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 Managing Director operating in the Analytics space. If you think a Managing 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.
Paul Wright
Managing Director (UK / FR / ME / TR) of AppsFlyer
Paul Wright Based in London, Paul leads AppsFlyer’s growth and expansion in the UK market. Paul has worked in the online marketing industry for over 18 years, building and shaping businesses for some of the worlds largest agencies, advertisers and technologies.
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About AppsFlyer: The world’s top brands use AppsFlyer to build great products, create exceptional experiences, and preserve customer privacy.
Roger Llewellyn
Managing Director & Founder & CEO of Kognitio
Llewellyn joined Kognitio in April 2003, having previously been Managing Director of Arelon for two and a half years – a company acquired by Cedar Software. Roger instigated the Management Buy-Out of Cedar and the formation of the Redac Group with Alchemy in May 2002. Roger has started a number of American companies in Europe, including WICAT Europe, where he was Managing Director for 6 years and Vice President USA Sales, and Macromedia, where he was Managing Director Europe for 5 years from start-up to IPO. Roger then took the helm at VINCA Europe for 4 years, until it was purchased by Legato, now EMC. He was also Vice President of Elevon Inc. He trained as an Electronic Engineer before taking his first job for Hewlett Packard. He then held senior positions in Digital Equipment and Prime Computers, before becoming Managing Director of Prime Sweden. After two years in this role Roger took the Managing Director role for Prime in Switzerland.
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About AB Electronics, Kognitio: Kognitio is an in-memory analytical software platform that supports BI, OLAP and analytical applications on large and complex data.
Paul Thomas
Founder and Managing Director of Lead Forensics
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About Lead Forensics: Lead Forensics is the B2B software that identifies anonymous website visitors, providing full contact details and customer journey insight.
Andy Slater
VP & Managing Director EMEA of Actifio
Having joined Actifio in 2011, Andy leads the EMEA sales execution. Prior to this role, Andy was pivotal in heading up the services and installation customers in the region. Prior to Actifio, Andy lead sales and operations at TecTrade, a data protection and storage partner based in the UK. His 15+ years in roles as Chief Operating Officer and Sales Director allowed him to build strategic customer and regional relationships.
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About Actifio: Actifio delivers enterprise data-as-a-service to global enterprise customers and service provider partners.
Monica Hyerim Lee
Founder & CEO / Managing Director of FrontRow Global
Monica Hyerim Lee is the founder and CEO at FrontRow Global.
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About FrontRow Global, Royal College of Art: Music Data Intelligence for Music Industry
Christian Jacob
Managing Director, Qualco UK of QUALCO
Christian Jacob joined us in 2012 as Managing Director of Qualco UK – He oversees the overall operations of Qualco UK and is responsible for establishing new business opportunities and developing strategic marketing & sales plans to boost profits and efficiency. Before joining Qualco, Christian was employed internationally in a wide variety of industries (Marketing, IT, Air product, Homecare design and Financial Systems, Debt Management) holding executive positions. Christian holds a B.Sc (Hons) in Environmental Sciences from Brighton University.
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About QUALCO: QUALCO offers its customers with debt portfolio management systems and technology-enabled services to manage their debt collections.
Mark Wilkinson
Managing Director, EMEA & APAC of Profitero
Mark leads Profitero’s EMEA sales team, partnering with consumer brands and retailers to improve their eCommerce performance. Mark joins Profitero following his 18-year tenure at IRI. Most recently, he was Sales Director in the Technology Solutions group where he helped major FMCG organizations get the most from a diverse range of data to improve their key business processes. Mark has worked with Kellogg’s, Danone, Nestle, Mars and Heineken, helping these companies improve global business performance, in store execution, on shelf availability and multi-channel retailing (including eCommerce). Mark studied business at the University of Sheffield and is based in London.
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About Profitero: Profitero is the eCommerce performance analytics platform of choice for leading brands around the world.
