Many faces have entered and exited the lair of the Dragons on the BBC – but one face has been an ever-present.
Peter Jones CBE has sat in the chair since the very first episode of Dragons’ Den in 2005 and remains the only original Dragon still on the panel.
At 6ft 7in, he has become the show’s most recognisable figure; but behind the on-screen persona is a career built on early setbacks, high-street revivals, international television formats and a commitment to enterprise education.
You can see a full list of the investments Jones has made in his two-decade stint on the show here.
Childhood
Peter David Jones CBE was born on 18 March 1966 in Langley, Buckinghamshire, and moved with his family to Maidenhead when he was seven.
He recalled that time in a 2008 interview with The Guardian, saying: “I remember my first memory is sitting in my dad’s chair in a small office and I used to imagine that I was picking up the phone and issuing commands. And I was only seven.”
He attended Desborough School and The Windsor Boys’ School, showing ambition both in sport and enterprise.
By 16, he was running a tennis academy, coaching younger players while pursuing his own game at county level.
First venture
His first serious venture was a personal computer business launched in his twenties. During the late 1980s recession, this collapsed.
A lack of credit insurance and clients being unable to pay him compounded the downturn, and he was forced to sell his home and car before moving back in with his parents.
He later said that the experience left him with nothing and forced him to start again from scratch, but he realised that “there was no such thing as failure… that’s feedback.”
Afterwards, he joined Siemens Nixdorf, where he ran the UK computer division, before returning to entrepreneurship determined to rebuild.
Success stories
In 1998, the now-59-year-old founded Phones International Group, a mobile distribution business that became the foundation of his fortune.
Within it, he developed Data Select and Wireless Logic, the latter bought in 2002 and transformed into one of Europe’s leading IoT connectivity firms.
Jones sold Wireless Logic back to its founders in 2011 for £35 million. Under later owners, it grew to a valuation in the billions, most recently being valued at £3.5bn in May 2025.
He also launched 10telecom, later sold to Vodafone, and expanded into sectors from publishing and recruitment to leisure and property, at one stage holding a portfolio of more than 30 companies.
Turnarounds
He has also been at the centre of many high-profile turnarounds.
In 2005, alongside fellow Dragon Theo Paphitis, he acquired Red Letter Days out of administration after its collapse under Rachel Elnaugh, stabilising the business before its sale to Smartbox Group in 2017.
Eight years after that, he led the relaunch of Jessops, reviving the 79-year-old high street camera chain after it fell into administration.
However, potentially his most famous consumer success came in 2007, when he and Richard Farleigh invested £50,000 in Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae Sauce, helping to propel it from a pitch in the Den to supermarket shelves nationwide.
Alongside his commitments in the UK, Jones has also appeared in the US as a recurring Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank and created American Inventor with Simon Cowell’s Syco and Fremantle, which ran for two series on ABC and also aired in the UK.
He fronted Save Our Business, stepping in to advise struggling firms, and now has new UK and US television projects in early development.
Philanthropy
He has been a huge advocate of pushing the boundaries in education, having established the Peter Jones Foundation in 2005 to promote enterprise and support disadvantaged young people.
Four years later, he launched the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy, which delivers BTEC qualifications in enterprise and runs the national Tycoon competition, where students receive startup funding to run their own businesses.
Tens of thousands of young people have since passed through its programmes.
Jones has argued on multiple occasions that enterprise and entrepreneurship should be embedded in the national curriculum and that he will “continue to lobby government until it happens”.
His contribution has been recognised formally, having been appointed a CBE in the 2009 New Year Honours for services to business, entrepreneurship and young people.
Universities including Exeter and Loughborough have also awarded him honorary doctorates and fellowships in recognition of his work.
Counting his chickens
Away from the boardroom and studio, Jones lives in Buckinghamshire with his partner Tara Capp and their five children – Annabelle, William, Natalia, Isabella and Tallulah.
The family own three dogs and eight chickens – showing that there is a softer side to the imposing and sometimes stony-faced TV regular.