Founder & Executive Chairman play a crucial role in any startup. It takes an extraordinary person to fulfil the Founder & Executive Chairman role. We have selected these Founder & Executive Chairman’s for this list as they are inspiring for a variety of reasons – whether that’s pushing boundaries, creating groundbreaking products, or doing their bit to save the world.
Our analysts did their best to select be best, and most innovative Founder & Executive Chairman’s. The list is in no particular order!
Sherry Coutu
Founder & Executive Chairman @ Founders4Schools
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Sherry Coutu is an angel investor and serves on the boards of companies, charities and universities.As an entrepreneur, Sherry established and successfully sold two businesses in the financial services industry. The first (acquired by Euromoney plc) has operations in more than 70 countries. The second was floated in 2000 on London and Nasdaq and the company was valued at more than $1 billion before being acquired (by AMP plc). Sherry is active in early stage investing and has raised several rounds of venture capital and public equity totaling more than $200 million. Sherry has decades of experience serving companies which range from fast growth private early stage to public and boards with turnover of more than £ 1 bn.She is a frequent public speaker, a national judge of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards, and presents regularly at the top business schools. She specialises in consumer, internet, information services and clean energy. Current university affiliations include Cambridge University and Harvard Business School. Charitable / Government affiliations include the Prince’s Trust, Cancer Research UK and NESTA.
Learn more about Sherry Coutu on Crunchbase…Founders4Schools is a free service that enables teachers to invite founders of successful, businesses to visit schools, to inspire learners. Read more aboutFounders4Schools on Crunchbase…
Kosta Kantchev
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman @ Nexo
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The World’s Leading Regulated Financial Institution for Digital Assets Read more aboutNexo on Crunchbase…
Ismail Ahmed
Founder & Executive Chairman @ Zepz
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Ismail Ahmed, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, founding WorldRemit was the culmination of 20 years’ experience in the money transfer industry – spanning academic, consulting and in-house roles. Before setting-up his own business, he worked for the United Nations Remittance Programme, helping African money transfer companies comply with tough anti-money laundering rules introduced after the 9/11 attacks. Ismail has published widely-cited research on the effect of remittances in Somaliland following the country’s civil war. He holds an MSc and PhD from the University of London and an Executive MBA from London Business School.
Learn more about Ismail Ahmed on Crunchbase…Zepz is a money transfer service that helps migrants send money to their loved ones all over the world. Read more aboutZepz on Crunchbase…
Jeff Lynn
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman @ Seedrs
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Jeff Lynn is Executive Chairman and co-founder of Seedrs, the leading pan-European equity crowdfunding platform. Seedrs lets investors invest as much or as little as they like in startups they choose, and it lets startups raise capital from friends, family, angels, institutions and the crowds, all through a simple, online process. In addition to running Seedrs, Jeff serves as founding Chairman of The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), a non-profit advocacy group for digital startups and SMEs.
Learn more about Jeff Lynn on Crunchbase…Seedrs is a UK-based investment and crowdfunding platform. Read more aboutSeedrs on Crunchbase…
Alexandre Harkous
Founder & Executive Chairman @ OneWealthPlace
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Alexandre, BI-SAM founder, has over 20 years of solid experience in strategy and information systems for the Capital Markets and Asset Management industries. He began his career at Mitsubishi Bank as Head of IT before joining Demachy Worms & Cie Bank as Projects Director and then SIP in 1995 as Client Management Director. In 1998 he joined Deloitte Consulting where he developed the Asset Management Expertise Center working closely with various global clients such as HSBC, Merrill Lynch, ABN Amro AM and Dresdner RCM Global Investors. Throughout his career, Alexandre gained a significant international experience in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific and a solid experience in business development, strategy, change management and systems for banking and asset management including securities services, portfolio management and analytics. Alexandre holds a Degree in Engineering and Computer Science.
Learn more about Alexandre Harkous on Crunchbase… Read more aboutOneWealthPlace on Crunchbase…
Richard Grogan
Founder & Executive Chairman @ Zenaura
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Zenaura is a IoT controlled home fragrance with aspirational design. Read more aboutZenaura on Crunchbase…
Matt Isaacs
Founder & Executive Chairman @ Essence
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As one of the founding partners, Matt helped shape Essence into the company it is today. That agency is now the world’s largest independent buyer of digital media with billings in excess of $650MM USD, is 480 people strong, and has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore and Tokyo. Current clients include Google, eBay, Financial Times and Barclays. Matt served as Global CEO of the agency until spring of this year. During his last four years in that role, both billings and headcount doubled every year. Today, as Executive Chairman, Matt oversees the Board, supports the execution of corporate strategy and helps to ensure the legacy of Essence exists well beyond the agency and the industry. Before co-founding Essence Matt was Chief Marketing Officer at Create Services & Goldfish Bank, a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Group that handled all of the bank’s non LloydsTSB branded retail banking business across 15 brands and with £2B in assets. Matt’s ‘first career’ was in strategy consulting at McKinsey spin-off MMG, where he was part of the core team that built MMG Europe from 14 consultants to 400 across 13 offices. Matt lives on a small farm with his wife, 4 children, 5 hens, lots of sheep and bees in the depths of East Sussex, UK.
