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 Executive Director operating in the Software space. If you think a Executive 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.
Richard Little
Non Executive Director of Thought Machine
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About Azur Group, CENTURY Tech, Concirrus, IQ Capital, Thought Machine: Thought Machine is a Fintech company that builds cloud-native technology to revolutionize core banking.
Andy Phillipps
Non Executive Director of Thought Machine
Andy Phillipps is the Advisor, IC and Venture Partner at IQ Capital.
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About Cambridge Judge Business School, Prodigy Finance, PROfounders Capital, Thought Machine, Trainline: Thought Machine is a Fintech company that builds cloud-native technology to revolutionize core banking.
Philip Avery
Non-Executive Director of Oxbotica
Philip Avery is a non-executive director at Oxbotica. In 1999, Philip co-founded NavTech Radar and currently serving as the managing director of the company. He has been involved in the development of several millimeter wave radar systems and various other autonomous vehicle projects. He has also been involved with research projects at Oxford and Sydney University. As the MD of Navtech Radar, Philip has been one of the key strategists behind the company’s introduction of this technology into different industries including Security surveillance, Industrial automation and Highways monitoring and incident detection. He is also a strong proponent of UK industry, particularly high tech design and manufacturing.
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About Navtech Radar, Oxbotica: Oxbotica powers the navigation, perception, user interface, fleet management, and other features needed to run self-driving vehicles.
Maria Lam
Non-Executive Director of QPQ
Maria Lam is a Director at QPQ.
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About QPQ: QPQ is a network infrastructure to enable a digital universe.
Stephen Rice
Non-Executive Director of QPQ
Stephen Rice is a Non-Executive Director at QPQ.
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About QPQ: QPQ is a network infrastructure to enable a digital universe.
Simone Barratt
Non Executive Director of dotmailer Group
Simone Barratt has over 15 years’ experience of ecommerce and online marketing. She has grown businesses to multi $m from incorporation. She has International expansion experience in Europe and the Asia Pac. She was appointed Global President of e-Dialog Inc an Ebay company in 2011 with Income Statement responsibility for just under $100m business across USA, EMEA and APAC and 450 employees.
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About : dotmailer Group provides digital marketing professionals with SaaS technology solutions and tools, and offers an email marketing platform.
Richard Kellet
Senior Independent Non Executive Director of dotmailer Group
Mr Richard Kellett-Clarke brings to the board over 25 years of management experience in the turn round and strategic repositioning and recovery of creative businesses in CMCG, media, electronics and software industries. He was a founder of AFX NEWS ltd, now part of Thomson Reuters, and Sealed Media, now owned by Oracle. He has held numerous CFO roles in subsidiaries of large PLC’s as well as the role of IT Director at Financial Times Information. He was part of the team as CFO which brought Picwick Group PLC to the main market and Brady Plc to AIM. He is currently the CEO of Idox Plc an AIM listed specialist software, solutions and KM consultancy business.
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About : dotmailer Group provides digital marketing professionals with SaaS technology solutions and tools, and offers an email marketing platform.
Guy Roberts
Non-Executive Director of Sensat
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About : SenSat simulates reality in real time, which helps computers solve real world problems.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
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About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
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About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Ken Lever
Non-Executive Director of Blue Prism
Ken is an ex-partner of Arthur Andersen and has held senior executive director roles in many listed, companies including Alfred McAlpine plc, Albright & Wilson plc and Tomkins plc. Ken was Chief Financial Officer of Numonyx in Switzerland from April 2008 to September 2010, and was Chief Executive Officer of Xchanging plc between 2011 and 2015. Ken currently is a Non-Executive Director of Vertu Motors plc, Gresham House Strategic plc, DAC Beachcroft and F.M. Insurance Company Limited. From 2007 to 2013 Ken was a member of the Accounting Council (formally the UK Accounting Standards Board) of the Financial Reporting Council. Ken is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
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About Blue Prism: Blue Prism is an intelligent robotic process automation company that develops a digital workforce for enterprises.
