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 Vice President operating in the Human Resources space. If you think a Vice President 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.
Robert Symons
Regional Vice President, UK and Northern Europe of SmartRecruiters
Robert Symons is an HCM cloud software evangelist and passionate about helping companies transform the way they engage, hire and retain top talent. Robert has 22 years’ experience within the recruiting marketplace. He previously spent 9 years scaling an HCM software business from 11 employees to over 700 employees as part of their senior leadership team. Robert joined SmartRecruiters in 2016 as the first sales and marketing hire in Europe with responsibility for UK/Northern Europe.
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About SmartRecruiters: SmartRecruiters is an end-to-end recruiting platform that helps companies with talent acquisition.
Colin Cooper
Sage People Vice President & Founder of Sage Group
Colin Cooper serves as sage people vice president and founder at The Sage Group.
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About Sage Group: Sage Group provides small and medium sized company business management software and services.
Liam Waite
Vice President UK of Talentful
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About Talentful: Talentful specialises in helping companies to elevate their talent acquisition strategy.
Marcus Sawyerr
Global Head of Digital & Innovation / Senior Vice President of The Adecco Group
Marcus Sawyerr, global head of digital & innovation at The Adecco Group.
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About The Adecco Group: The Adecco Group is a provider of talent solutions and staffing services to automakers and aerospace companies.
Sheila Sheldon
Senior Vice President of EMEA of Michael C. Fina Recognition
Sheila Sheldon serves as Senior Vice President of EMEA for Michael C. Fina. She is responsible for overseeing operations at the UK headquarters in Wokingham, England, as well as operational management for all regions outside North and South America. In her role, she ensures best practice applications of our services worldwide that reflect consistent, appropriate, and efficient employee recognition programs to Michael C. Fina’s multinational customers. Sheila joined Michael C. Fina in 2005 when the company purchased her employer, Longservice.com. She began with Longservice.com in 1990 and has held several positions, starting as a part-time Sales Associate and Account Manager, and later serving as Office Manager and Operations Director. With an extensive background in HR, her previous experience includes tenure as an HR Generalist for British Airways, as well as work in the Telecommunications industry. She began her career with an engineering company, where she met her husband. Sheila was born in Taplow and educated at St. Bernard’s Convent School. She attained her degree in Business from Thames Valley University. Married with two daughters, Rebecca and Laura, Sheila has a passion for good food and enjoys cooking and entertaining with family and friends. She dreams of someday owning a “Michelin Star” restaurant.
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About HALO Recognition, Michael C. Fina Recognition: Michael C. Fina Recognition is a third-generation leader in the recognition and incentives industry.
Chris Wakely
Executive Vice President, Global Enterprise of Benify
Chris Wakely has been working in global benefits technology for the last 15 years. He has seen the changes taking place both in insurance provision and the increasing importance of the employee experience. He is based out of the Benify London office.
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About Benify: Benefits Management and Total Rewards platform – SaaS
Betsy Kendall
Vice President of Programmes, Delivery & Content of OPP Ltd
Betsy has responsibility for OPP’s Consultancy and Learning business and has global responsibility for programme development for the CPP Group. She has worked in OPP since its foundation in 1989, and in that time she has led almost every function within the company. Betsy was responsible for setting up OPP’s qualifying training division, and was pivotally involved in designing and developing qualifications workshops for MBTI® Step I, Step II, FIRO® and CPI 260®. For many years she ran the majority of OPP’s training events. She led the Research and Development team that created the 11 European language versions of the MBTI Step I, and she oversaw the development and standardisation of the European versions of MBTI Step I, FIRO-B and CPI. She is the author of the European MBTI Step I Manual Supplement and co-author of the FIRO-B User’s Guide and MBTI and Culture. Betsy has worked around the world, particularly in Europe and the USA, running leadership development interventions, team development processes and assessment centres. She also regularly speaks at national and international conferences on on mid-life development and culture. Betsy is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
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About OPP Ltd: OPP Ltd is one of Europe’s top business psychology product and services providers.
