Deborah Jayne Bestwick was born on 7 March 1970. She attended Holgate School in Hucknall. Bestwick gained a significant interest in video games at the age of twelve, when she played Football Manager on her brother's ZX Spectrum. As she approached her A-level examinations aged sixteen, Bestwick sought for a job to fund her summer vacation, and eventually found two open positions in Nottingham that caught her interest, one at a grocery store and one at a video game store, of which she chose to apply for the latter. Bestwick described the idea of working with video games as "heaven". She never returned to finish her exams. A short time into her part-time job, the store's owner stepped down and offered Bestwick to take over the business, to which she agreed. Subsequently, Bestwick managed the store for twelve months before negotiating its sale to entrepreneur Michael Robinson and its integration into Microbyte, Robinson's UK-wide computer retail chain headquartered in Wakefield. At Microbyte, Bestwick was promoted time and time again, eventually becoming promotions manager and later sales manager. In 1990, co-worker Martyn Brown conceived the idea of converting 17-Bit Software, a video game publisher also owned by Robinson, into a venture that acted as both publisher and developer, using a Swedish three-man team from Olofström, Sweden, known as Team 7, as internal developers and Brown as project manager. Team 7 was previously formed the same year through interaction between Brown and Swedish programmer Andreas Tadic, and at the time consisted of Tadic, Rico Holmes and Peter Tuleby. After Robinson agreed, Brown became, as intended, project manager, while Bestwick was given the role of "commercial support" for 17-Bit Software. The two studios soon agreed to formally merge and created Team17 on 7 December 1990. Day-to-day business was run by Bestwick and Brown, however, following her management buyout of both Brown and Robinson in 2010, Bestwick became the sole manager of Team17 as chief executive officer. In May 2018, Bestwick and Chris Bell, who she hired as Team17's chairman, created an initial public offering for Team17; the company was listed the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market and Bestwick received around in windfall gain for the sale of 50% of her shares.
Personal life
Bestwick is single with two children and resides in the countryside north of Nottingham.