Chris Batterham
Non-Executive Director of Blue Prism
Chris Batterham qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen and has significant experience in the technology based business environment, including the flotation of Unipalm on the London Stock Exchange. Currently working on the boards of a number of companies including SDL plc Toumaz Ltd, Office 2 Office plc, Iomart plc and Eckoh plc as Chairman, Chris brings a wealth of experience in the strategic development of companies within the IT sector.
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About Arthur Andersen LLP, Blue Prism, Eckoh: Blue Prism is an intelligent robotic process automation company that develops a digital workforce for enterprises.
Kay Andrews
Executive Director of Agilisys
Kay is the Executive Director of Agilisys, and has more than two decades of global IT and Business Services experience. Kay was the former CEO of Agilisys and now holds the role on the Agilisys Board focused on expanding key client relationships and setting the direction for expansion and growth of the company. Her track record of achievement demonstrates her ability to combine sustainable business growth with effective customer management and service delivery. Prior to working at Agilisys, Kay spent 13 years at Perot Systems and 3 years as Executive Director for Local Government at Liberata. Kay holds a first class degree in Mathematics and an MBA.
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About Agilisys: Agilisys is an innovative IT and business software and services providers.
Alan Barrell
Non-Executive Director of Eagle Genomics
Alan Barrell has spent almost 30 years in senior executive positions in technology based industries and has become one of Cambridge’s most articulate promoters of entrepreneurship. He was a founder shareholder in Library House Ltd, and is now Entrepreneur in Residence at the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning and Visiting Professor of Enterprise at the University of Bedfordshire School of Graduate Business Studies. He is also Distinguished Guest Professor at Xiamen University, Visiting Professor at Shanghai College of Science and Technology and at the Fujian International School of Economics and Business, Fuzhou, all in China. He has taught at Tsinghua University Beijing and Minjiang University, Fuzhou City. Other appointments include Senior Enterprise Fellow, University of Essex, International Fellow, Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge, and International Fellow, Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki.
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About Cambridge Associates, Eagle Genomics: Eagle Genomics is a enterprise software solutions company to enable the management, orchestration and exploitation of life sciences data.
Mike Welling
Founder & Non-Executive Director of Camwood
Mike began his career in the IT industry in 1995 and currently serves as President & CEO of Rimo3, experts in complex data aggregation and business process management and is an Investor Director for Norskale, End User Management specialists and Fedr8, Cloud Migration Software Experts. Prior to this, Mike was CEO of AppDNA where he was responsible for all areas of the business, growing the company from a 2 person start-up to employing over 90 people & operating in 5 countries, selling in over 25 and eventually leading the sale of the business to Citrix in November 2011. Following the acquisition of AppDNA by Citrix, Mike served as General Manager & Vice President AppDNA at Citrix Systems, where he was responsible for the integration of AppDNA. Prior to AppDNA, Mike was founder and CEO of Camwood in 1999. Mike attended University of Brighton, UK where he studied business & finance and microprocessor and computer architecture.
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About Camwood, Fedr8: Camwood is an IT services business that specialises in application migration and portfolio management.
Tony Antoniou
Non Executive Director of Silicon Markets
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About Silicon Markets: Silicon Markets offers Forex and CFD tradings service to their clients.
Robert Kilgour
Non Executive Director of Storii
Robert is a Scottish serial entrepreneur, investor and property developer who was the founder of Four Seasons Health Care in 1988. He left in 2000 (when Four Seasons had 101 care homes and 6,500 staff) and later made his final financial exit from the company in 2005. Four Seasons is now the UK’s largest care home operator with nearly 400 care homes, some 20,000 beds and employing around 30,000 staff. He is founder and chief executive of Dow Investments, now celebrating its 27th year, the founder and now chairman of Scottish care home operator, Renaissance Care (which operators 12 homes and employs around 800 staff), co-founder and director of video and security systems specialists, NW Systems Group, and founder shareholder and director of Kingdom FM Radio. Robert holds several other
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About : Software for Senior Care
Nikolay Danilov
Non-Executive Director of Cambridge Nanotherm
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About Enso Ventures: Cambridge Nanotherm produces the industrys most efficient thermal management technology for LED applications and high powered electronics.
