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 Automotive 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.
Lawrence Hall
Group Communications Director of Cazoo
Lawrence Hall is the Group Communications Director at Cazoo.
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About Cazoo: Cazoo is an online used car marketplace designed to transform the way people buy, finance, or rent used cars.
Raphaël Vergnaud
Senior Sales Director of Zendrive
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About Anatole, Zendrive: Zendrive leverages mobile sensor data to provide actionable insights that improve safety for passengers and drivers worldwide.
Mandy Dean
Director Commercial Vehicles Ford of Britain and Ireland of Ford Motor
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About Ford Motor: Ford Motor is an automotive company that develops, manufactures, and distributes vehicles, parts, and accessories.
Eman Martin-Vignerte
Director of Bosch
Eman Martin-Vignerte was born in Qatar and studied Electrical Engineering in Paderborn/Germany at the “Paderborn University” and Medical Equipment Engineering at the university in Ulm/Germany. She joined Bosch in 1999 as SW engineer to work for common rail diesel engine, where she developed SW and HW for the Electronic Diesel Control (EDC) during the first 4 years. In 2004, she moved on to the automotive division responsible for Hyundai customer to become a team leader for the change management activities. Three years later she took on responsibility for business development for Healthcare Telemedicine in the UK. From 2013, she is the Head of Political Affairs and Government Relation. Eman is also responsible for Bosch’s Smart City activities in the UK.
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About Bosch: The Bosch Group is a global supplier of technology and services.
Mark Cooper
Vice President and Managing Director, Avery Europe and Asia Pacific of CCL Industries
Mark Cooper is a Vice President and Managing Director, Avery Europe and Asia Pacific at CCL Industries.
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About Avery, CCL Industries: CCL is the largest label company in the world and provides innovative solutions.
Jamie Robinson
Vice President and Managing Director, Home & Personal Care Europe of CCL Industries
Jamie Robinson is a Vice President and Managing Director, Home & Personal Care Europe at CCL Industries.
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About CCL Industries: CCL is the largest label company in the world and provides innovative solutions.
Helen Alexander
Non-executive Director of Rolls-Royce
Dame Helen Alexander joined the Board as Deputy Chairman in December 2011. Dame Helen chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Nomination Committee. Dame Helen is chairman of UBM plc, the Port of London Authority and Incisive Media, and a non-executive director and chair of the remuneration committee at Rolls-Royce Group plc. Dame Helen is a senior adviser to Bain Capital and Chancellor of the University of Southampton. Dame Helen served as president of the CBI until June 2011. Dame Helen Alexander joined The Economist as Marketing Manager in 1985 after studying at INSEAD for an MBA and completing various roles with Faber and Faber and with Gerald Duckworth & Co. She became Managing Director of the Economist Intelligence Unit in 1993 and in 1997 became Chief Executive of the Economist Group, a position she held until 2008, having joined the company in 1985. Dame Helen was President of the CBI from 2009 to 2011. Dame Helen is also currently involved with not-for-profit organisations in media, the internet, the arts and education, through the trustees at Thomson-Reuters, the WorldWide Web Foundation, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Said Business School in Oxford and St Paul’s Girls’ School. Dame Helen was awarded a CBE for services to publishing in 2004 and in June 2011 was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her services to business. She has an MBA from INSEAD.
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About BT, Centrica, Esure, Northern Foods, Rolls-Royce, UBM Plc: Rolls-Royce is an industrial technology company that provides integrated power and propulsion solutions.
Ian Mellor
Managing Director of Metalysis
Ian joined Metalysis in September 2004. Prior to this Ian was a Project Manager at Morgan Fuel Cell, a subsidiary of the Morgan Crucible Company plc Ian has a background in physical chemistry, he has over ten years industrial experience leading teams, developing new products and commercialising technologies, primarily in the alternative energy and metals industries. Since joining Metalysis, Ian has developed and led the Technology team to improve the chemistry and morphology of the products, primarily for tantalum and titanium. He has also provided support to the Engineering team for the scale-up of the process. Ian was awarded a PhD in Heterogeneous Catalysis from the Nottingham Trent University.
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About Metalysis: Metalysis, a manufacturer of metals and alloys, offers both economic and environmental benefits over traditional metal production methods.
