James Dyson is Britain's leading entrepreneur and inventor, founder of Dyson Appliances and inventor of the Dual Cyclone, England's biggest-selling vacuum cleaner. In 1978, dissatisfied with the performance of his new Hoover Junior, Dyson had an idea. He'd spotted a local sawmill using cyclone technology to separate sawdust particles from the air. Could this work on a vacuum cleaner? He ripped off his Hoover's clogging, stinking bag and replaced it with a crude cardboard prototype of his cyclone design - and it worked.

Dyson knew he was onto something, but it would take time to perfect his idea. Five years and 5,127 prototypes later, he created DC01, the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner. Fast-forward over two decades. Dyson has grown from one man with one idea, to a global technology enterprise of over 7,000 people. More than 3,000 of them are engineers. From acoustic to robotic, software to electronics, they use their diverse skills to solve the problems others ignore.

In 2002, Dyson set up the James Dyson Foundation to support design and engineering education. Their primary mission is to inspire future engineers, but they also support medical research and the local community around Dyson's global HQ in Malmesbury.

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