Hope . . . and the Hedgehog

In 1966, with a GBP200 loan from a local bank in the small market town of Ross-on-Wye, Tom Vaughan and his brother co-founded and built up the company that became Juliana's Holdings Plc - the world's largest discotheque entertainment group of its time, employing over 800 people worldwide. In 1986 the company was underwritten by Morgan Grenfell in a highly successful public offering on the main market of the London Stock Exchange - three times oversubscribed at the time of floatation. In their early days, when Tom and his brother were hands-on disc jockeys, Juliana's discotheques played at all the high-end parties of the deb season in the 1960s and early 1970s, becoming a household name throughout the UK. Juliana's played at Queen Charlotte's Ball every year. Juliana's played for leading fashion houses when they launched their new collections. Juliana's played at the Investiture Ball for the Prince of Wales at Caernarvon Castle. Tom Vaughan is a past director of Mulberry Plc and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.