Christopher Hogg
Managing Director, EMEA of Lotame
Chris Hogg leads Lotame’s EMEA operations where he is responsible for maintaining and increasing existing business and overseeing new customer acquisition. Chris has more than 17 years of experience in digital ad technology and operations for Independent News and Media, France Telecom – Wanadoo / Orange UK and Unanimis. Chris has held senior management roles for the last 9 years, successfully recruiting, training and leading large teams to deliver commercial results.
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About Lotame: Lotame is the leading provider of data enrichment solutions for global enterprises.
Xavier Bellouard
Co-Founder, Managing Director & Board Member of ActiveViam
Xavier Bellouard is Managing Director of ActiveViam and one of its founders. Based in London, Xavier manages the UK operations and oversees the commercial efforts of the company across EMEA and Asia/Pacific. Before founding ActiveViam, Xavier was a key contributor to the development of Summit Systems, a software vendor of applications for front-office operations and trading desks. Xavier is passionate about the contribution that ActiveViam’s technology can make to the bottom-line of companies operating in highly demanding and complex markets. “Their bottom-up, experience-driven approach to innovation is a fundamental component of the company’s DNA. Since ActiveViam was created in 2005, they have valued it as a prerequisite to delivering cutting-edge technology to their clients”.
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About ActiveViam: ActiveViam provides operational analytics solutions to business users in need of timely decision-making.
Doug Trafelet
Managing Director of PitchBook
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About PitchBook: PitchBook provides comprehensive M&A, private equity, and venture capital data, as well as daily industry news and analysis.
Julian Miall
Managing Director of Gravity4
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About Gravity4: Gravity4 is the world’s first high-frequency machine-learning marketing OS, built to enhance the advertising and SaaS industries.
James Allum
Managing Director, EMEA of Kitewheel
James is a marketing software veteran, having started his career at DoubleClick Software. His first foray into the world of campaign management took him to various clients in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia – a trend that was to continue while helping to build the Asia Pacific partner network for Alterian/SDL. After moving to Pitney Bowes, James met Neil Skilling and Mark Smith – joining them for the last 4 years at Kitewheel. James mixes detailed technical knowledge with sound business acumen to support existing Kitewheel partners as well as providing support for new partners to flourish. He has over 20 years of experience in a distinguished career covering marketing automation, campaign management, predictive segmentation, database marketing and real-time engagement platforms. An all-rounder, James is comfortable in a range of roles from client relationship management, architecting systems, building business cases, briefing analysts or providing thought leadership through publishing his own thoughts on the Kitewheel blog. In his spare time, James is a keen ultra-runner, cook, gardener and father. He is married and lives on the banks of the Thames in Berkshire.
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About Kitewheel: Kitewheel is the world’s only cloud-based Customer Journey Hub built to support Journey Orchestration, Mapping, & Analytics.
Paul Bednarczyk
Managing Director of Roubini Global Economics, LLC
Paul Bednarczyk is 4CAST-RGE’s MD of Research. Prior to moving into that role, he had been with 4CAST from just a year after it was founded. His speciality is G20 FX, using skills developed over nearly 20 years trading for Hill Samuel, Credit Lyonnais and NationsBank.
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About Roubini Global Economics, LLC: Roubini Global Economics is the leading independent, global macroeconomic research firm.
Sean McAvan
Managing Director of NaviSite
Sean McAvan is responsible for directing the growth of Navisite, LLC. through active development of channel and partner programs and building the direct channel through targeted new business development and marketing activities. Sean has over 15 years work experience in complex IT solution provision, with a proven track record in the Hosting and Cloud Computing industry. He has demonstrable skills in building and motivating teams to exceed targets, to increase client service levels and to both build new partnerships and to actively develop these for mutual gain. He has consistently been highly successful in the management of his business. Prior to his second tenure at Navisite, Sean was the Chief Commercial Officer at Global Nexus Telecom in the Bahamas and Vice President EMEA Sales for Datapipe.
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About NaviSite: Navisite is a managed cloud service provider and renders database services, data analytics, compliance and platform services.
