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Cristina Stuart Green, Lady Green (, formerly Palos; born August 1949), known as Tina Green, is an English businesswoman and interior designer. Green is the director of Taveta, the majority owner of Taveta Investments Ltd, the
parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
of the
Arcadia 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 (B ...
, of which her husband,
Sir Philip Green Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman, and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. In May 20 ...
, is chairman. The Arcadia Group owned the clothing retail chains
Topshop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British online fast-fashion retailer, which specialises in women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It is majority owned by Danish company, Bestseller. In 2024, ASOS sold 75% of Topshop and Topman to Bests ...
and
Topman Topman is a British online-only men's fashion retail brand operated by ASOS. Along with its women's clothing counterpart Topshop and the rest of Arcadia Group, Topman went into administration in late 2020. All high street stores subsequently c ...
, as well as Burton,
Dorothy Perkins Dorothy Perkins is a British online women's fashion retailer operated by Debenhams Group in the United Kingdom. Formerly a store chain, it sold both its own range of clothes and branded fashion goods until February 2021, when it became part o ...
, Evans,
Miss Selfridge Miss Selfridge is a British fashion brand and former high street store chain which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, which we ...
, Outfit, and Wallis. Taveta owned British Homes Stores (BHS) before its 2015 sale. BHS was placed into administration in 2016, and the Arcadia Group was placed into administration in 2020. Green formed the interior design company Green & Mingarelli with the Italian designer Pietro Mingarelli. Green was the recipient of a £1.2 billion dividend payment from the Arcadia Group in 2005, a record payment in British corporate history. In 2005 ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' stated that she was "for tax reasons the legal owner" of her and her husband's estimated wealth of £4.9 billion. In 2020, the couple's wealth was estimated at £930 million by the
Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...
and at $2.4 billion by ''
The World's Billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March 1987. ...
'' list published by
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
in 2021. Green has a close financial relationship with the businessman
Richard Caring Richard Allan Caring (born 4 June 1948) is a British businessman. He initially built a business, International Clothing Designs, supplying Hong Kong-manufactured fashion to UK retailers. In 2004 he diversified his business interest into proper ...
. She is a resident of
Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...
.


Early life and career

Cristina Stuart Paine was born in London in August 1949. Her father was a wine merchant; his business led to long periods living abroad and Green spent her childhood in Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand. Green did not finish school and described herself as "trained in nothing" but has said that she loves to "work and to graft". Green met Robert "Bobby" Palos, a South African jazz drummer in Hong Kong when she was 17 and he was 31. They married a year later in 1967 after travelling around Australia and Japan. Green initially worked in the diamond industry and subsequently moved to South Africa with Palos and the couple opened a fashion boutique in Johannesburg. Green and Palos had two children, Stasha (born 1972) and Brett (born 1974). Green's daughter, Stasha, subsequently described her mother's early career as having involved being "a diamond dealer, the first female DJ in Johannesburg nda go-go dancer" as well as dancing with
The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
. Green and Palos later took their fashion boutique to London. Green described herself as more driven to succeed in business than Palos, and after 20 years together the couple divorced. They remained friends after their divorce and Green and Palos's second wife were at his bedside when he died. She met businessman
Philip Green Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman, and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. In May 2 ...
in 1985 and described him as "Just an ordinary person with a seriously strong work ethic", who was "a colourful character" with "zero money". They married in 1990. The couple have two children, Chloe (born 1991) and Brandon (born 1993). Green designed clothing for her husband's clothing shops, including
Lewis's Lewis's is an online retailer and homeware brand. It was also a chain of British department stores that operated from 1856 to 2010. The owners of Lewis's went into administration several times, including in 1991. The first store, which ope ...
and
Owen Owen Owen Owen was a Liverpool-based operator of department stores in the United Kingdom and Canada. Beginning with a drapery shop in Liverpool, a chain of department stores was built up, often by taking over rival retailers. The company remained u ...
, and subsequently helped design the layout of the stores. Green's fashion boutique in London's Knightsbridge district, Harabels, closed in 1992. Green, her husband Philip, and their children moved to
Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...
in 1998, having previously lived on
Avenue Road Avenue Road may refer to: * Avenue Road, Bangalore, busy shopping and commercial street in Bangalore * Avenue Road, London, street in the Swiss Cottage and St John's Wood districts of London * Avenue Road tram stop, tram stop in the London Borough ...
in London's
St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...
district. Philip Green has said that the move was for health reasons. Tina Green said in a 2005 interview that the couple moved from St John's Wood to Monaco after Philip was the victim of a mugging by three men with a sword. Green has organised several large parties for her husband Philip's 50th, 55th and 60th birthday parties. Philip's 50th birthday party took place in Cyprus and cost an estimated £5 million. The party featured performances from
Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or EWF) is an American band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Their music spans multiple genres, including jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin and Afro-pop. They are among the best-selling ba ...
, and the singers
Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer *Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in 1 ...
and
Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer and songwriter. Known for his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time, having sold ...
. His 55th birthday party was held in the Maldives at a cost of £20 million, with performances from
Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), also known by her nickname J.Lo, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, dancer and businesswoman. Lopez is regarded as one of the most influential entertainers of her time, credited with breaking ...
and
George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. Regarded as a pop culture icon, he is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling rec ...
. His 60th was held at the Rosewood Mayakoba resort in Mexico featuring performances from
The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
,
Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...
and
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...
. In 2012 Green ordered the
superyacht A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from to ...
'' Lionheart'' from the shipbuilders
Benetti Benetti is an Italian shipbuilding and boat building company based in Viareggio, Livorno, and Fano, owned by Azimut Benetti S.p.A. Benetti designs and constructs motoryachts, and is one of the leading builders of custom superyachts, havin ...
at an estimated cost of £100 million. Green was appointed treasurer to the private charitable foundation of
Charlene, Princess of Monaco Charlene ( ;Since her marriage, her name has been Gallicised by adding a grave accent to her name in French documents. born Charlene Lynette Wittstock, 25 January 1978) is princess consort of Monaco, Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Albe ...
, in 2017. In 2000, she bought £25 million of shares in the British retail company
Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...
shortly before it was announced that Philip Green was considering a takeover of the company. Green was described as the "for tax reasons the legal owner" of her and her husband's estimated wealth of £4.9 billion by ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' in 2005. In 2020, the couple's wealth was estimated at £930 million by the
Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...
and at $2.4 billion by ''
The World's Billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March 1987. ...
'' list published by
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
in 2021. Philip and Tina Green's net worth at its peak in 2007 was estimated to be £4.9 billion by the
Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...
, it had declined to an estimated £930 million by 2020. Green has spoken of the British public's perceived resentment of her wealth saying in a 2005 interview that she thought that " ... unfortunately, in this country he United Kingdomthere's a lot of jealousy. No one likes a winner, they just want the bad news. I just find it very sad". In a 2012 interview Green said that it had been " ... really scary. It scares me. Yes. Because it's been so ... difficult".


