Deborah Meaden
| Deborah Meaden | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 February 1959 Taunton, Somerset, England |
| Residence |
Somerset Primrose Hill, London |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Trowbridge High School |
| Alma mater | Brighton Technical College |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Known for |
Dragons' Den, Strictly Come Dancing |
| Title | Deborah Meaden and family |
| Spouse(s) | Paul (m. 1993) |
Deborah Sonia Meaden (born 11 February 1959) is an English businesswoman who ran a multimillion-pound family holiday business (caravan park), before completing a management buyout, but is now best known for her appearances on the BBC Two business programme Dragons' Den.
Meaden was born in Somerset. Her parents divorced when she was young and her mother moved Deborah and her older sister Gail to Brightlingsea in Essex. Her mother remarried and had two more daughters (Cass and Emma) with Brian, the man Meaden calls Dad. Meaden went to the Godolphin School, Salisbury, for a brief period and then to Trowbridge High School (now The John of Gaunt School).
On leaving school when she was 16, Meaden studied business at Brighton Technical College, after which she worked as a sales-room model in a fashion house. After graduation, she moved to Italy at 19 and set up a glass and ceramics export agency, which sold products to retailers including Harvey Nichols. The company failed after 18 months.
Meaden and a partner bought one of the first Stefanel textile franchises in the UK, and which was based in the West Country; she sold out two years later to her partner for £10,000. She then had several successful leisure and retail businesses including a spell operating a Prize Bingo at Butlins in Minehead.
In 1988, Meaden joined her family's business to run its amusement arcade operations and in 1992, joined Weststar Holidays, a family holiday park operator based in Exeter, Devon but with its major sites based in South West England. In 1999, she led a management buyout and acquired the majority shareholding. By the time she sold the company 6 years later, the Weststar was providing holidays for more than 150,000 people each year with an EBITDA in excess of £11m. In 2005 she made a partial exit when Weststar was sold in a deal worth £33 million to Phoenix Equity Partners, and in August 2007 her remaining stake of 23% in Weststar Holidays was liquidated when the firm was sold to Alchemy Partners for £83m, valuing her stake at about £19m.
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