Gill Howard
Commercial Director of Pod Point
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About Pod Point: We’re building the infrastructure needed for the mass adoption of electric vehicles in the UK & Europe.
Rob Walden
Director Of Operations of Pod Point
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About Pod Point: We’re building the infrastructure needed for the mass adoption of electric vehicles in the UK & Europe.
Alex Buttle
Co-Founder, Marketing Director of Motorway
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About Motorway: Motorway is an online used-car marketplace for professional car dealers that sells their cars using their smartphones.
Alexandra Margolis
Co-Founder/Creative Director of Carwow
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About Carwow: Carwow is a company that helps efficiently connect car buyers to car dealers.
John Miele
Sales Director of Carwow
John’s has an MSc in Astrophysics, which proves handy on a daily basis. Besides managing all of our dealers, you’ll often find him down the pub (or on TV!) winning the pub quiz, collecting an obscene number of Pool trophies, or strumming his guitar for a captive audience. He and his wife have a new mini-Miele who keeps them up all hours of the night.
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About Carwow: Carwow is a company that helps efficiently connect car buyers to car dealers.
Enrique Munoz de Cote
Director of MAS Science of Secondmind
Enrique is an associate professor of computer science with more than 50 academic papers published in top-tier journals and conferences in AI, including a book on multi agent learning. His interests lie in the intersection between machine learning, AI and economic theory. He has studied in Mexico, the USA, Italy and the UK and speaks three languages. He is responsible for heading the multi-agent team. He is a mélomane and terrible guitar player who grew up listening to rock. He is not wholly convinced that combing his curly hair is the way to go.
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About Geckomatics, Geckomatics, Secondmind: Machine learning for automotive innovators
James Hensman
Director of Research of Secondmind
James is a senior machine learning scientist with more than fifty peer-reviewed publications. Having worked at multiple universities he now lives in Ely with his family. He leads the company’s research in the area of probabilistic models. James loves the great British summer, and will happily barbecue in the rain. He is a terrible beer snob.
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About Secondmind: Machine learning for automotive innovators
Erkko Uusitalo
Director, AI for Finance of Secondmind
Erkko is a financial markets expert with 20 years experience in trading & fund management. He is from Finland and that is where he mostly works from. He brings practical knowledge to the financial domain. He claims to remember pi to the 1.000th decimal – he just does not know what to do with that information!
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About Secondmind: Machine learning for automotive innovators
Jamie Crowther
Director of Operations of Marshall Motor Holdings
Jamie has 28 years of industry experience, including 17 as operations director at Reg Vardy and eight as the managing director and commercial director at Peter Vardy. Jamie joined the Company in 2014.
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About Marshall Motor Holdings: MMH PLC one of the UK’s leading Motor Groups with 71 franchises covering the United Kingdom and delivering the whole range of premium.
Iain Jawad
Director Strategic Partnerships of Frost & Sullivan
Iain Jawad Director of Strategic Partnerships at Frost & Sullivan, a global growth partnership company.
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About Frost & Sullivan: Frost and Sullivan is a business growth consultation company focused on increasing brand demand.
Kevin Keegan
Board of Directors of CarLabs
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About : CarLabs is a new startup developing conversational “bots” to guide users through car shopping.
Lewis Mutton
Managing Director of SHUFA
Lewis Mutton, 24 is the Founder of SHUFA LTD, a UK based technology firm.
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About SHUFA: Revolutionary Automotive Retail Software
Carl Lightfoot
Director and CTO of MotorDocs
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About CarVue, MotorDocs: MotorDocs provides digital document management software products and solutions for the automotive industry.
Sheeraz Ahmed
Operations Director of ONLICAR
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About ONLICAR: They use Formula1 techniques to deliver scalable solutions that create actionable value for our customers.
Ian Monaghan
Development Director of rtobjects
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About rtobjects: “World Streaming” — delivering rich interactive visuals to everyone everywhere.
Neil Hutchinson
Technical Director of rtobjects
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About rtobjects: “World Streaming” — delivering rich interactive visuals to everyone everywhere.