Taveta and the Arcadia Group

Green is the director of Taveta Ltd which is the majority owner of Taveta Investments Ltd. Taveta Investments Ltd is the
parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
of the Arcadia Group, of which Green's husband, Philip, is the chairman. Taveta Investments acquired the Arcadia Group for £770 million in 2004, by 2018 the group owned the clothing store chains of
Topshop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British online fast-fashion retailer, which specialises in women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It is majority owned by Danish company, Bestseller. In 2024, ASOS sold 75% of Topshop and Topman to Bests ...
and
Topman Topman is a British online-only men's fashion retail brand operated by ASOS. Along with its women's clothing counterpart Topshop and the rest of Arcadia Group, Topman went into administration in late 2020. All high street stores subsequently c ...
as well as Burton,
Dorothy Perkins Dorothy Perkins is a British online women's fashion retailer operated by Debenhams Group in the United Kingdom. Formerly a store chain, it sold both its own range of clothes and branded fashion goods until February 2021, when it became part o ...
, Evans,
Miss Selfridge Miss Selfridge is a British fashion brand and former high street store chain which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, which we ...
, Outfit, and Wallis. In 2005 Tina Green was the recipient of a £1.2 billion
dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders, after which the stock exchange decreases the price of the stock by the dividend to remove volatility. The market has no control over the stock price on open on the ex ...
from Arcadia, the largest dividend in British corporate history. Green notably paid no British
income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...
on the dividend due to her residency in the
tax haven A tax haven is a term, often used pejoratively, to describe a place with very low tax rates for Domicile (law), non-domiciled investors, even if the official rates may be higher. In some older definitions, a tax haven also offers Bank secrecy, ...
of Monaco. The dividend was paid for by a loan taken out by Arcadia, cutting Arcadia's corporation tax as interest charges on the loan were offset against profits. In August 2010 Philip Green said that "My wife's not a tax exile – my family do not live in the United Kingdom, it's somewhat different. We do pay all our tax in Britain. I think we have paid over the last five years some £300-400m in taxes on profits that have been made on our company". Philip Green has jocularly referred to his wife's income as "housekeeping money". In 2016 Green said that she or her family had controlling stakes in 11 companies, the majority of which were based in Jersey and the British Virgin Islands. Green said that the locations were chosen as they had strong regulatory and professional corporate regimes. The
British Home Stores British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, is an online store and formerly a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to exp ...
(BHS) group was acquired by Taveta for £200 million in 2000. It was subsequently sold in 2015 for £1, and went into administration in 2016. BHS had a deficit in its pension schemes of £571 million at the time of its 2016 collapse and 11,000 jobs were put at risk. The shareholders of BHS including the Green family were the recipients of £580 million from the group during their tenure. In 2016, Philip Green agreed to appear before a work and pensions select committee of the British
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
on condition that his wife was not called before the committee. As the largest shareholder of the Arcadia Group, in 2019 Green put £100 million over three years into the group's two pension schemes in a deal arranged with the
Pensions Regulator The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is a non-departmental public body which regulates work-based pension schemes in the United Kingdom. Created under the Pensions Act 2004, the regulator replaced the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA) fro ...
. In 2019 Tina Green put £50 million into the Arcadia Group in exchange for rent reductions on clothing stores rented by the group from landlords. The Arcadia Group went into administration in November 2020. The group had struggled with several years of declining sales and the economic fallout of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confirm ...
. It was seen as having suffered from underinvestment in comparison to other retail companies and having failed to make as successful transition to
online retail Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the ...
as its corporate rivals.


