Deborah Meaden joined the British TV show Dragon's Den in 2006.
Meaden entered the panel after the programme's first series, becoming one of its best-known long-term investors. She is a British businesswoman associated with leisure, retail, and property ventures, and her practical approach to valuation and equity became a recurring feature of the programme.
Her arrival is often confused with the show's launch year because she became closely identified with the series. The British programme began in 2005, while Meaden joined in 2006, during the early development of the format.
She replaced Rachel Elnaugh on the panel. That change helped establish the rotating-investor structure that Dragon's Den has used across later series, with some dragons becoming permanent fixtures and others appearing for shorter periods.