The Talent Pool secures Deborah Meaden of BBC Dragon’s Den as keynote speaker _{9 June 2008}

At the next member’s Annual Conference Talent Pool symposium, Dragon’s Den star Deborah Meaden meets delegates to share her experience and expertise of the business world. We are delighted to have secured such a prominent business expert and successful entrepreneur to inspire the attendees.

Deborah Meaden started her business career with very little capital launching her own glass and ceramics import company straight out of business college. Deborah then set up one of the first ‘Stefanel’ fashion franchises to appear in the UK.

With several successful business’ in the leisure and retail sector under her belt, she became Managing Director of Weststar Holidays, acquired the major shareholding in a management buyout and later made a partial exit in a deal worth £33 million. She sold her remaining stake in the business in August 2007 when Weststar was sold to Parkdean Holidays for £83 million. Deborah is now devoting her time to finding investment opportunities often with a particular emphasis on environmental issues.

Deborah joined the panel of millionaire investors for series three of the BBC2 programme, “Dragons Den” and has since completed two series of the popular BBC2 show. During this time, Deborah has invested in a number of successful companies.