Deborah Meaden was the first woman to join the British Dragon's Den panel after original investor Rachel Elnaugh.
Rachel Elnaugh was one of the five investors in the programme's original 2005 series. After Elnaugh's departure, Deborah Meaden joined during the third series and became the next woman to hold a regular Dragon position on the British show.
Meaden's business career included leadership in the family leisure business Weststar Holidays. Her panel style became associated with close attention to the strength of a product, the entrepreneur's evidence for sales and the proposed share valuation.
Later female Dragons included Kelly Hoppen, Jenny Campbell and Sara Davies. The chronology can be confusing because several women joined at different times and some appeared as guest or replacement investors. The question concerns the regular British panel sequence, not the order in which every female guest appeared.