A former management consultant, Danson used four credit cards to fund the launch of Datamonitor in 1990. He sold the market intelligence provider for £502m in 2007, buying back part of the business to start his new venture, GlobalData. This London-based publisher produces reports and newsletters on nearly 20 sectors with intelligence covering almost 1 million companies. Danson has assiduously grown the company with a series of acquisitions, helping expand the range of information available to his customers. In doing so, the company’s renewal rate has climbed to an unprecedented 98 per cent.