James Caan

James Caan is the founder and CEO of Hamilton Bradshaw, based in Mayfair, London. The company was founded in 2004 and specialises in buyouts, venture capital, turnarounds, and real estate investment in the UK.

One of the first interviews Caan got was for a job interviewing for a recruitment agency. He got it, and the position paid 30 pounds per week. Effectively, it involved cold-calling firms, ascertaining whether they had a vacancy, advertising that vacancy and then interviewing candidates to find the most suitable applicant. The more people he placed, the more money he earned. For Caan, this got his adrenaline going. After four years, he realised it was something he had a great deal of passion for. He decided to start his own recruitment business, and Alexander Mann was born.

The agency’s prestigious Pall Mall location set the tone for the business that Caan would sell in 2002 for £95m. Caan then graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2003, before starting recruitment investment firm, Hamilton Bradshaw. Now an industry leader, HB’s portfolio turns over in excess of £500m.

In 2007 Caan joined the panel of Dragons’ Den, a hit BBC1 show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas and hope to gain an investment. In his time on the show he made several high-profile investments including one that ended up being one of the most successful-ever pitches in the Den. More recently, Sky News launched ‘The Pledge,’ a weekly discussion program staring Caan and a pool of nine other high-profile panelists. Each week five members of the team would appear on the show armed with an issue that they were passionate about. Caan debated everything from Trump to Brexit.

In May 2012, Caan was approached by the Government to become chairman of the Start Up Loans initiative; a scheme that would provide funding and support to small businesses in the UK. Originally the goal of the scheme was to help 1000 business obtain government and private sector investments to fund new ventures, however the scheme has helped provide funding and mentorship to more than 50,000 businesses.

As a figurehead in the UK, Caan was recognised in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to entrepreneurship and charitable services through the James Caan Foundation; a charity set up to support projects across the world that look at enterprise to provide people with a better future.