James Colgate
Director – Planning & Group Strategy – Williams Martini Racing of Williams Grand Prix Engineering
James Colgate is the Director of Planning and Group Strategy for Williams Martini Racing at Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited since July 2013. James has worked at Williams for the last 3 years and is currently responsible for the development, communication and maintenance of the business strategy, in conjunction with the senior management team, across the Williams Group of companies. In addition he is responsible for the engineering programme management of specific motorsport and industrial projects conducted by the Group. In the past James has worked within Williams Advanced Engineering, the commercial diversified business arm of Williams, identifying and developing relationships with clients to deliver technical and operational consulting projects. James was also the project manager on a specialist motorsport project for an automotive OEM covering operational delivery of design and manufactured parts as well as commercial management. Previously to joining Williams James worked for a global management consultancy OC&C Strategy Consultants, providing advisory services across the technology, industrial and FMCG sectors. James has a Masters in Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering from University of Cambridge (UK) and operational improvement consulting experience in variety of engineering and technology sectors delivering commercial, operational, strategic planning and business improvement advisory services as a management consultant.
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About Williams Grand Prix Engineering: Williams Advanced Engineering is the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group.
Jonathan Shine
Global Business Development Director of Spark EV Technology
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About Spark EV Technology: Spark develops and supplies personalised journey prediction and map display software products for electric vehicles.
Dominic Moran
Commercial Director of Zenith
Dominic leads Zenith’s corporate commercial function. With over 20 years’ experience in the leasing industry, he has driven many strategic projects and managed the relationships with some of our biggest corporate accounts.
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Max Turner
Customer Service Director of Zenith
Max leads Zenith’s Account Management teams across our three sites and is responsible for the delivery of our award-winning Customer Experience. Passionate for the delivery of exceptional customer service and tirelessly placing the voice of the customer at the heart of everything we do.
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Andrew Wolff
Group Sales Director of Zenith
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Rob Butler
Finance Director of Zenith
Rob develops and delivers financial plans that are aligned to Zenith’s strategy to help us achieve our business objectives. He is motivated by seeing his team make a difference and have a genuine impact on business results. His team also deliver projects that create real value and improve service to our customers.
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Mark Connor
Operations Director of Zenith
Mark manages Zenith’s extensive operations offering and ensures that his team delivers maximum value through all in-life driver touch points. He is constantly looking to improve the customer experience for our drivers through innovation and successful management of both our in-house processes and our dedicated supply chain. Mark is motivated by getting things right and seeing his team add value to the overall Zenith proposition by finding new ways of doing things and keeping ahead of the competition.
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Robert Kingdom
Director of white label solutions of Zenith
Robert is responsible for developing Zenith’s white label proposition. He works with financial services and vehicle manufacturer brands to provide a full service leasing and fleet management solution. His team provides a cost-effective way for partners to add leasing products to their portfolio under their own brand, with the benefit of Zenith’s award-winning people, processes and systems.
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About Zenith: Zenith is an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business.
Jeff Pratt
Managing Director of UK Battery Industrialisation Centre
Jeff Pratt is the managing director of UK Battery Industrialisation Centre.
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About UK Battery Industrialisation Centre: UKBIC is transforming battery R&D and development for the automotive sector.
Dan Cleaves
Managing Director of Dealerweb
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About Dealerweb: Dealerweb is a cloud-based inquiry management systems that support retailers and manufacturers.
Alan Williamson
Associate Director, Channel Partners of Baltic Exchange
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About Baltic Exchange: The Baltic Exchange is the provider of information on maritime transportation markets.
James Batchelor
Managing Director, Automotive Division of Intelligent Energy
James Batchelor was appointed Managing Director, Automotive Division in October 2011. James brings a wealth of experience, including engineering leadership, business development, sales, technology licensing and partnership-forming responsibilities with large OEMs and their tier-one suppliers. James joins from Torotrak plc, a clean-technology development and IP licensing business, where he was responsible for the commercialisation of its innovative transmission systems across a number of global markets and applications. He has previously held senior engineering, commercial and business development positions at Land Rover, BMW AG and Trafficmaster plc, where he was responsible for its European subsidiary. As Managing Director, Automotive Division at Intelligent Energy James is responsible for expanding the company’s automotive business globally, building upon successful relationships such as its ongoing partnership with the Suzuki Motor Corporation.
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About Intelligent Energy: Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company offering fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies.