Linus Birtles
Managing Director of Situation Publishing
Linus Birtles is Managing Director of Situation Publishing, the independent digital publisher behind global technology titles The Register and The Next Platform. He has led the business for more than 18 years and its publications are revered for their fearless reporting and loyal readership.
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About Situation Publishing: Situation Publishing brings you the latest news and views on the global tech scene from its offices.
Marek Wakar
Managing Director, Catelas UK of Catelas
Marek has 20 years experience in retail financial services covering strategy, distribution, operations, and general management. He has held senior positions within the Lloyds Abbey Life Group (within three business units and centrally in the plc) and then moved on to Accenture where he was an Associate Partner. In the last five years Marek has run and part-owned a consultancy company which specializes in advising insurance companies; he has also invested in and advised smaller companies. Marek graduated in 1980 from the University of Durham and in 1987 obtained an MBA from the London Business School.
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About Catelas: Catelas offers e-surveillance and risk analytics software that caters to the financial services industry.
Dan Robinson
Managing Director of Eurofins Agro UK
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About Eurofins Agro UK: Eurofins Agro UK provides precision analytics and unique insight to help farmers and growers become efficient and sustainable.
Norbert Wirth
Managing Director of SUPERCRUNCH by GfK
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About SUPERCRUNCH by GfK: SUPERCRUNCH is an agile marketing analytics provider, crunching data from multiple sources to deliver a superior marketing performance.
Dimitra Christakou
Managing Director of Cambridge IP
Dimitra is the Managing Director of CambridgeIP. In the past she was the Head of Water Insight Services at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, where she was responsible for the product’s overall strategy and direction. In that capacity, Dimitra led a global team of research and data analysts to provide unique analysis, tools and data for decision makers evaluating their water related risks and opportunities. She previously held positions at Thames Water, Accenture and the Corporate Finance Practice of the Corporate Executive Board. Dimitra has extensive experience working with senior executives in the energy and cleantech sectors leading investment strategies for international utilities and major performance improvement projects. She is currently a member of the Corporate Water Disclosure Stakeholder Advisory Group (CWDSAG) for the UN CEO Water Disclosure Project. She is a frequent speaker on sustainability and resources efficiency, and cleantech investment; she has been quoted by Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, the Institutional Investor and other publications. She received her Bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Crete in Greece. Dimitra holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College of London and an MBA from London Business School.
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About Cambridge IP: Cambridge IP is a business intelligence provider that offers technology intelligence and innovation strategy products and services.
Gautam Mitra
Founder, Managing Director, and Chairman of Optirisk Systems
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About OptiRisk India, Optirisk Systems: Optirisk Systems a global reach that provides products and services for Optimisation and Risk Management solutions.
Mike Everest
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Meniscus
Mike Everest is Co-Founder & Managing Director at Meniscus.
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About Meniscus: Meniscus – Delivering data analytics to the connected world.
Piers Alington
Managing Director of Feedback Ferret
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About Feedback Ferret: Feedback Ferret make it easy for companies to improve your customer experience using text analytics.
Piers Alington
Managing Director of Feedback Ferret
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About Feedback Ferret: Feedback Ferret make it easy for companies to improve your customer experience using text analytics.
James Alty
Managing Director and Owner of Apteco Limited
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About Apteco Limited: Apteco develop a range of Marketing Data
Giles Cottle
Managing Director, Consulting of Deductive
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About Deductive: Deductive is a Data Services company focusing on applications of granular TV data
Giles Cottle
Managing Director, Consulting of Deductive
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About Deductive: Deductive is a Data Services company focusing on applications of granular TV data
Sandra Jones
Managing Director of Dataloft
Sandra keeps a strategic eye on all Dataloft’s client reports and is actively involved in consultancy assignments. With a career that has spanned commercial and residential markets, she has a particular interest in institutional investment in residential property. She has written widely on property for national and trade press and is a regular speaker at seminars and conferences.