Kirill Mudryy
Non-Executive Director of Cambridge Nanotherm
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About : Cambridge Nanotherm produces the industrys most efficient thermal management technology for LED applications and high powered electronics.
Brian Baird
Non Executive Director of Replify
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About Replify: Replify offers a 100% virtualized software solution for WAN optimization and application acceleration.
Andrew Caruth
CTO and Executive Director of Replify
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About Replify: Replify offers a 100% virtualized software solution for WAN optimization and application acceleration.
Andrew Caruth
CTO and Executive Director of Replify
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About Replify: Replify offers a 100% virtualized software solution for WAN optimization and application acceleration.
Toby Fitzherbert
Non Executive Director of CIPHR
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About CIPHR: CIPHR is a privately held company and is a vendor of human capital management software.
Howard Sherman
Executive Director of MSCI
Howard Sherman is the Executive Director at MSCI.
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About MSCI: MSCI is a provider of investment decision support tools to investment institutions worldwide.
Pascal Baker
Non Executive Director of RPA Supervisor
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About RPA Supervisor: RPA Supervisor accelerate digital transformation by reducing cost and increasing insight and control of your business processes.
Gareth Williams
Founder & Non-Executive Director of YellowDog
Gareth hounds the YellowDog kennel, spearheading the vision to build a world where people do more, create more, discover more; unleashed from limited computing power. Following an MEng in Information Systems Engineering from the University of Durham, Gareth cut his canines working in software and telecoms at companies including Orange, Experian QAS, FREEDOM4 and Arieso, where he was part of the Management Team that completed the successful sale of the company to JDSU in March 2013 for $85m. One day he had a brilliant idea for using spare mobile capacity which, following a chat with someone in the animation department at the University of the West of England, gave birth to what is now YellowDog. When not coming up with brilliant ideas, he is a dad, a keen cyclist, an ardent reader, a Samaritans Listening Volunteer. He also likes ale and talking to anyone (usually together). You can email Gareth on gareth@yellowdog.co or phone +44 (0) 330 223 2499.
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About YellowDog: Helping businesses power their innovations with the most scalable cloud native scheduling and provisioning technology.
Andrew Dennis
Executive Director of Product Management, Andor Technology & Bitplane AG of Andor Technology
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About Andor Technology: Andor Technology (Andor) is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and operates at the high-value end of the global scientific digital camera.
Anjali Singh
Non Executive Director / Co-Founder of ODE.systems
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About ODE.systems: ODE App – objectified decision engine – supports people on their way to make better informed, transparent, and stress-free decisions.
Ian Buckley-Golder
Non-Executive Director of Oxsensis
Ian has extensive Board experience from UK, American and Japanese businesses, working in both the private and public sectors as well as in listed and earlier stage companies alike. With a portfolio of Chairmanships/Non-Executive Directorships, and working with companies specialising in electronics, sensors, software and materials, Ian brings with him an understanding of the opportunities and challenges of fast-growing companies.
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About Oxsensis, Syrinix: Oxsensis is a manufacturer of optical sensors for pressure, vibration, temperature, and multiple parameters.
Emma Priestley
Executive Director, Customer of Board Intelligence
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About Board Intelligence: Board Intelligence is a SaaS business with a mission to improve the quality of decision making in the boardroom
Mark Crocker
Executive Director of Madiston
Mark is an experienced General Manager in the software industry with a proven track record in opening offices, expanding internationally, turning around underperforming business units, raising investment capital, leading businesses through significant revenue growth/profitability, mergers/acquisitions and shareholder exits.
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About Madiston: Madiston offers a commercially available peer to peer/online lending software platform.
John Giles
Executive Director of Safeguard Global
John is an industry veteran with more than 40 years of experience in payroll outsourcing. After serving SafeGuard World as our original Chief Operating Officer, he continues to provide his expertise and guidance as Executive Director and Board Member. In this advisory capacity, he assists us in ensuring continued Service Excellence and Corporate Governance.
