- published: 15 Jun 2016
- views: 4826
Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman and the Chairman of the Arcadia Group, a retail giant that includes Topshop, Topman, Wallis, Evans, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Outfit and previously BHS.
Philip Green was born on 15 March 1952 in Croydon, in South London, the son of a successful Jewish property developer and retailer. He has a sister, Elizabeth, five years his senior. His family moved to Hampstead Garden Suburb, a middle-class enclave in north London, and at the age of nine he was sent to the now-closed Jewish boarding school Carmel College in Oxfordshire.
When his father died of a heart attack, Green was in line to inherit the family business at the age of twelve. After leaving boarding school at 15, he worked for a shoe importer before travelling to the US, Europe and the Far East. It was on his return that he set up his first business with a £20,000 loan backed by his family (or £216,000 in 2014 dollars) at age 21, importing jeans from the Far East to sell on to retailers in London.