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 Associate operating in the Retail space. If you think a Associate 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.
Mark Evans
Founding Partner and Associate of Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
Mark is currently an LP and Investment Committee member at Kindred Capital, a European Seed-Stage Venture fund, based in London. He was a General Partner at Balderton Capital/ Benchmark Europe from 2002 through 2015, and an EIR at Benchmark Capital in 1999/2000. He spent the prior 15 years @ Goldman Sachs, where he was a General Partner and Management Committee member. He studied Economics at both University of Oxford and Queen’s University in Canada.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Headspace, Kindred Capital: Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a no-fee/no-equity mentoring program for the founders and executives of pre-seed stage ventures.
Niklas Zennström
Founding Partner and Associate of Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
Niklas Zennström is CEO and Founding Partner at Atomico. He works daily with founders and sits on the boards of Farmdrop, Lilium, Pipedrive, Oden Technologies and Varjo. Niklas is an experienced technology investor and entrepreneur, having previously co-founded and managed globally successful technology companies including Skype, Kazaa and Joltid. Niklas founded Atomico in 2006. He is passionate about partnering about founders solving big challenges facing their planet with digital technology. In 2007, he co-founded Zennström Philanthropies with his wife, Catherine. They focus their efforts in two areas: human rights and the environment. Niklas also founded the Race for the Baltic, a foundation for a well-managed and sustainable Baltic Sea, one of the most threatened major bodies of water in the world. Niklas is a keen yachtsman and has won four World Championships with his yacht racing team, Rán. Niklas holds dual degrees in Business and MSc Engineering Physics/Computer Science from Uppsala University in Sweden, and he spent his final year at the University of Michigan.
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About Atomico, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Joost: Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a no-fee/no-equity mentoring program for the founders and executives of pre-seed stage ventures.
Peter Davies
Founding Partner and Associate of Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
Peter is the founder of Verv. A serial entrepreneur with an engineering background, Peter also founded Austin Consultants, the UK’s highest certified LabVIEW Consultancy specialising in automated test, measurement and control systems for aerospace and automotive industries. Co-founder of the European Workshop for NILM technology and organiser of the London LabVIEW user group, Peter was also a finalist for the Rising Star Award in the Energy Innovation Awards in 2014 and then went on to win Innovator of the Year at the 2016 Business Green Technology Awards.
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About Austin Consultants, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), European NILM Workshop (Non-Intrusive-Load-Monitoring): Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a no-fee/no-equity mentoring program for the founders and executives of pre-seed stage ventures.
Robin Klein
Founding Partner and Associate of Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
Robin Klein is the Non – Executive Chairman of MOO Print Ltd. He is also a Venture Partner at Index Ventures. Robin joined the London office of Index Ventures in April 2010 as a Venture Partner. He is a founding partner of The Accelerator Group, a seed investment company specialising in e-commerce, digital media and Internet services. He is currently Chairman of Quickbridge (Wonga), Moo Print Ltd, MyBuilder. He sits on the Boards of EDITD, Farfetch, FreeAgent, OneFineStay, Skimlinks, Zoopla. Robin is a governor of Rhyl primary school. He is also a past Chairman of Great Ormond Street hospital’s funding company. Robin has 25 years of operating experience, 20 years of which as entrepreneur and 14 years of investing experience and he has been on the boards of three publicly quoted companies. In his last operating role as Chairman and CEO of Innovations, he conducted the very first UK ecommerce transaction in May 1995. Since starting his investment career in earnest in 1998 by co-founding The Accelerator Group (TAG) with his son, Saul, they have made over sixty investments. Robin is passionate about helping to build the European technology start-up ecosystem and actively supports Saul in the promotion of Seedcamp and OpenCoffee. He has a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering. An MSc in Industrial Engineering.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Latitude, LocalGlobe, Moneysupermarket, PrimeLocation.com, The Accelerator Group, The Digital Property Group: Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a no-fee/no-equity mentoring program for the founders and executives of pre-seed stage ventures.
Adam Hale
Associate – Oxford Said of Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
Adam Hale became Fairsail CEO in 2014, having previously acted as Executive Chairman and Non-Executive Director. Fairsail enables mid-size, multinational companies to manage modern workforces through its global cloud HRMS, transforming how organisations acquire, engage, manage and develop their people. In two years, Fairsail has grown by 450% and quadrupled the team. Adam’s expertise has been shaped with over 30 years in the Technology industry as Head of Software and European Technology at Russell Reynolds Associates, the leading executive search firm, and previously a decade running large system implementation projects at Accenture.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL): Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a no-fee/no-equity mentoring program for the founders and executives of pre-seed stage ventures.
Nicola Blackwood
Associate of Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
Nicola Blackwood is the Chairman Of The Board at Genomics England.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL): Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a no-fee/no-equity mentoring program for the founders and executives of pre-seed stage ventures.
Kushal Banerjee
Associate of Lion Capital
Kushal Banerjee is an Associate of Lion Capital. Prior to joining Lion Capital, Kushal was employed by Manchester United where he focused on capital structure projects. Prior to this, he was employed by Merrill Lynch in London working in the U.K. investment banking team. Kushal received his BA and MA from Oxford University, his MBA from INSEAD and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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About Lion Capital: Lion Capital is a consumer-focused investor passionate about investing in brands about which people are passionate.
Rebecca Kalra
National Communications Manager, Associate Director of Avison Young
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About Avison Young: Avison Young is a retail company that specializes in making full use of our agency, investment and lease advisory skills.