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About Dataloft: Dataloft is an established property market intelligence company with a long track record of analysing and reporting on the housing market.
Adam Clements
Managing Director of Freshminds
Adam joined Freshminds as COO of what was the Freshminds Group in 2010, bringing with him a wealth of experience as Procurement Manager (UK) of the Morse Group, Operations Director of Morse France and Head of Partner Sales. Adam was also Founding Director of The Key Revolution Ltd – a technology spin-out from Vodafone that went on to raise more than £2m of venture funding and introduced a new secure cloud computing platform to the UK market. As Managing Director, Adam is responsible for running the Freshminds business, with a particular focus on our pool of experienced Strategy and Management Consulting candidates. He works across sectors but with a particular interest in multi-channel Retail and Consumer businesses. Adam has an MBA from Kingston Business School and a BA(Hons) from York. He classes himself as a “very average cricketer, below-average under 9s referee, and an enthusiastic tennis player”.
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About Freshminds: Freshminds sources graduates, researchers, analysts, consultants, project managers, and directors for permanent jobs or consulting projects.
James Callander
Managing Director of Freshminds
James joined Freshminds in 2003 for a 2 week project and has been here ever since, becoming Managing Director in 2008. He was part of the client development team that helped grow the firm from a start-up of 10 people to a business of over 100. He helped to launch a number of products and led on the development of some of Freshminds’ first key clients in consulting, financial services and private equity. Today, as Managing Director James is responsible for leading the commercial side of the business, with a particular focus on our pool of graduate and early career Minds and working with clients across sectors. He comments regularly in the press about the importance of hiring the best talent with a consulting skill set. James has an MA in Geography from Edinburgh University and completed a sales leadership course at Harvard Business School in 2011. Before Freshminds he worked for Roland Berger and Bell Pottinger. He’s a keen cook (albeit with limited range) and enjoys running and tennis. He has stood for parliament twice and acts as an informal advisor to his wife’s luxury travel business.
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About Freshminds: Freshminds sources graduates, researchers, analysts, consultants, project managers, and directors for permanent jobs or consulting projects.
Jason Lark
Founder & Managing Director of Celerity
Jason Lark is the Founder and Managing Director of Celerity.
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About Celerity: Celerity is a data-driven marketing agency specializing in helping brands to maximize value from marketing technology and customer data.
Jason Lark
Founder & Managing Director of Celerity
Jason Lark is the Founder and Managing Director of Celerity.
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About Celerity: Celerity is a data-driven marketing agency specializing in helping brands to maximize value from marketing technology and customer data.
Adam Simon
Global Managing Director & CFO of CONTEXT
Adam joined CONTEXT in February 2013 to develop the company’s research coverage of ICT and technology. Adam is growing the CONTEXT panel of ICT retailers across Europe and, using the panel data, brings fresh thinking for exploiting new market opportunities. In June 2015 he formed a pan-European Smart Home Research Group including Smart Home Associations, retailers and manufacturers and also pioneered research into the opportunities for retailers selling technology to small businesses (“R2B”). In May 2016 he formed a specialist research group on Virtual Reality. In September 2015 he launched the 1st CONTEXT Smart Home Survey which compares consumer attitudes to Smart Home across UK, France and Germany. In January 2016 he launched the 2nd survey covering in addition Spain and Italy. These surveys have become established as an authoritative source of information and understanding of the emerging smart home market. He is the organiser and speaker at a number of conferences and summits – he chairs the CONTEXT Smart Channels Summit which takes place at DISTREE EMEA in Monaco and APAC in Singapore, the Melco Forum in Valencia and the CONTEXT Retail CEO breakfasts at IFA and CES. In these events he brings together CONTEXT technology vendors, distributors, retailers and other partners around topical issues. He is a Director of the Smart Homes & Building Association (based in the UK) and member of the Fédération Française de Domotique (French Smart Home Association) and the German based Smart Home initiative. Prior to joining CONTEXT, Adam spent his career in professional services, introducing operational best practices in large retailers across multiple market sectors. He has worked with many of the largest retailers in Europe at senior executive level. Adam is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having spent 10 years working at KPMG, and has a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He is married with 2 daughters and a son.
