Category: Interviews

The entrepreneur behind an ingenious invention to prevent bike theft has been crowned the winner of the UK-wide pitching competition, The Pitch 2009, at a celebrity-packed grand final in London.

Colin Maund, CEO of The Achilles Group was awarded with Ernst & Young’s UK Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009 for IT Services, at a reception sponsored by the CBI, in London last week.

We are very proud to be able to announce that Duncan Bannatyne & Michelle Dewberry are joining the Business Matters team as monthly Columnists.

Graduate Rajeeb Dey was named as the winner of the O2 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the prestigious annual national small business competition, the O2 X Awards last night. The award recognises the new generation of young entrepreneurs who are making an impact in today’s challenging economic climate.

We chat to one of the UK’s most famous angel investors, and part of the famous Dragons’ Den quintet, Peter Jones about his business activities, his tips for success and what mistakes he has made along the way.

With the recession still looming in the background it is tougher than ever for graduates to secure employment with an estimated one third of recent graduates out of work. However, for this twenty two year old, Charlie Fermor student life is now a distant memory as he takes his company Apple Crisps to new heights just one year after graduating from Reading University.

Karren Brady, the flamboyant chief executive of Birmingham City FC, is to become one of Lord Sugar’s “eyes and ears” on The Apprentice along stalwart Nick Hewer.

She’s a cook, writer and designer… no surprises which dynasty she belongs to then. Here, Sophie Conran talks to Barbara Walshe and reveals why home life continues to be central to her success.

I’m Managing Director of SFEDI Enterprises Ltd. We’re the enterprise arm of SFEDI, the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative. SFEDI are the UK national standards setting body for business enterprise and also carry out research into the needs and issues of small business. Originally government funded we’re now an independent organisation run by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. In terms of how we work together, SFEDI does the thinking, we do the doing!

Paul Jones chats to Simon Woodroffe about why he decided to start Yo! Sushi, his brush with the law, why having money makes him happy and what his investment plans are for the future in these difficult times.

We talk to Henry Braham and Glynis Murray who work in the film industry – but launched Good Oil in 2004 after stumbling across hemp seed oil’s nutty taste and nutritional benefits. Today, the company has a turnover of £1m

Duncan Bannatyne talks to us about how it’s easy to become rich – and why women don’t want to be at the top in business

The alleged relationship between The Apprentice contestants Philip Taylor and Kate Walsh comes to light on tonight’s show, it has been claimed.

Media reports have suggested that the pair are”blissfully happy” together, with Taylor supposedly meeting Walsh’s mother.

A show source said: “Kate and Philip are mixing business with pleasure – and it’s not having a positive effect on them selling. Their relationship is a big part of this week’s show.”

During tonight’s show, Taylor suggests a pub visit to Walsh and fellow contestant Lorraine Tighe expresses annoyance at the pair.

Tighe said: “I want to know what is causing all the distractions. And I hope for Kate, Phil and Ben’s sake it is not Kate’s beauty.”

Walsh has claimed that although she shared a kiss with Taylor, they did not have a fully-fledged fling.

Barack Obama, the US President, has ordered 12 copies of a healthy eating cookbook created by British mother, Sally Bee.

It’s coming to something when you receive the top business award for women in the UK from Sir Trevor McDonald and all the press want to do is talk about your daughter.

That was the ‘plight’ yesterday of Random House’s chair and CEO Gail Rebuck CBE, who was yesterday named the 36th Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year. For the record her daughter is Georgia Gould, the 22-year-old Oxford graduate at the centre of a storm over a safe Labour seat for which she’s running in which a sealed ballot box had been tampered with.