Tej Lalvani joined Dragon’s Den in 2017 after Kelly Hoppen left the panel.
Lalvani is a businessman associated with Vitabiotics, the supplements company founded by his father, Kartar Lalvani. He became chief executive of Vitabiotics and helped lead the company’s consumer-health business before taking a place in the BBC programme’s den.
Kelly Hoppen announced her departure after four series, and Lalvani joined the programme for its fifteenth series. His arrival added a Dragon with experience in branded health, vitamins and international consumer products.
Nick Jenkins is a different former Dragon who joined in 2015, while Steven Bartlett arrived much later, in 2022. Touker Suleyman also joined before Lalvani, in 2015. These overlapping dates make the panel’s changing membership easy to mix up, especially because several investors have entered during the programme’s later seasons.