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About Safeguard Global: Safeguard Global is a provider of an innovative technology platform intended to efficiently manage payroll and outsourcing services.
Mark Lee
Non-Executive Director of onkho
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About : onkho helps accountants delight their clients and grow their business
Mike Pyrah
Non-Executive Director of Health2Works
Over 17 years as an NHS Chief Executive of a Mental Health Trust and PCT in West Midlands and Cheshire. Past President of the Healthcare People Management Association and Board member of NHS Employers Strong interest and commitment to Social Value in public services
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About Health2Works: Health2Works, an innovative software company.
Gill Stafford
Non-Executive Director of Health2Works
Strong background Marketing and Buying within blue chip companies Ex Non Executive Director within two NHS Trusts and Consumer Water Council of Water Currently a Governor of Warrington Care Homes, a registered charity, ensuring the highest levels of care for elderly residents
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About Health2Works: Health2Works, an innovative software company.
Kevan Davey
Non Executive Director of Mitigate Cyber
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About Mitigate Cyber: Mitigate Cyber offers a range of cybersecurity solutions ranging from threat mitigation to testing, training, and more.
Geri McMahon
Non-Executive Director of Mujo Mechanics
Geri McMahon Managing Director joined MUJO following eight years in investment banking to coordinate and drive the team to deliver the MUJO vision. Geri brings a focus on operational excellence, and a wealth of international business experience having worked with government institutions and corporates across EMEA, APAC and AMERICAS regions. Geri holds a combined Finance and Commerce degree with Chinese language from the University of Sydney and previously worked on the trading floors of both RBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Sydney and London.
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About Mujo Mechanics: Mujo Mechanics provides smart devices and intelligent cloud platform for a data-driven approach to musculoskeletal health.
Paddy Byrne
Non Executive Director of Target Group
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About Target Group: Target Group is a provider of business process outsourcing and software solutions.
Margaret Coughtrie
Non-Executive Director of Cognitive Geology
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About : A specialist software provider for the oil industry
Giles Daubeney
Non Executive Director of eTeam
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About eTeam: All in one development agency for custom software solutions
Alexis Twigg
Non-Executive Director of Tribepad
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About : Recruitment Software Specialists. Products include Applicant Tracking System (ATS), Onboarding, Video Interviewing and Contractor Management
David Terrar
Executive Director of ITBrix
David is the Founder and CXO of Agile Elephant, a digitial transformation consultancy and solutions provider. He also heads up D2C, a consulting firm which provides business and social media consulting and Cloud based solutions for content, collaboration, web publishing, online accounting and ERP. He is a director of EuroCloud UK, on the governance board of the Cloud Industry Forum, and Chaired techUK’s Software as a Service Group. This year he is one of the judges of the UK Cloud Awards. He is a regular speaker at digital, social business, social media and Cloud Computing events including keynoting at the CeBIT Social Business Arena in 2015, chairing London’s Cloud Computing World Forum in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and lecturing on digital at Henley Business School and INSEEC. Agile Elephant co-produces the London edition of the Enterprise Digital Summit London, and David organizes the Combined Social Business Sessions London (incorporating London Wiki Wednesdays), was one of the founders of CreativeCoffee Club and Amplified (the Network of Networks).
