Deborah Meaden joined the BBC programme Dragon's Den in 2006 and became one of its longest-serving investors.
Meaden is an English businesswoman and investor known for work in leisure, tourism and consumer businesses. Before joining the programme, she had built a substantial business career, including involvement with family enterprises and the Weststar Holidays group.
On Dragon's Den, Meaden became associated with direct questioning, commercial analysis and a focus on whether a proposal could scale. Her investments and negotiations helped make her one of the most recognisable Dragons in the show's British history.
She joined after the programme's initial launch, so she was not part of the original first-series panel. That timing is a common source of confusion because Meaden is so closely linked with the show's established identity.