Deborah Sonia Meaden FRSA (born 11 February 1959)[1][2] is a British businessperson and TV personality who ran a multimillion-pound family holiday business, before completing a management buyout.

[4] On leaving school, Meaden studied business at Brighton Technical College, after which she worked as a sales-room model in a fashion house.

[5] After graduation, she moved to Italy at 19 and set up a glass and ceramics export agency, which sold products to retailers including Harvey Nichols.

[citation needed] She then had several successful leisure and retail businesses, including a spell operating a Prize Bingo at Butlins in Minehead.

[8] In 2009, Meaden acquired Fox Brothers (a West Country textile mill established in 1772 and still based in Wellington, Somerset) along with fellow shareholder, Douglas Cordeaux, former design director at Pepe Jeans London.

[10] In October 2011, Meaden launched 'The Merchant Fox', an online store selling British-made luxury goods with provenance.

In 2009, a planning inspector criticised Meaden's evidence to his enquiry as "implausible" in a dispute over the granting of village green status to a field on which Mudstone LLP, a firm in which she is a partner, wished to build 48 homes.

Like Elnaugh, Meaden was the only female investor, although this changed in subsequent seasons with the arrival of Hilary Devey to replace James Caan.

The series of weekly episodes began in March 2022 and covers actions being taken by businesses and individuals in response to climate change.

[33][34] In August 2022, Meaden revealed that she had been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, in 2015, after her makeup artist noticed a suspicious small spot on her face around six weeks prior to her diagnosis.