Simon Woodroffe

Business speaker, entrepreneur and one-time TV presenter Simon Woodroffe is the owner of the YO! Company, a successful business group that own a variety of brands including a chain restaurant, clothing brand and spa resorts. Appearing as a business management speaker and expert on the first UK series of the television show Dragons' Den, Simon Woodroffe has been working as a public business speaker at conferences and after dinner speaker events since the late 1990’s when, following the launch of the YO! Sushi restaurant chain, he became an incredibly successful businessman.

Leaving school at a young age Woodroffe opened YO! Sushi with minimal start-up capital and extended the chain with no financial backing from banks, using his own impressive business skills, minimal sponsorship from a number of big Japanese brands and extended payoff agreements with his suppliers Woodroffe managed to roll out his chain incurring minimal start-up costs and maximising his eventual profit.

With a particular interest in Japan and all things Japanese Simon Woodroffe his worked as a business management speaker both on television and radio, hosting and funding a series of business related radio broadcasts entitled RadiYO! After more than a decade of success, Simon Woodroffe OBE sold his controlling share in the YO! Sushi chain for £10 million and has gone on to focus his attention on his work as a motivational and business management speaker. Alongside his work as a business management speaker Woodroffe has maintained success with the YO! Company and owns a number of popular and respected brands including YO! Zone, YOTEL and Yo! Japan. Simon Woodroffe works as an after dinner speaker across the UK and has been featured at the Edinburgh Festival where he discussed the success of the YO! Sushi brand.