- Conference Speakers
Topics:
- Business
- Entrepreneurs/Innovation
Peter Jones
As a schoolboy, Peter Jones dreamt of running a multi-million pound company. Today, Peter has built a £200 million empire as owner, chairman and CEO of various businesses ranging from telecoms and leisure to publishing and media. He is a prominent television business entrepreneur, television celebrity and business speaker.
Business Success
The success of his empire is the latest in a long line of achievements for Peter Jones. At the age of 16 after completing the Lawn Tennis Association’s coaching examinations, Peter set up his first company, a successful tennis academy at a local club.
By the age of 28, Jones was the youngest ever head of PC Business at computer firm Siemens Nixdorf. He started his telecoms business in 1998. The firm, which is split into four main operating companies, experienced explosive growth with revenue totaling £14 million by the end of the first year and £44 million by the end of the second. The group counts every leading brand in the mobile industry among its business partners, whether as a supplier, customer or collaborator.
In 2003 Phones International Group was recognized as being amongst the most successful businesses in the UK, having been identified as 13th fastest growing business within the Sunday Times/Virgin Atlantic UK Fast Track League Table. Jones has also received a number of personal accolades: in 2001 he was named as Emerging Entrepreneur of The Year by The Times/Ernst & Young, and was named 14th in the top 40 young entrepreneurs by the Daily Telegraph in 2005.
Peter Jones’s business interests now span many other areas than just telecommunications and include business services, entertainment, publishing, property, leisure and television.
Television Personality
2005 was a pivotal year for Jones, having appeared on the BBC’s ground breaking business television show Dragon’s Den.
Together with business partner Theo Paphitis, Peter purchased struggling events firm Red Letter Days following the company’s collapse at the hands of fellow Dragons’ Den panelist Rachel Elnaugh and is committed to ensuring a successful future for the business. Last year, Peter also founded Wines4Business, an online retailer specialising in the sale of wine and champagne to corporate clients, Mymarina.com which provides wireless communications for the UK’s marinas and Wonderland Magazine, a new luxury lifestyle magazine.
Together with Dragon's Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden and Richard Farleigh, they have written a book 'Dragons Den: Success from Pitch to Profit'
In 2006 Peter aired a brand new TV series, The American Inventor, in the US and was an instant hit for America’s largest TV network ABC. The show was re-commissioned for another series in 2007.
In April 2007, Peter signed a multi-million pound deal with ITV to produce and star in business style TV programmes for two years. The first of these was – The Tycoon – which showed Peter searching the UK for the next big Business Tycoon.
