Sir Ralph Mark Halpern (24 October 1938 – 10 August 2022) was a British businessman, who was the founder of Topshop and chief executive officer (CEO) of the

Burton Group Arcadia Group Ltd (formerly Arcadia Group plc and, until 1998, Burton Group plc) was a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England. It was best known for being the previous parent company of British Home Stores (BH ...

from 1979 to 1991.

Early life

Ralph Halpern was born in October 1938 in London, after his Jewish parents fled from the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

in the 1930s and emigrated to England, losing their fortune.

Career

Halpern joined

as a management trainee in 1961, and was directly involved in the establishment of

Top Shop ''Board Game Top Shop'', known in Japan as (''Tenantouŏ̄zu''), is a video board game developed by KID for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Although both releases were published in Japan, only the PlayStation version was issued in North America ...

(above a Peter Robinson branch) in 1964. On the back of its success he progressed through the managerial ranks becoming chief executive in 1978. He turned it into a retail empire that dominated the British high street, with 2,800 stores and employing more than 60,000 people. With brands including Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, Principles, Racing Green and Evans, it was worth £1.8bn when Halpern was ousted by the board in 1991.

Personal life and death

Halpern was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

for "services to the retail industry" in the

1986 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supple ...

. He married Joan Donkin in 1967. They had a daughter,

Jenny Halpern Prince Jenny Halpern Prince (née Halpern) is a British businesswoman. Biography Prince was born in Kingston Upon Thames. She is the daughter of Sir Ralph Halpern and Lady (Joan) Halpern. In 2014, she helped found the Lady Garden Foundation, a n ...

, and divorced in 1999. In 1987, he was linked by the British tabloids to a liaison with the page 3 model Fiona Wright, leading to a "five times a night" headline. In 2000, Halpern became a father again, aged 61, when his second wife and former secretary, Laura Blume, gave birth to a son. He and Laura were subsequently divorced in Miami in 2007. He was still residing in Miami in 2019. Halpern died on 10 August 2022, at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halpern, Ralph 1938 births 2022 deaths Austrian emigrants to the United Kingdom Austrian Jews British Jews British chief executives British people of Austrian-Jewish descent Businesspeople from London Knights Bachelor