James Caan has always had an entrepreneurial streak. From a young age, he felt a strong desire to follow in the footsteps of his father—the owner of a successful leather manufacturing business—albeit in his own way. James began his career in the recruitment industry and in the mid 80s established a human resources company, Alexander Mann. Starting from very humble beginnings, he managed to grow it exponentially to have a turnover of £130 million. At a similar time, he also founded Humana International, which he grew to 147 offices in 30 countries. In 1999, James sold both businesses and focused his attention on a new venture—the launch of the private equity investment firm Hamilton Bradshaw in 2003. Today, this company employs 500 staff and has a portfolio turnover of more than £200 million.
James is the CEO and chairperson of Hamilton Bradshaw and says that being an executive leader in today’s world is a vastly different role to what it was 10 or 20 years ago.
As technology and social media has progressed, he has had to adapt and be open to new business approaches and strategies in order to remain relevant to existing and potential clientele.
He certainly knows the importance of promoting himself and his brand well and has accepted numerous media opportunities over the years. This has led to him becoming a household name not only in Europe, but also internationally.
After appearing on the BBC’s television series Dragons’ Den, the breaks kept rolling in and today James writes regularly for the The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Business Matters, Business Zone, and Tech World. He has also made his mark on the professional networking website LinkedIn as a highly followed ‘influencer’, with a regular following of 2.4 million people alongside the likes of Richard Branson and Bill Gates.