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About CONTEXT: Leading the company’s efforts to offer its customers unrivalled research coverage of the IT channel landscape in Europe.
Adam Simon
Global Managing Director & CFO of CONTEXT
Adam joined CONTEXT in February 2013 to develop the company’s research coverage of ICT and technology. Adam is growing the CONTEXT panel of ICT retailers across Europe and, using the panel data, brings fresh thinking for exploiting new market opportunities. In June 2015 he formed a pan-European Smart Home Research Group including Smart Home Associations, retailers and manufacturers and also pioneered research into the opportunities for retailers selling technology to small businesses (“R2B”). In May 2016 he formed a specialist research group on Virtual Reality. In September 2015 he launched the 1st CONTEXT Smart Home Survey which compares consumer attitudes to Smart Home across UK, France and Germany. In January 2016 he launched the 2nd survey covering in addition Spain and Italy. These surveys have become established as an authoritative source of information and understanding of the emerging smart home market. He is the organiser and speaker at a number of conferences and summits – he chairs the CONTEXT Smart Channels Summit which takes place at DISTREE EMEA in Monaco and APAC in Singapore, the Melco Forum in Valencia and the CONTEXT Retail CEO breakfasts at IFA and CES. In these events he brings together CONTEXT technology vendors, distributors, retailers and other partners around topical issues. He is a Director of the Smart Homes & Building Association (based in the UK) and member of the Fédération Française de Domotique (French Smart Home Association) and the German based Smart Home initiative. Prior to joining CONTEXT, Adam spent his career in professional services, introducing operational best practices in large retailers across multiple market sectors. He has worked with many of the largest retailers in Europe at senior executive level. Adam is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having spent 10 years working at KPMG, and has a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He is married with 2 daughters and a son.
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About CONTEXT: Leading the company’s efforts to offer its customers unrivalled research coverage of the IT channel landscape in Europe.
Patrick Thorpe
Managing Director of Spiro Control
Patrick has a career that spans more than 25 years working in industrial process control. He has specialist knowledge in the application of advanced process control to ethylene production and gas processing. He has also worked in a diverse range of industries including food, mining, energy, chemicals and polymers. Patrick trained as an application engineer with Exxon Chemical before moving to Predictive Control where he was involved in product development and application. Foxboro subsequently acquired Predictive Control’s technology and he led the integration with Foxboro’s distributed control system. He has also worked as an advisor with Aspen Technology. Prior to founding Spiro Control, Patrick co-founded Aptitude, a technology leader in advanced process control. In the role of operations director, he built a team of engineers located in the UK and India, leading the development of a commercial system identification software. Patrick holds a PhD in Chemical Engineer from Loughborough University.
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About Spiro Control: Spiro Control delivers process data analytics and real-time control applications embedded on edge devices that ingest real-time plant data.
Patrick Thorpe
Managing Director of Spiro Control
Patrick has a career that spans more than 25 years working in industrial process control. He has specialist knowledge in the application of advanced process control to ethylene production and gas processing. He has also worked in a diverse range of industries including food, mining, energy, chemicals and polymers. Patrick trained as an application engineer with Exxon Chemical before moving to Predictive Control where he was involved in product development and application. Foxboro subsequently acquired Predictive Control’s technology and he led the integration with Foxboro’s distributed control system. He has also worked as an advisor with Aspen Technology. Prior to founding Spiro Control, Patrick co-founded Aptitude, a technology leader in advanced process control. In the role of operations director, he built a team of engineers located in the UK and India, leading the development of a commercial system identification software. Patrick holds a PhD in Chemical Engineer from Loughborough University.
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About Spiro Control: Spiro Control delivers process data analytics and real-time control applications embedded on edge devices that ingest real-time plant data.