Peter Jones (entrepreneur)

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For other uses, see Peter Jones (disambiguation).

Peter Jones (born 18 March 1966) is a British businessman with interests in mobile telecommunications, television, media, leisure and property. The Sunday Times Rich List 2005 estimates he is worth at least £180 million.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Television career
- 1.2 Other businesses
2 Trivia
3 References
4 External links

Biography

Jones' business career began when he started his own tennis academy at the age of 16. During his twenties he ran a computer business. Through a combination of circumstances, misjudgment and a key customers going out of business, he lost his business at the age of 29, and his marriage ended. He joined Siemens Nixdorf, the computer giant and became head of the PC Business in the UK the same year. He started his own business again called Phones International Group in April 1998.

Television career

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

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.

After signing a "Golden Handcuffs" deal with ITV to appear as their new "face" of business programming^[1], 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^[2]

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. The company, which collapsed under Elnaugh's ownership, has been turned around and is now trading profitably again.

Through his appearance on "Dragons' Den", Jones has invested in several start-up ventures including style magazine Wonderland and Square Mile International, which provides data services for marinas. He owns a TV production company, called Peter Jones TV, and his business portfolio also includes a range of property investments.