Deborah Meaden

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Deborah Meaden (born 11 February 1959) is a British multi-millionaire who launched her own glass and ceramics export company straight out of business college, before setting up one of the first Stefanel textile franchises in the UK.

With several successful businesses in the leisure and retail sector under her belt, she became Managing Director of her family's holiday park business, Weststar Holidays, acquired the major shareholding in a management buyout and later sold the company in a deal worth £33 million whilst retaining a 23% stake.^[1] She still retains an active role at Weststar but is devoting more time to finding good investment opportunities, the first of which has been a market research company. In August 2007 she sold her remaining stake in Weststar Holidays for £83million.

[edit] Dragons' Den

Meaden is most famous for her appearance as a "dragon" on the BBC Two programme Dragons' Den. She took over from Rachel Elnaugh in Series 3 of the show, which commenced on August 3, 2006. Like Elnaugh who preceded her, Meaden is the only female "dragon" on the programme. She has invested in several businesses on the programme, often in collaboration with other dragons. She is often the target of television review comedy snipes, such as Harry Hill's TV Burp and Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe for her prevalence as the lone female, and because of her harsh demeanour towards contestants. Despite this image portrayal, however, Meaden remains assertive and simply states in her defense, "I can't stand bullshit'".^[2]