutions
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About Fishtank Solutions: Fishtank provides worldwide investment management firms with cloud-based Customer Analytics and Sales Intelligence tools.
John Shannon
Partner Director of Tiger
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About Tiger: Tiger delivers workplace performance analytics that transforms how enterprises work, collaborate, and perform.
Lawrence Gilbert
Director of Company Partners
Founder and Director of Company Partners Ltd. ( www.companypartners.com ) An internet based platform for finding Business Partners and Investors.
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About Company Partners, Cray, HP: Established platform to bring together Business Partners, Investors and business opportunities.
Julia Casson
Director of Board Insight
Julia Casson started her career as a Contracts Administrator with the Plessey Company whilst studying for the Chartered Secretary (ICSA) qualification in her spare time. There followed a 3 year spell as Executive Assistant at the Life Offices’ Association (which later merged with the British Insurer’s Association to form the ABI). After qualifying, she was appointed Assistant Secretary of AGB Research and later promoted to Deputy Secretary. She was elected a Fellow of the ICSA in 1987. Julia moved to Inchcape plc in 1989 and spent 10 years there, first as Assistant Secretary and later as Deputy Secretary. During this time the company evolved from a diverse overseas trader into a more focussed international marketing and services group and FRSE 100 constituent. The downturn of the group’s key markets of South East Asia, South America and Russia in 1998 led to the break up of the group and she was asked to stay on to work on the disposal of all non-automotive businesses (around 1,000 legal entities). In 1999, Julia moved to Pearson plc as Company Secretary, where she remained for 4 years. This was a period of key change for Pearson which included a refocusing on core activities, and thus high M&A activity, plus a US listing. In 2003 Julia left to pursue an independent career in corporate governance consultancy and incorporated as Julia Casson Ltd in 2006, changing the company’s name to Board Insight Ltd in 2009 to reflect the greater involvement of partners and associates in the business. Julia is a policy Adviser to ICSA and a member of its Company Secretaries Forum. She chairs the ICSA Forum’s EU Committee, leading the ICSA’s lobbying on European matters relating to corporate governance and company law. Julia served as a lay member of Council of the University of Kent from 2003-2009, as a member of its Finance and Resources Committee and of a number of University working groups concerning executive appointments and governance. She also served for 2 years on the Advisory Group of the Higher Education National Mentoring Scheme, which established the Scheme nationally, having been a mentee on the pilot programme. Always a keen linguist, she completed the Institute of Linguists post-graduate diploma in translation in 2002 and also speaks German and Italian to A level standard.
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About Board Insight: Board Insight is a corporate governance consultancy.
Laura Liddell
Managing Director of Dez Rez Legal
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About Dez Rez Legal: DezrezLegal is a Legal Services platform.
Terry Cooper
Chairman and Development Director of 4Networking
Terry has steered much of the development of 4N to where it is today and he’s continuing to develop new 4N initiatives, all designed to benefit 4N members.
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About 4Networking: The UK’s only joined-up business network.
Brad Burton
Managing Director & Founder of 4Networking
Brad can give you the sharpest advice you’ll find on how to get your business moving. Author, inspirational speaker, media pundit, tireless 4Networker.
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About 4Networking: The UK’s only joined-up business network.
Andy Richardson
Director of Dynistics
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About Dynistics: Dynistics produces graphical dashboard reporting tools that allow organisations to monitor, analyse and improve operational performance.
John Simpson
Director of Dynistics
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About Dynistics: Dynistics produces graphical dashboard reporting tools that allow organisations to monitor, analyse and improve operational performance.
