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Gerald Ronson

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Sir
Gerald Ronson
CBE
Born
Gerald Maurice Ronson

(1939-05-27) 27 May 1939 (age 85)
Paddington, London[1]
NationalityBritish
OccupationCEO of Heron International
Known forHeron International
SpouseDame Gail Ronson
Children4

Sir Gerald Maurice Ronson CBE (born 27 May 1939)[2] is a British businessman, philanthropist, and convicted criminal. In the 1980s, he was one of the 'Guinness Four' involved in a trading fraud, for which he served six month in prison.[3] He is a long-time supporter of Jewish charities, and was knighted for this charitable work in the UK's 2024 New Years Honours List.

Early life and career

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Ronson was born into a middle-class Jewish family.[4] He left school aged 15 to join his father in the family furniture business, named Heron after his father Henry. The company expanded into property development, at first with small residential projects, and later with commercial and office properties. By 1967, the company was active in seven European countries and fifty-two British municipalities. In the mid-1960s, Ronson brought the first self-service petrol retail outlets to the United Kingdom.[5]

Heron International

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Main article: Heron International

By the early 1980s Heron was one of the largest private companies in the United Kingdom, with assets of over £1.5 billion. In 1989, Ronson was listed by The Times as having a net worth of £500 million.[6][better source needed]

Ronson said that "The Ronson family lost $1 billion of its own money in the property crash of the early 1990s....the important thing was to rebuild."[7] By the 1990s Heron had almost collapsed, with over £1 billion owed to 11,000 bondholders.[8] The company survived with loans from Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Craig McCaw, Oracle Corporation's founder, Larry Ellison, and others,[9] and went on to develop projects including Heron Tower and The Heron in the City of London and The Peak in London's Victoria.

Heron Tower, London

Ronson's later additional business ventures included Ronson Capital Partners, an investment firm he established to invest opportunistically in real estate assets in the UK;[10] and Rontec Investments, a consortium comprising Snax 24, Investec and Grovepoint Capital, created to acquire the assets of Total Oil UK.[11]

Criminal conviction and the "Guinness Four"

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Ronson was known in the UK as one of the Guinness Four for his involvement in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s. He was convicted in August 1990 of one charge of conspiracy, two of false accounting, and one of theft. He was fined £5 million and given a one-year jail sentence, of which he served six months. In 2000, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that use of statements made to inspectors in the 1990 trial had been unfair, but rejected five other complaints and denied a costs application.[12] An appeal to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division, seeking to have the Human Rights Act 1998 applied retrospectively, failed in 2001.[13] A final appeal to the House of Lords failed in 2002. No further appeal was possible and the convictions were upheld.[14]

Philanthropy

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Gerald Ronson is a long-time supporter of Jewish and other charitable causes.[2] He is the Founding Chairman of the Jewish Community Security Trust,[15] Vice-president of the NSPCC[16] and President of JCoSS.[17]

Ronson won City AM's Personality of the Year Award in September 2011 and other awards.[18] In 2009, Juan Carlos I of Spain bestowed the Encomienda de Numero of the Spanish Order of Civil Merit Decoration on Ronson.[19] In the same year, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law by Northumbria University.[20]

Ronson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours list for charitable services. [21] He was knighted in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to philanthropy and to the Jewish community.[22]

Personal life

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Ronson is married to philanthropist and socialite Dame Gail Ronson. They have four daughters.[23] He is the uncle of record producer Mark Ronson.[24]

When asked about his family and Jewish heritage in an interview with the Jewish Telegraph, Ronson responded: "I am a proud Jew [...] when I go back to when I was a young boy, nothing has changed and that's how I look at the Ronson family, involved in school building, whether it be Israel, the Jewish Leadership Council, Jewish Care or most of the major organisations I've been involved in".[25]

References

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  1. ^ Kay, William (1985). Tycoons: Where They Came from and How They Made It. Piatkus Books. p. 143. ISBN 0861883470.
  2. ^ a b Round, Simon. "Interview: Gerald Ronson". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  3. ^ "Gerald Ronson: Property patriarch still going strong after six decades". 11 November 2016.
  4. ^ "FROM RICHES, TO A JAIL CELL AND BACK TO RICHES – THE AMAZING LIFE OF TYCOON GERALD RONSON". Jewish Telegraph. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  5. ^ "My First Million: Gerald Ronson". The Financial Times. 11 September 2009. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  6. ^ Sunday Times Rich List 2013: Arsenal FC's billionaire co-owner Alisher Usmanov topples Lakshmi Mittal to take top spot 20 April 2013
  7. ^ Heron Chief Takes His Cue From Hollywood By SARA SEDDON KILBINGER, The Wall Street Journal, 25 May 2005
  8. ^ Hellier, David (2 April 1994). "Heron Group lurches deeper into crisis". The Independent. London. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  9. ^ "A Guy Named Gerald" 2007 Interview
  10. ^ Thomas, Daniel (10 April 2011). "Ronson Sets Up Investment Group". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  11. ^ Goodley, Simon (21 June 2011). "Total Deal heralds comeback for veteran forecourt retailer Gerald Ronson". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  12. ^ CMISKP website
  13. ^ BBC News, 21 December 2001
  14. ^ House of Lords judgement in R v Lyons and others, given November 2002
  15. ^ Ronson, Gerald. "CST Represents all Jews". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  16. ^ "NSPCC: Our Vice Presidents".
  17. ^ "JCoSS People". Archived from the original on 20 January 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  18. ^ "Personality of the Year". City AM. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  19. ^ "Gerald Ronson awarded the Encomienda de Numero of the Spanish Order of Civil Merit Decoration". Building Design. 6 March 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  20. ^ "Honour for Leading UK Businessman". 22 July 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  21. ^ "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. p. 8.
  22. ^ "No. 64269". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2023. p. N2.
  23. ^ "'My father and I said we'd give it 12 months – six years later I'm still here'". The Telegraph. UK. 14 March 2004. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
  24. ^ Robinson, Jeffrey (2009). Gerald Ronson: Leading from the Front. Mainstream Publishing. p. 79. ISBN 9781845965099.
  25. ^ Hamson, Liz (20 February 2015). "It's a family affair: The Gerald Ronson interview". Property Week. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
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