Learn more about Matt Isaacs on Crunchbase… Read more aboutEssence on Crunchbase…
Garry Wilson
co founder & Executive Chairman @ Endless LLP
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Garry, one of our Founders, has over 20 years experience in transforming businesses and private equity. He spends his days sourcing new investment opportunities, looking after a few of our portfolio businesses and keeping our investors up to date.
Learn more about Garry Wilson on Crunchbase…Endless is an investor that specializes in supporting management buyouts, acquisition of non-core businesses, and turnaround investments. Read more aboutEndless LLP on Crunchbase…
Chuck Green
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman @ Helios Towers Africa
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Helios Towers Africa has operations in Ghana, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and a sister company in Nigeria. Read more aboutHelios Towers Africa on Crunchbase…
Antony Jenkins
Founder & Executive Chairman @ 10xbanking
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Antony’s focus on driving innovation in the digital economy also extends to his role as Group Chairman of Currencies Direct, the leading UK non-bank provider of foreign exchange and international payment services; and his role as a board member of Blockchain, the world’s leading software platform for digital assets. He is a Board Director of Fannie Mae, sitting on the US mortgage lender’s Strategic Initiatives and Technology Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Antony is a strong believer in the need for businesses to support the future workforce to acquire the right skills to thrive in the digital era; his commitment to education is recognised in his role as Chair of the Institute for Apprenticeships, an employer-led organisation established to promote high-quality apprenticeships by 2020. He was previously the Group CEO of Barclays plc for three years until July 2015.
Learn more about Antony Jenkins on Crunchbase…10xbanking offers a digital banking platform that will transform the way financial services providers operate. Read more about10xbanking on Crunchbase…
Donal Smith
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman @ Credit Benchmark
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Donal Smith Co-founded Credit Benchmark Ltd., in 2012. Donal Smith served as the Chief Executive Officer at Markit Securities Finance Analytics Ltd. from March 2008 to April 2012. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Financial’s businesses in Europe and Asia at Thomson Reuters. He joined Data Explorers in March 2008. He served as the Managing Director of Thomson Financial’s banking and brokerage division joined at the end of 2001. He also served as the President and Chief Operating Officer for European and Asia Operations of Thomson Financial, Inc. He worked for the Financial Times Group as Managing Director of Business Information at FT Information and then as Director of Electronic Publishing for the FT Group. Donal Smith was responsible for the integration of Pearson’s portfolio of business and financial information services as well as the expansion of FT Group through acquisition and he was also responsible for the launch of FT.com as a global financial resource which quickly became the number one business website in Europe. He served as Chief Executive Officer of FT.com and member the Financial Times Group’s management board. He Co-founded eCountries.com in 1999 and served as its Chief Executive Officer and also FT Group’s Member of the Management Board. He serves as Non-Executive Chairman of Pirum Systems Limited. He serves as Chairman of BI-SAM Technologies S.A. He served as Chairman of Selerity, Inc. He serves as a Director of Selerity, Inc. He serves as a Non Executive Director of Commodity Vectors Ltd. Donal Smith serves as an Executive Member and Member of the Board at Data Explorers Limited. He served as a Non Executive Director of Trinity Mirror plc from March 1, 2012 to May 7, 2015. He holds a Degree in the History of Art and English Literature from University College Dublin.
Learn more about Donal Smith on Crunchbase… Read more aboutCredit Benchmark on Crunchbase…
David Fyfe
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman @ Bodle Technologies
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David is a founder and Executive Chairman of Bodle Technologies. His career spans several top management positions in both Europe and the United States, and he has held board positions in several firms over the years. As Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Display Technologies (CDT), he took a laboratory-based spin-off to a NASDAQ flotation and a subsequent $285m trade sale. David is also the Executive Chairman of Oxford Photovoltaics. As a resident of Jacksonville, Florida, David also serves on the board of Cambridge in America foundation.
Learn more about David Fyfe on Crunchbase…Developing SRD® technology for a low-power display of vivid colours that doesn’t look washed out in bright conditions Read more aboutBodle Technologies on Crunchbase…
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David Friedland