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About Agile Elephant, Bloor Research, Cloud Industry Forum, Cloud Industry Forum, EuroCloud, ITBrix: ITBrix’s WordFrame Community Platform covers blogging, wikis, RSS feed aggregation, document management and social networking, using
Howard Baker
Co-Founder and Non-Executive Director of Powerphotonic
Howard Baker received B.Sc.in Physics and Ph.D. in Laser Physics from Manchester University. Postdoctoral research at Manchester was on pulsed iodine photo-dissociation lasers. In 1980, he became a Lecturer in Applied Physics at Hull University, with research on mercury halide and TEA CO2 lasers and magnetic switching circuits for electrical pulse generation. In 1987, he became Senior Lecturer in Physics at Heriot-Watt University allowing research specialisation in both laser physics and laser engineering. He played a leading role in development of scalable lasers with RF discharge excitation, and CO2 planar waveguide and array lasers were pioneered. The work aided the establishment of a currently successful laser manufacturer in the UK. This expertise in the new CO2 laser technology led to applications research on laser drilling of circuit boards, machining of unfired LTCC ceramic laminations and precision micro-machining and polishing of silica optics. His main interest has been in high power diode lasers, used directly or as pump units for solid-state lasers. A novel diode pumping scheme led to world-leading performance from planar waveguide solid-state lasers. He devised a new technique for fabricating optics to correct the poor beam quality of diode laser bars, combining a novel wavefront measurement technique with custom laser micro-machining. He co-founded PowerPhotonic Ltd, aimed at commercialising this process. Current research continues on the use of laser direct-writing techniques in optics manufacture, and application of laser-cut optics in the general area of high average power industrial diode lasers. A new area is ceramic technology research on vacuum sintered, transparent laser materials for solid-state laser amplifiers and laser-machined LTTC ceramic substrate technology for diode laser packaging.
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About Heriot-Watt University, Powerphotonic: Powerphotonic designs and fabricates freeform refractive micro-optics for laser beam correction and beamforming.
Craig Whitney
Non Executive Director of Sceneit
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About CyberLaunch, Sceneit, Tech Connections: Sceneit is software that helps to plan, book tours, activities, travel and accommodation also to find filming locations all over the world.
Scott Davies
Non Executive Director of NEVER NO
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About NEVER NO: never, a Norway-based company, offers its users with social TV toolkit to create forms of engagement for live and pre-recorded programs.
Mark-Paul Buckingham
Non-Executive Director of Reactec
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About Reactec, Xi Engineering Consultants: Reactec is the market leader in monitoring and management support solutions for hand and arm vibration syndrome
Nathan Graves
Non-Executive Director of musicVault
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About musicVault, SoundVault Ltd: Creators of the musicVaultSidebar
Alastair Brown
Non Executive Director of Icon Solutions
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About Icon Solutions: An independent IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider serving financial institutions across the globe.
Jonathan Wright
Non Executive Director of Testing Circle Limted
One of the most experienced deal makers in the recruitment and staffing sector with over 20 transactions to his name – realising a total value in excess of £350M. Working as an advisor to the board to produce and execute strategic development plans leading to a value realisation event.
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About Hallam Medical Ltd, Testing Circle Limted: Testing Circle Limited, a software testing consultancy firm, offers services to mobile, finance, retail, media, and technology businesses.
Ron Goddard
Non-Executive Director of Netberg
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About Netberg: Netberg is a crowdfunded, revenue-generating startup that empowers small business to develop their online presence.
Franco Di Cicco
Non-Executive Director of Netberg
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About Netberg: Netberg is a crowdfunded, revenue-generating startup that empowers small business to develop their online presence.
Fabio Torlini
Non Executive Director of Netberg
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About Netberg: Netberg is a crowdfunded, revenue-generating startup that empowers small business to develop their online presence.
Fabio Torlini
Non Executive Director of Netberg
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About Netberg: Netberg is a crowdfunded, revenue-generating startup that empowers small business to develop their online presence.
Simon Devonshire
Non-Executive Director of Local Data Company
Passionate about the success of entrepreneurs he is the co-founder of several businesses – he is an active stakeholder in several ventures and an enthusiastic ambassador of the business community. Simon ran the SME division of O2 UK for five years , a £750m P&L – doubling the number of business customers in that time. Appointed to the position of Director Wayra Europe in 2012 – his dream job. He has previously worked on a diverse range of brands.
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About Coding Cupboard, Local Data Company, O2: Local Data Company is the UK’s most accurate retail and leisure location data business.
Richard Mill
Non-Executive Director of Corporate Modelling
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About Corporate Modelling: Corporate Modelling develops transformative software to address critical business operations efficiency issues.
Garry Veale
Non Executive Director of 123friday
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About : 123friday backs up photos, videos, and contacts from their clients’ Android and iOS mobile devices.
