United Kingdom
Freelance writer with a passion and significant experience in covering business, entrepreneurship and interviewing high profile CEOs and company executives. Excellent contacts and access to entrepreneurs and leaders in top UK companies, including the 'Dragons' Den' investors past and present as well as many other business personalities and influencers.
He's sat in one of the five Dragons' Den hot seats since the very first episode in January 2005, and the new 13th series on BBC2 from 12 July, 2015, marks a decade of imparting feedback to would-be entrepreneurs with, sometimes but certainly not always, a decent business idea.
Back in 1890, when Gordon's Wine Bar was established, the national law enforcement infrastructure was still taking shape - rattles had not long been replaced by whistles, such were the technological crime-fighting advances of the time.
With the 2015 First Women Awards just around the corner, Real Business has interviewed three women entrepreneurs about how they are personally tackling the challenge to attract, inspire and empower the next generation of women in business to strive for the top.
But for the Finnish city of Oulu, this now annual spectacle, which draws its participants from as far away as India and Israel, it has become one of the more visible steps towards economic resurrection, following the global collapse of Nokia's once mighty Mobile Devices and Services Business, acquired by Microsoft in 2014.
If discovering a new vitamin were anything like discovering a new star, they would probably name one after Peter Aldis, the CEO of Holland & Barrett International - although he would probably shrug it off and wonder what all the fuss was about.
When it comes to pitching for business, it's not the taking part that counts in today's ruthless marketplace; it's the winning. So how can you stack the odds in your favour, deliver the all-important "wow" factor, and walk away with the deal?
"We want to rid the world of crappy courier companies," she said, with uncompromising and, as it turns out, characteristic plain-speaking clarity. While it could be considered a tall order for some, after a few minutes with the 2015 First Women Awards entrepreneur of the year, you get a strong sense that her competitors would do well to watch out.
Rapid growth in "craft" beers - with the UK now home to more breweries per head of the population than any other country - means UK drinkers are spoilt for choice. But who knows a good beer from a not-so-good one?