Secret Millionaire Piers Linney to join Dragon's Den

Entrepreneur Piers Linney is to join the team on TV's Dragons' Den, the BBC said today.

The cloud computing pioneer will join Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and new Dragon Kelly Hoppen for series 11 of the BBC2 show.

Linney, who has a wide range of professional experience, is joint chief executive of Outsourcery, a world leading cloud service provider.

He qualified as a solicitor specialising in private equity and also worked as an investment banker and venture capital fund manager.

In May 2011, he featured on the Channel 4 series Secret Millionaire during which he spent time in a Young Offenders Institution working with prisoners, one of whom is now employed by his company. He is also named in The Power List, a compendium of the 100 most influential black Britons.

He said: "Having been a professional and private investor, I stepped into what started out as personal investment to run it, and am now building a world-leading business. I am excited to have the opportunity to join Dragons' Den and once again support entrepreneurs both financially and through my extensive network. I also think I can widen the appeal of the Den to information economy entrepreneurs as they are key to the future success of the UK economy."

Ceri Aston, executive producer of the programme, said: "Piers is a new breed of dragon. A young and dynamic digital entrepreneur, he has his finger on the pulse of an industry that has never been represented in the Den before. He's at the helm of a business that he is successfully building and growing, so his story is an inspiring one for any entrepreneur looking for investment on the show."

PA