Peter Jones (entrepreneur)

Peter David Jones (born 18 March 1966), also known as Mr. Global, is a British entrepreneur, and reality television personality with interests in mobile phones, television, media, leisure, retail, and property. He is the last remaining original investor on the BBC One show ''Dragons' Den'' and on the American television series ''American Inventor''.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours. According to the Sunday Times Rich List in 2021, Jones is worth an estimated £1.157bn.

Early life

Jones grew up in Langley, Berkshire, before moving to Maidenhead when he was seven, and attended Desborough School and, subsequently, The Windsor Boys' School.

Career

Businesses

He set up a business in which he made personal computers under his own brand when he was only 16 years old. However, he lost £200,000 after deciding to sell it to IBM. In an interview with ''The Times'', Jones once said his computer business failed when he was in his twenties; he was forced to give up his three-bedroom home in Bray and his cars, and had to move back in with his parents. He then joined Siemens Nixdorf.

In his mid-twenties, he opened a cocktail bar in Windsor based on the Tom Cruise film ''Cocktail''.

After Siemens' acquisition, he set up his next venture, Phones International Group, in April 1998.

In the summer of 2005, Jones, together with Theo Paphitis, a fellow panellist on ''Dragons' Den'', bought gift experience company Red Letter Days from another fellow panellist Rachel Elnaugh, under whose ownership it had collapsed.

Jones founded other businesses between 2004 and 2008, including Wines4Business.com, an online retailer specialising in the sale of wine and champagne to corporate clients, and Celsius Resourcing – a specialist recruitment business aiming mostly in biotechnologists.

On 1 July 2005, he founded The Peter Jones Foundation, a charity to support the advancement of education in young women, particularly through teachings of enterprise and entrepreneurship.

In 2009, Jones founded the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy (PJEA, formerly NEA) to teach entrepreneurial capabilities within the UK. PJEA has several campuses throughout the UK including Amersham, Sheffield, Manchester, Southend and Oxford. In November 2013, it was reported that a new Peter Jones Enterprise Academy was to be opened in Leamington through Warwickshire College. Pupils were to be taught how to enhance a company or key skills in becoming a successful entrepreneur. The academy was to offer the BTEC Level 3 Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at both its Leamington and Rugby campuses.

According to his website, some of his investments in businesses that have appeared on ''Dragons' Den'' include luxury lifestyle and culture ''Wonderland'' magazine, Square Mile International, which provides data services for marinas and was later sold to BT, contemporary circus company The Generating Company, Concentrate Design, which makes products claimed to help pupils concentrate at school, Synthetic Genomics, iTeddy and Reggae Reggae Sauce.

He owns a TV production company called Peter Jones TV, and has several property investments (his nine properties include a Portuguese villa that he bought from DJ Chris Evans and a property in Beverly Hills, California).

Jones sold part of Phones International Group, Wireless Logic, for £38 million in 2011, retaining the Data Select part.

In 2013, Jones became the owner and chief executive of Jessops in the United Kingdom.

On 6 August 2017, it was announced that Jones and his ''Dragon's Den'' and Red Letter Days partner Theo Paphitis were almost scammed by an accountant who forged cheques over a two-month period. Judge Joanna Greenberg QC warned the accountant at Wood Green Court that "this was a serious offence, a breach of trust over considerable time. Custody is the most likely outcome".

Television and media appearances

''Dragons' Den''

Jones is the sole remaining original Dragon on the BBC
...