Biography
Rachel Elnaugh is one of Britain's highest profile female entrepreneurs.
Having started her working life as an office junior, at the age of 24 she created the market leading experiences brand Red Letter Days on a shoestring budget from the front room of her home. Red Letter Days went on to generate over £100million in turnover in the 16 years that she ran it, and in doing so pioneered the UK's £250 million experiences sector.
This earned her an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002, as well as being short listed for the 2001 Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year award and the Growing Business Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002.
Then, in early 2005, Rachel shot to fame as one of the original Dragons in BBCTV's BAFTA nominated cult business show Dragons' Den.
After the well-publicised crash of Red Letter Days in 2005, which followed the ill-advised expansion of the business three years earlier, Rachel stepped away from the media spotlight and has been working in the small business sector ever since, inspiring, motivating and helping entrepreneurs to achieve personal success.
Rachel is a prolific business speaker, having entertained audiences throughout the UK and beyond including Harvard Business School, the London Innovation Forum, and the Conservative Party Conference.
Amongst her many recent assignments, she chaired the Marketing Week two day Innovation Conference, hosted the StrategicRISK European Risk Management Awards 2007 and also appeared on stage with Anne Widdecombe and Oliver Letwin in a Dragons' Den style policy review panel at the Conservative Party Conference.
She is acting as a judge for this year's 'Enterprising Britain' awards and has recently been appointed as an ambassador for the Prince's Trust.
Rachel acts as mentor and consultant to a number of small businesses and launched her own unique Entrepreneurial Profiling system at the Business Start Up Show at London's Excel in April 2007. She has also launched a series of Entrepreneurial Masterclasses which will take place in June 2008.
Her first book 'Business Nightmares' was published by Crimson on 8 May 2008 and was serialised in the Telegraph as well as being WHSmith's Business Book of the Month for May.
Rachel lives in Bakewell, Derbyshire with her husband Chris and five sons Mark, Paul, Eddie, Michael and Jack.