Peter Jones (entrepreneur)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require copy-editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now.  (June 2009)

Peter Jones
Born	18 March 1966 (1966-03-18) (age 43) England
Occupation	Entrepreneur, Businessman, TV Presenter & Investor
Net worth	£157 million
Known for	Dragons' Den American Inventor Tycoon
Partner	Tara Capp
Children	5
Website http://www.peterjones.tv/

Peter Jones CBE (born 18 March 1966) is a British businessman with interests in mobile telecommunications, television, media, leisure and property. He became a television celebrity through his appearances on the British BBC 2 television show Dragons' Den and on his American television show American Inventor, where he is known for his often harsh judgements on the businesses. As of 2008 he is worth an estimated £157 million ^[1]. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.^[2]

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Television career 2.1 Dragons' Den 2.2 American Inventor 2.3 Tycoon 2.4 Advertising 3 Other businesses 4 Personal life 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Peter Jones attended Desborough School, Maidenhead and subsequently The Windsor Boys' School where he studied A-Levels in Economics, Biology and Geography.

A keen tennis player as a teenager, he earned money by giving tennis lessons and set up his own tennis academy at the age of 16.

His second venture was a computer business where he manufactured PCs under his own brand and in his mid twenties opened a cocktail bar in Windsor based on the Tom Cruise film Cocktail on which he lost £200,000 after deciding to sell it. In his late twenties he lost his computer business due to customers failing to pay him. He was forced to give up his three-bedroom home in Bray, his BMW and Porsche cars and move back in with his parents.^[3] He then joined Siemens Nixdorf, and became head of the PC Business in the UK the same year at only 28, the youngest ever head of a business unit.

After working for Siemens Nixdorf he worked in the telecommunications market for 12 months and made enough money to set-up his next venture Phones International Group in April 1998. He started humbly by sleeping on the office floor but business soon grew. The firm experienced explosive growth with revenue totalling £14 million by the end of the first year and £44 million by the end of the second. The company was one of the fastest growing businesses in Europe. Group turnover for 2005/2006 was in excess of £150 million. The group counts every leading brand in the wireless communications industry among its business partners, whether as a supplier, customer or collaborator.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Television career

[edit] Dragons' Den

Jones came to public prominence in the UK for his persona on BBC Two's Dragons' Den.

Jones returned to Dragons Den for the sixth UK series, starting July 2008. He is known for his regular conflicts in the den with fellow dragon, Duncan Bannatyne. On one occasion, he was so disgusted with Duncan for unprofessionally undercutting his bid he responded with "You've just put a guy on the bloody edge here and you've just completely been a sly little s**t"

[edit] American Inventor

After coming up with a TV show idea called The Inventor, which he took to Simon Cowell to see whether he would be interested in partnering with him, he managed to sell the idea to the ABC Network in America. When it aired in March 2006, it became a No. 1 show for ABC in America - the network's biggest success for a Thursday primetime slot in years. Jones also featured as a judge in his own creation on ABC's "American Inventor" - co-produced by Fremantle North America, Cowell's SyCo and Jones's "Peter Jones Television" company. ^[4]

[edit] Tycoon

After signing a "Golden Handcuffs" deal with ITV to appear as their new "face" of business programming, on 21 September 2006 Jones appeared on GMTV to talk about "Dragons' Den." and his new ITV1 show Tycoon - solely produced by the "Peter Jones Television." company. On 27 June 2007, after just 2 episodes of Tycoon had been broadcast, ITV announced that it would be moved from the prime time slot of 9-10pm on Tuesdays due to bad ratings, even though it got 2.1 million viewers which was more than the UK premiere of The Apprentice and Dragons Den when they both aired in 2005. The series returned on Monday, 9 July 2007 as a 30-minute format for the 10pm slot.^[5]

[edit] Advertising

Jones took over from Gordon Ramsay as the face of BT Business. The campaign features in a TV advertisement ^[6] alongside the gremlins, who attack the whole office leading to an IT meltdown. The campaign announced the fact that BT Business offers 24-hour IT and communications support for all business customers.

In June 2009 Jones appeared in advertisements for MoneySupermarket.com, a UK Price Comparison website.

[edit] Other businesses

In the summer of 2005, Jones teamed up with another Dragons' Den star, Theo Paphitis, to buy the gift experience company Red Letter Days from fellow panellist Rachel Elnaugh, under whose ownership it had collapsed with a franchise he got the money back. Also see Experience Gifts

He has also created other businesses between 2004/8, including firms like "Wines4Business.com", an online retailer specialising in the sale of wine and champagne to corporate clients, as well as "Celcius", a specialist recruitment business.

His investments resulting from his appearances on Dragons' Den include "Wonderland Magazine" (a luxury lifestyle and culture magazine), "Square Mile International" (which provides data services for marinas and later sold to BT), "The Generating Company" (a contemporary circus company), "iTeddy" and "Reggae Reggae Sauce".^[4]

He owns a TV production company called Peter Jones TV, and his business portfolio also includes a range of property investments (his nine properties include a Portuguese villa that he bought from DJ Chris Evans ^[3] and a property in Beverly Hills, California).

In 2009 Peter Jones founded the National Enterprise Academy (NEA) as a way to improve the entrepreneurial capabilities within the UK. The Sunday Times reported that a plan by Sir James Dyson for a national engineering academy had been thrown out in favour of Peter Jones’ National Enterprise Academy because the Dragons’ Den star would ‘do more for its public image’. This sparked a "Dyson vs Jones" debate in the media, however Richard Tyler posted a response to the story on the Telegraph site, suggesting that the real reason Dyson’s proposal failed was that it was over budget, that he was unwilling to compromise on a planning dispute concerning the academy’s location and that he, unlike Jones, lacked the political guile to play the system.

[edit] Personal life

He divorced his first wife to live with his younger girlfriend Tara Capp and their three children Natalia, Isabella, and Tallulah, in Beaconsfield, Bucks. He also has two children with his ex-wife – Annabel and William – who live with their mother in Salisbury.

An admitted car freak, his first car was an Alfa Romeo Alfasud, while his business car is presently a Maybach 57.^[3]

He is known for his height and came 4th in the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" on the motoring programme, Top Gear and was told on air by Jeremy Clarkson that if he lost a bit of weight (he weighs 17 stone (107.8 kilograms (238 lb)) and is 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall) he would be the fastest celebrity ever to have appeared on the show.

On 12 August 2008 he was challenged by The Sun newspaper to sit a 90 minute A-Level examination in Business Studies.^[7] He accepted the challenge and got an 'A'.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Peter Jones - Official Site
• Dragons' Den Biography
• Tycoon
• Celcius
• Wines4Business
• American Inventor
• Phones International Group
• Red Letter Days - Gift Experience Voucher Company part owned by Peter Jones
• The Generating Company,
• Forgotten Children Charity
• The Peter Jones Sock Collection

• Peter Jones at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Dragons' Den (UK) Cast Presenter: Evan Davis Dragons: Current: Duncan Bannatyne (series 1-) • Peter Jones (series 1-) • Theo Paphitis (series 2-) • Deborah Meaden (series 3-) • James Caan (series 5-) Former: Simon Woodroffe (series 1) • Rachel Elnaugh (series 1-2) • Doug Richard (series 1-2) • Richard Farleigh (series 3-4) Notable Investments Reggae Reggae Sauce • Rapstrap • Chocbox • Hamfatter Related Programmes Dragons' Den (international) • American Inventor • Tycoon