Peter Brown
Managing Director, Distributed Power & Generation Division of Intelligent Energy
Peter joined from Turbo Power System where he was Chief Executive. Turbo Power System manufactures high performance electric motors and generators, drives and power electronics. Prior to that, Peter’s experience spanned a number of roles in Customer Sales and Finance in Rolls-Royce’s Energy business, Vickers Specialist Engines and Vickers Defence Systems, culminating in the position of Executive Vice President for Customer Business for Rolls-Royce Energy.
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About Avnera, Intelligent Energy: Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company offering fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies.
Dave Vout
Director of Bike HUD
Dave Vout is a Founder & CEO at Bike HUD.
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About Bike HUD: Heads-up display for motorcycles – making riding safer and more fun.
David Roche
Technical Director of Penso Consulting
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About Penso Consulting: Penso Consulting is a manufacturing specialist that provides a complete turnkey engineering service to customers across the globe.
Daniel Hurcombe
Managing Director of Penso Consulting
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About Penso Consulting: Penso Consulting is a manufacturing specialist that provides a complete turnkey engineering service to customers across the globe.
Andrew Davies
Group Finance Director of Penso Consulting
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About Penso Consulting: Penso Consulting is a manufacturing specialist that provides a complete turnkey engineering service to customers across the globe.
Jevon Thurstom-Thorpe
Operation Director of Penso Consulting
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About Penso Consulting: Penso Consulting is a manufacturing specialist that provides a complete turnkey engineering service to customers across the globe.
Jevon Thurstom-Thorpe
Operation Director of Penso Consulting
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About Penso Consulting: Penso Consulting is a manufacturing specialist that provides a complete turnkey engineering service to customers across the globe.
Eric Oakley
Group Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director of Haynes Group
Eric Oakley is Group Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director at Haynes.
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About Haynes Group: Haynes Group Provides online sales of car manuals and automotive related sites.
Jeremy Round
Managing Director of UK & Europe & Executive Director of Haynes Group
Jeremy Yates-Round is Managing Director of UK & Europe & Executive Director at Haynes.
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About Haynes Group: Haynes Group Provides online sales of car manuals and automotive related sites.
Fauzan Adziman
Founder and Director of OxMet Technologies
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About OxMet Technologies: OxMet Technologies develops, licenses, and manufactures proprietary alloys, alloy powders and alloy components.
Enrique Alabort Martinez
Co-Founder and Programme Director of OxMet Technologies
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About OxMet Technologies: OxMet Technologies develops, licenses, and manufactures proprietary alloys, alloy powders and alloy components.
Simon Pickess
Commercial Director of G-volution
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About G-volution: G-volution provides Multi-Fuel technology, which enables engines to simultaneously combust diesel with gas and other fuels.
Duncan Billson
Director of Warwick Acoustics Ltd
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About University of Warwick, Warwick Acoustics Ltd: Warwick Acoustics specializes in the development of audio solutions for automotive and headphone markets based on its HPEL technology.
Jeremy Levine
Group Executive Director of Evolution Funding
Jeremy Levine is the group executive director at Evolution Funding. He is a former area manager at the First National Motor Finance.
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About Evolution Funding: Evolution Funding provides motor finance and technology solution for dealers to generate leads, improve compliance, and sell more vehicles.
David Barnes
Managing Director of Adi
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About Adi, Worldview Learning: Adi is an engineering company that provides automation, waste systems, automotive, electrical and installation services for various sectors.
Martin Orme
Co-founder & Director of GreenRide Sharing Limited
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About GreenRide Sharing Limited: GreenRide is a UK based startup developing a ride sharing mobile application within the sharing economy.
Ya Sun
Co-founder & Director of GreenRide Sharing Limited
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About GreenRide Sharing Limited: GreenRide is a UK based startup developing a ride sharing mobile application within the sharing economy.
John Leung
Senior Sales Exec / Account Director of ebb3
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About Delio, ebb3: ebb3’s technology replaces the need for Workstations, it leverages modern Supercomputer Technology to deliver.
Nigel Minett
Managing Director of McLarens Aviation
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About McLarens Aviation: McLarens Aviation is a privately held company that operates as a provider of claims, risk, and asset management services.
John Bayley
Regional Director Europe and Russia of McLarens Aviation
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About McLarens Aviation: McLarens Aviation is a privately held company that operates as a provider of claims, risk, and asset management services.
