Jonathan Piers Daniel Linney (born 15 February 1971, in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

) is a British businessman and investor with a professional background in the City. Linney has been recognised as one of the top 100 Black Britons and is known as a champion of entrepreneurship and growth businesses. Linney is a Non Executive Director of the UK government-owned development bank
British Business Bank
which has facilitated over £12 billion of financing for UK small and medium-sized businesses and also operates th
StartUp Loan Company
and Britis
Patient Capital
a £2.5bn fund launched in 2018. He was the Co-CEO and owner of Genesis Communications and was the co-CEO of cloud-based IT business

Outsourcery Outsourcery Plc, was a UK-based cloud services provider founded in 2007 by co-CEOs, Piers Linney and Simon Newton. They provided services primarily to small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company went into administration in June 2016 ...

. He is best known for being a "dragon" on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

business series '' Dragons' Den'' (known as Shark Tank in the USA) from 2013 to 2015. Linney also appeared on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

series '' The Secret Millionaire'' in 2011, where he worked in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 United ...

at a Young Offenders' institution. In November 2018, Linney was named in the top 20 of

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

' list of the 'Top 100 minority ethnic leaders in technology.' In 2018 he was also named in the Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business and was named in the FT as one of the top 100 BAME Leaders in Tech. Piers is also content creator and public speaker focused on supporting entrepreneurs with ambitions to start-up or grow their businesses as part of his #ScaleUp initiative.

Early life

Linney was born to Derek and Norma Linney in 1971. He has Bajan (

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

) and English heritage. He grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and moved aged nine to a small former mill-town called

Bacup Bacup ( , ) is a town in the Rossendale Borough in Lancashire, England, in the South Pennines close to Lancashire's boundaries with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The town is in the Rossendale Valley and the upper Irwell Valley, ea ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

, where he attended the local secondary modern school (Fearns) after failing his eleven-plus exam.

Career

Linney studied Accounting and Law at The

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

, and subsequently qualified as a solicitor with

SJ Berwin SJ Berwin LLP was a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. SJ Berwin merged with the Hong Kong-headquartered law firm King & Wood Mallesons on 1 November 2013, becoming the fourth member of its Swiss Verein structure. SJ ...

. He then worked in investment banking, first at

Barclays de Zoete Wedd Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

, followed by

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all Financial centre, major financial centers around the w ...

. Linney left banking in 2000 to start an internet business and has since been involved in a number of technology, media and telecommunications businesses. After becoming the CEO of a corporate finance boutique, Linney specialised in technology venture capital and securing structured equity and debt finance from US hedge funds for small and mid-cap listed companies. Linney became a partner in a €90 million alternative investment fund providing structured debt and equity financing to small cap public companies. In 2007, with his business partner Simon Newton, Linney led the buyout of Genesis Communications, a mobile voice and data reseller company. In 2009 Genesis acquired Thus Mobile from Cable&Wireless and rebranded as

to focus on cloud IT and communications. In 2012 the mobile business arm was sold to Daisy Group for £15 million. Outsourcery was floated on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

(AIM) in 2013 raising £13 million. The business was provided with a debt facility by

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

. In June 2016 the business was sold for an undisclosed sum and the company placed into administration, having reached revenues of £10m, but remaining unprofitable. Linney was a founding member of the Governance Board of the UK's Cloud Industry Forum and has made appearance in the media to discuss the benefits of cloud computing. In 2014, Linney joined the Cabinet Office SME Panel, advising on small and medium business issues. Linney established the now defunct not-for-profit organisation workinsight.org, a national digital platform that connects young people to local employers. Linney is a founding Trustee of the Powerlist Foundation, and is also a trustee of both the innovation charity

Nesta Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is an innovation foundation based in the UK. The organisation acts through a combination of programmes, investment, policy and research, and the formation of part ...

and careers website Plotr. Linney is involved with Virgin Unite and a range of other charities as a donor or patron.

''Awards''

In 2013, Linney was recognised in the

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...

-sponsored Power List 2013 as one of the top 100 most influential black Britons. In 2014, Linney was named Entrepreneur Leader of the Year at the first Black British Business Awards sponsored by EY.

''Dragons' Den''

In 2013, Linney joined the panel on the

television series '' Dragons' Den'', along with fellow new dragon

Kelly Hoppen Kelly Elaine Hoppen (born 28 July 1959) is a South African-born British interior designer, author, and proprietor of Kelly Hoppen Interiors. From 2013 to 2015, she was a "Dragon" on BBC Two's '' Dragons' Den''. Family Kelly Hoppen was born ...

beginning in the eleventh series. In January 2015, Linney announced that he would be departing from the show at the end of series twelve, in order to focus on various other projects. Linney invested in Wonderbly (formerly Lost My Name), an award winning independent technology and publishing business that offers personalised children's picture books. Launched in 2012, Wonderbly has sold over 2.7 million books in over two hundred countries around the world. Wonderbly raised $8.5m in 2017 from Ravensburger, a leading European publisher of games, puzzles, and children’s books and its existing investors include Google Ventures, Project A Ventures, Greycroft, The Chernin Group and Allen & Co.

Personal life

Linney married Tara Bishop and they have two children Tiger and Electra. Linney and Bishop were divorced in 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Linney, Piers Living people English businesspeople English television personalities English people of Barbadian descent 1971 births