Sir John Henry Ritblat (born 3 October 1935) is an English property developer. He is honorary president (and formerly chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

) of The British Land Company PLC, an FTSE250 London-based property company in which

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

' G Soros Realty Investors acquired a stake in 1993.

Early life

Ritblat was born in 1935 in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, North London, England to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family. He was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

, The Hall School, Hampstead and the College of Estate Management.

Career

He acquired British Land from Jim Slater in 1970 for £1m, and retired as chairman in 2006. Since June 2001, Ritblat has served as the non-executive chairman of property advisory Colliers CRE. He also serves as the chairman of the advisory board of Delancey, the property and asset-backed investment firm founded in 1995 by his son Jamie Ritblat (born 1967), which owns the Alpha Plus Group of schools of which Sir John is the chairman of the board of governors.

Political activity

Ritblat has donated to the Conservative Party. In August 2018, Jim Fitzpatrick MP forwarded a letter to the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priva ...

that made unsubstantiated allegations about the 2010 off-market sale of the

Royal Mint Court Royal Mint Court is a building complex with offices and 100 shared-ownership homes in East Smithfield, close to the City of London financial district. The site was the home of the Royal Mint from 1809 until 1967 and was earlier the site of a C ...

freehold to DV4, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delancey based in the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

and questioning the Crown Estate's relationship with the Ritblat family.

Philanthropy

Ritblat is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wallace Collection, Chairman of the governing body of the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degree, Master's degrees in management and finance, Master of B ...

and an Honorary Fellow, a member of the Council of The Royal Institution, Honorary President of the British Ski and Snowboard Federation, Deputy Chairman and an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and Vice-chairman of International Students House, London. The John Ritblat gallery of the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

houses some of the finest items in the library's collection for public display; it is named after him as he was a major benefactor during the building of the gallery and donated £1,000,000 towards the gallery's display cases.

Personal life

Ritblat has been married twice. His second wife, Jill (Zilkha née Slotover), is a philanthropist. He has two sons, Jamie Ritblat (b 1967) and Nick Ritblat, and a daughter, Suki Ritblat.

References

External links

Alpha Plus on Delancey website
1935 births Living people Academics of London Business School People from Hampstead People educated at Dulwich College People associated with the Royal Academy of Music People associated with the Wallace Collection Conservative Party (UK) people Knights Bachelor British Land people Alumni of University College of Estate Management {{UK-business-bio-1930s-stub