Trehane Oliver
Managing Director of McLarens Aviation
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About McLarens Aviation: McLarens Aviation is a privately held company that operates as a provider of claims, risk, and asset management services.
Keith Johnston
Co-founder and Director of Urban Electric Networks
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About Urban Electric Networks: We’re building low impact charging infrastructure needed for the mass adoption of electric vehicles in cities and towns across the world.
Julie Boyd
Founder & Managing Director of TR Fleet Limited
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About TR Fleet Limited: TR Fleet is a fleet management specialist offering consultancy, policy advice, and supply chain management services.
Ryan Dignan
Director of Zuto
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About Zuto: Zuto is a team of car buying experts that offers one-on-one service, vehicle history checks, and free vehicle valuation checks.
Ryan Maughan
Managing Director of Avid Technology Group
Ryan founded the AVID Technology Group back in 2004 and has led its growth and development ever since. As well as being an award-winning entrepreneur, he is an Engineer by background with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UMIST and an MSc in Engineering from the University of Durham. Ryan worked in the motor racing industry in his formative years learning about high performance engineering and developing a unique blend of hands on practical skills with high-level engineering expertise. After a few years of working in a high precision machining business, AVID was born with the mission from the outset to develop new technology that will reduce emissions and fuel consumption of vehicles through improved control.
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About Avid Technology Group: AVID is a leader in the design and manufacturing of smart electrified ancillary and advanced thermal management systems.
Marek Reichman
Design Director of Aston Martin
Marek joined Aston Martin in 2005 as Director of Design from Ford North America where he held the position of Director of Design for Product, Interior Design Strategy and Process. Since then, he has been strengthening Aston Martin’s iconic styling.
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About Aston Martin: Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings manufacture luxury sports cars and grand tourers independently.
Marek Reichman
Design Director of Aston Martin
Marek joined Aston Martin in 2005 as Director of Design from Ford North America where he held the position of Director of Design for Product, Interior Design Strategy and Process. Since then, he has been strengthening Aston Martin’s iconic styling.
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About Aston Martin: Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings manufacture luxury sports cars and grand tourers independently.
Matthew Avery
Director of Research of Thatcham Research
Matthew Avery is Director of Research at Thatcham Research. His current role involves liaison with Insurers, vehicle manufacturers, legislators and global NCAP initiatives in all aspects of crash testing, with a view to encouraging safer designs and more cost effective vehicle repair.
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About Thatcham Research: Thatcham Research is the motor insurance automotive research center.
Rob Skidmore
Chief Product Director and Co-Founder of CarVue
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About CarVue: CarVue is simple but smart automotive management software in the cloud.
Neil Thomas
Director of Investigative Services of AX-UK
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About AX-UK: AX-UK is accident aftercare and innovation services for the Automotive and Insurance Industries and their customers.
Neil Hodson
Non Executive Director of GardX International
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About GardX International: GardX provides solutions to automotive manufacturers and automotive dealer groups worldwide.
Oliver Morgan
Founder & Managing Director of Universal Fuels
Oliver Morgan is a Founder & Managing Director at Universal Fuels.
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About Universal Fuels: Universal Fuels supplies heating oil, gas oil, marine gas oil, kerosene, DERV, diesel, and red diesel in the U.K.
Oliver Morgan
Founder & Managing Director of Universal Fuels
Oliver Morgan is a Founder & Managing Director at Universal Fuels.
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About Universal Fuels: Universal Fuels supplies heating oil, gas oil, marine gas oil, kerosene, DERV, diesel, and red diesel in the U.K.
Mark Packman
Director of Productiv Delivery Ltd
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About Productiv Delivery Ltd: Productiv Delivery is a nationwide bespoke delivery service.
Will Hirons
Director of Productiv Delivery Ltd
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About Productiv Delivery Ltd: Productiv Delivery is a nationwide bespoke delivery service.
Ian Byrne
Account Director of Productiv Delivery Ltd
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About Productiv Delivery Ltd: Productiv Delivery is a nationwide bespoke delivery service.
Wayne Shilito
Director of Productiv Delivery Ltd
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About Productiv Delivery Ltd: Productiv Delivery is a nationwide bespoke delivery service.
