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 Edinburgh based Director operating in the Financial Services 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.
Mark Hunter
Director Of Analytics of Wise
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About Wise: Wise is a money transfer service allowing private individuals and businesses to send money abroad without hidden charges.
Pauline Cassie
Investor Relations Director of Par Equity
Pauline Cassie is the Investor Relations Director at Par Equity.
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About Par Equity: Par Equity is a leading, early-stage venture capital firm, investing in innovative, high growth technology companies.
Colin Bennett
Investment Director, Scotland of LDC
Colin graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA (Hons) degree in Accounting and Finance, joining Bank of Scotland through its graduate program in 2000. Over a 10 year period Colin undertook a variety of debt and equity roles across the UK and Continental Europe. More recently Colin has played a leading role in delivering the wind down of LBG’s non-core equity portfolio, consisting of c£20bn of assets across 180 investments. Colin joined LDC in February 2013.
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About LDC: LDC is a private equity company which provides funds for buyouts and development capital transactions in UK unquoted companies.
Alan Robertson
Investment Director of Maven Capital Partners
Based in our Edinburgh office, Alan is an Investment Director responsible for new private equity transactions in Scotland. Alan joined Maven in July 2012 from Quayle Munro, where he helped establish a Debt Advisory and Corporate Finance business in Scotland. Prior to this Alan spent seven years with RBS predominately working in the Aberdeen Structured Finance team financing mid-market private equity transactions. He latterly had responsibility for a portfolio of large corporate and leveraged clients. Alan holds an Honours degree in Accountancy from the University of Glasgow and is a Chartered Accountant – qualifying through the TOPPS scheme during his time with RBS.
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About Maven Capital Partners, Symphonic: Maven Capital Partners is a private equity firm that provides a range of funding options to SMEs and investment opportunities.
Mark Curran
Director of Payments and Open Banking of Virgin Money
Mark’s career spans 30 years in Product, Payment and Client facing roles within RBS, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds and is currently Director of Payments and Open Banking for CYBG. Mark has built core knowledge across the Payments landscape and plays a leading role in defining the strategic Payments direction for the Group. Marks current role is diverse with responsibilities spanning Risk, Regulation, Resilience, IT, Operations and a wider industry lens. Mark chaired the UK Industry wide programme to deliver a UK wide Customer Switching Service (across 17 Financial Institutions and 37 Banking brands) culminating in the successful launch in September 2013. Mark is currently Chair of the UK wide Future Cheque Programme to digitize cheques in the UK and is a Director of the UK Faster Payments Scheme Board. Mark has played a key role in definition of PSD2 and Open Banking initially at LLoyds Banking Group and now as Director of payments and. Open Banking a CYBG. Mark is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (Scotland) and is involved in the School for Social Entrepreneurs.
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About Virgin Money: Virgin Money is a independent banking group.
Andrew Barrie
Founder and Executive Director of Barrie & Hibbert
Andrew was appointed to the Board and as Chair of Cornelian in 2015. He founded and led Barrie & Hibbert, a global leader in risk management products and services for the insurance, pensions and asset management industries. By the time of its sale to Moody’s in 2012, Barrie & Hibbert employed more than 100 staff and had offices in London, Hong Kong and New York. Prior to this, Andrew led several premier-rated teams in investment management, broking and banking. He now also chairs a youth project in North Edinburgh and has founded social enterprises to encourage youth employment.
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About Barrie & Hibbert: Barrie & Hibbert helps clients understand how the uncertainty of financial markets can impact their business.
Derek Gordon
Cyber Security Director of PwC
Derek heads up the Identity and Access Management business at PwC UK. Derek holds over 20 years experience in IT Security across multiple business sectors including financial services, technology, retail, health and public sector. Derek joined PwC in Jan 2016, through the acquisition of Praxism, an Identity and Access Management Solution provider. As Praxism’s founder and CTO, Derek led many large enterprise Identity Management and Access Governance projects for major muiti-national Clients across Europe and Africa. Previous roles include working as an IAM Senior Solutions Architect for Novell, leading the EMEA architecture practice and interfacing with product management, as well as other Consultancy roles with other system integrator’s in the UK.
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About Praxism, PwC: PricewaterhouseCoopers is an accounting firm that provides tax, HR, transactions, performance improvement, and crisis management services.
Ian Gray
Director of 24 Haymarket
Ian is a former partner of Candover, prior to which he was a managing director at the Bank of Scotland. His investment experience spans multiple industry sectors.
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About 24 Haymarket: 24 Haymarket is an investment network of highly experienced investors and senior operators.
Mickael Paris
Marketing Director of FinTech Scotland
Mickael has worked for both start-ups and FTSE100 companies including Maxymiser, Skyscanner and more recently Standard Life where was heading up the digital marketing team for the customer channel. He joined FinTech Scotland on January 2018 to help the Scottish fintech community raise its profile locally and globally. In 2015 he was featured in the BIMA100 list of marketing influencers as well as the 2016 Marketing Magazine NextGen Power 100.
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About FinTech Scotland: FinTech Scotland’s mission is to develop a vibrant fintech eco-system in Scotland through innovation, collaboration and inclusion.
Michael Allan
Director of Operations of LendingCrowd
Michael Allan serves as director of operations at LendingCrowd.
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About LendingCrowd: LendingCrowd is a fintech lending platform serving mainland UK.
Scott Gray
Finance Director of LendingCrowd
Scott Gray serves as finance director at LendingCrowd.
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About LendingCrowd: LendingCrowd is a fintech lending platform serving mainland UK.
Michael Allan
Director of Operations of LendingCrowd
Michael Allan serves as director of operations at LendingCrowd.
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About LendingCrowd: LendingCrowd is a fintech lending platform serving mainland UK.
Scott Gray
Finance Director of LendingCrowd
Scott Gray serves as finance director at LendingCrowd.
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About LendingCrowd: LendingCrowd is a fintech lending platform serving mainland UK.
Caroline Roxburgh
Non Executive Director of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust
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About Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust: Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust is a publicly traded investment trust invests in global stock markets.