UK Uncut protests

In 2010 the Greens became the subject of protests from the activist group
UK Uncut UK Uncut was a network of United Kingdom-based Protest, protest groups established in October 2010 to protest against cuts to public services and tax avoidance in the UK. Various sources have described the group as Left-wing politics, left-win ...
for their alleged avoidance of corporate taxation. At the time of the protests the Conservative government under Prime Minister
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...
was imposing austerity through cuts to government expenditure. The protestors claimed that the cuts could be avoided if corporate tax avoidance was eradicated. Philip Green had been appointed by Cameron as an advisor to the government on efficiency. The UK Uncut campaigners staged a sit-in at Arcadia's flagship London
Topshop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British online fast-fashion retailer, which specialises in women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It is majority owned by Danish company, Bestseller. In 2024, ASOS sold 75% of Topshop and Topman to Bests ...
store in
Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...
and glued themselves to the windows of Topshop in Brighton on 4 December 2010. The protestors also targeted Barclays, Boots, HSBC, and Vodafone stores.


Green & Mingarelli

Green formed the
interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. With a keen eye for detail and a Creativity, creative flair, an ...
company Green & Mingarelli with the Italian furniture designer Pietro Mingarelli, having met him on a yacht. The pair work up to 15 hour days when working on designs. The company has created interiors for private residences and yachts. Green's interior design work is noted for her extensive use of black and white. The company restored and designed the interior of a mews house in London's
Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous pla ...
district "almost entirely" in black and white. Green extensively uses Lalique glass in her interior designs and helped create a homewear range for Lalique Maison in 2014. Mark Harrison, writing in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', described Green's Lalique range as "rather lovely; ornate, but not vulgar; terribly grand" and a "harmonious, genteel, upmarket non-riot of off-white, ebony, crystal and gold". Green herself described her Lalique work as "obviously high end, and obviously expensive". Green & Mingarelli came to the attention of the owner of Lalique, Silvio Denz, due to their extensive use of Lalique glass in the decoration of the 68.5m motor yacht ''Silver Angel'', which led to their homeware commission. In their Lalique collection a sideboard was priced at €30,000 and a mirror at €10,000.


Financial link with Richard Caring

Green has been linked financially to the British businessman
Richard Caring Richard Allan Caring (born 4 June 1948) is a British businessman. He initially built a business, International Clothing Designs, supplying Hong Kong-manufactured fashion to UK retailers. In 2004 he diversified his business interest into proper ...
, a close friend and business partner of her husband Philip Green. It was revealed in the
Swiss Leaks Swiss Leaks (or SwissLeaks) is a journalistic investigation, released in February 2015, of a giant tax evasion scheme allegedly operated with the knowledge and encouragement of the British multinational bank HSBC via its Swiss subsidiary, HSBC ...
that Green held the "vast majority of aring'scash assets" on trust for him in her bank account with HSBC in Monaco. Green provided £23.5 million to Caring to help him purchase the restaurant chains
Belgo Belgo was a chain of London restaurants specializing in simple Belgian cooking and Belgian beer. There were five Belgo restaurants: Belgo Centraal ( Covent Garden), Belgo Holborn, Belgo Kings Cross, Belgo Nottingham and Belgo Bromley; followin ...
and
Strada Various Eateries Trading Limited, trading as Strada, is a chain based in the United Kingdom of branded restaurants specialising in Italian cuisine with two Strada sites and six Coppa Clubs, all in Southern England. History The concept was spa ...
from Luke Johnson. Green gifted the ''Silver Angel'' motor yacht, worth an estimated £25 million to Caring in 2017. In 2009 Caring had told the ''Evening Standard'' newspaper that he had just acquired the yacht but it was revealed in the
Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 ...
leak that it had been held in Green's name from 2009 to 2017. ''Silver Angel'' was decorated by Green's company, Green & Mingarelli in tones of white, cream and black. When Philip Green first saw the interior of the yacht he is said to have remarked to his wife "Are these the only fucking colours you can do? It's the same colour as our boat".


References


Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Tina 1949 births Living people 20th-century British businesspeople 20th-century English businesswomen 21st-century British businesspeople 21st-century English businesswomen 21st-century English businesspeople Businesspeople from London English billionaires English businesspeople in fashion English businesspeople in retailing English expatriates in Monaco English expatriates in South Africa English interior designers Female billionaires People named in the Pandora Papers Wives of knights