James Caan, the former Dragons' Den investor has received a CBE in the New Years Honours list.

Pakistan-born Mr Caan, who changed his name from Nazim Khan as a teenager, left school at the age of 16 with no qualifications but his business empire is now said to be worth £70 million.

His father sold leather goods in east London but Mr Caan walked away to make his name in recruitment.

He built up two companies, Alexander Mann and Humana International, which he sold before founding private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw.

Mr Caan, who has spoken about employing a butler and buying a Rolls-Royce, said the moment he realised he had made it was when he paid a restaurant bill without looking at it.

"Suddenly, money didn't matter any more," he later told a newspaper.

He became a household name after joining the panel of Dragons' Den in 2007, investing nearly £1 million of his own money in 14 businesses over the course of four series.

Mr Caan, 54, is chairman of the Start Up Loans Company, a Government-backed scheme which provides finance and advice for fledgling firms.

He receives his award for services to entrepreneurship and charitable services through the James Caan Foundation.

The businessman set out on charity work in 2005 after he was moved by the extreme poverty he encountered on a visit to Pakistan and decided to build a school.

In 2010 he was involved in a controversial episode when, during a visit to a flood-hit village in the country, he offered to buy a baby girl from her family for 100,000 rupees (less than £1,000 at the time).

He later said it was an "emotional response" after seeing malnourished families huddled together in an area hit by a polio epidemic.

"Then one of the aid workers gives me this newborn child, saying it's unlikely she'll survive. You stand there as a parent thinking, this is just not right."

It came months after another controversial episode when he was involved in a spat with fellow Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne over Mr Caan's non-dom tax status, which Mr Bannatyne said was "unfair".

In June last year, Mr Caan's appointment as a social mobility tsar attracted unwelcome publicity when it was overshadowed by a nepotism row.

The entrepreneur said in interviews to promote the role that parents ought to let children stand on their own two feet and take a back seat when it came to helping them find jobs.

He said: "I don't think it's good to create a society where people get jobs based on who you know rather than what you can do."