A classic ‘rags to riches’ tale is that of Penny Streeter. Born in what was then Rhodesia, this police superintendent’s daughter came to England when she was 12 and worked on Margaret Thatcher’s Youth...
Montreal born “archetypal billionaire,” “fashion mogul” and “Ferrari fanatic” Lawrence Stroll arranged £536 million of funding to save Aston Martin, much of which came from his own very, very deep coffers, in early 2020....
New Haven, Connecticut born Sarah Winchester became one of the wealthiest women in the world after the death of her Winchester Repeating Arms Company heir husband, William Wirt Winchester, in 1882. With a 50%...
“The greatest miser” and “richest woman in America” during the Gilded Age, Hetty Green lived by the rule of “buy cheap and sell dear.” Known for her appalling personal hygiene and ragged dresses, Green...
“Playboy” turned lawyer Alexander van der Zwaan had it all but destroyed his reputation after being jailed for 30 days for lying to the FBI in April 2018 over Russia’s links to President Trump’s...
The richest self-made woman in the UK paid herself £217 million in 2016 and is said to have a personal fortune of circa £3.17 billion. A former betting shop cashier, Denise Coates purchased the...
Reclusive yet charming “leisure entrepreneur” Trevor Hemmings owns over 100 racehorses, lives primarily on the Isle of Man and generously funded the SAFE centre to help victims of sexual violence in Preston, Lancashire.
This “publicity...
Fat former boxer and Toad of Toad Hall-like figure of fun Fergus Wilson and his equally badly dressed Hyacinth Bucket-like wife, a former maths teacher named Judith, banned “coloured people” from renting the 1,000...
Born in Banchory, Aberdeenshire in 1985, Pete Cashmore founded Mashable, a “one-stop-shop” digital media news and blogging site, in his bedroom in 2005 with the aim of “changing the world”. The firm now has...
A tenacious Romany Gypsy turned multi-millionaire businessman, Mayfair and Hertfordshire based Alfie Best overcame “many obstacles and prejudices” to make his fortune in cars, mobile phone stores and mobile home parks. The owner of...
The “mastermind of Britain’s biggest cash robbery”, “from the streets kid” and “scary son of a b**ch” Lee Murray was born in Greenwich and nicknamed (much to his displeasure) ‘The Alien’ by fellow members...
Worth around £4.4 billion according to Forbes, Bestseller CEO Anders Holch Povlsen is the second largest landowner in Scotland with 218,365 acres to his name across eleven estates. Danish, a father of four and...
Born in 1983 in Alnwick, Northumberland, Nick Bell is amongst the few youngsters who genuinely deserve the accolade “entrepreneur”. A former pupil of The Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, Bell sold his first company, Tennfront.com,...
“Real estate royal” Douglas Durst had his leg amputated in 2015 and is the brother of the cross-dressing body dismemberer and suspected killer Robert Durst. The part owner of one of America’s top organic...
Gourmet popcorn entrepreneur Cassandra Stavrou is based in Barnet, North London and counted Google as her first customer. A winner at the 2016 Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year Awards, Stavrou and her co-founder,...
Art curator, philanthropist and ambassador’s wife Brooke Barzun is of Pilgrim Fathers ancestry and hails from the family that controls Jack Daniel’s. She is a mother of three and the wife of His Excellency...
A scion of the Swarovski AG crystal dynasty, Southern Methodist University, Texas educated Nadja Swarovski-Adams has been described as a “modern-day Medici in the fashion and design worlds”. Chelsea, London and Vero Beach, Florida based...
Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III dated both Paris Hilton and Mary-Kate Olsen but has been with the Australian supermodel Jessica Hart since 2010. Born in New York and brought up in Paris, Niarchos...
In 1994, with £6,000 in savings, Chrissie Rucker ended her career as a beauty journalist to launch The White Company from her boyfriend’s spare bedroom after struggling to find good quality white linen and...
A “trolley dolly” turned CEO of Britain’s biggest estate agency, Alison Platt sees no difference between selling bleach and houses. Appointed a non-executive director of Tesco in January 2016, Teddington based Platt has also...
One of five children of an exiled prince and hedgefunder and an American heiress, Her Royal Highness Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark was born in New York and grew up in Cheyne Walk...
Ambitious and hardworking to her core, North London born Karren Brady likes to describe herself as a “working mum”. Having become the youngest-ever managing director of a publicly listed company at the age of...
Iranian-British businessman Lord Alliance courageously used his powerful contacts to help save the ‘Forgotten Jews’ of Ethiopia in the 1980s and 1990s. Born in Kashan, Iran, David Alliance moved to Manchester at the age...
Massachusetts born and Boston based billionaire businessman Herb Chambers loves fast cars and mammoth yachts. He made his fortune after leaving the United States Navy to set up a firm fixing copy machines door-to-door...
An “improver” rather than a “creator”, Brooklyn born industrial designer Sara Little Turnbull believed “too many businesses designed products for the retailer rather than the customer”. Responsible for things as diverse as kitchenware that...
Worth some £5 billion, Leslie Wexner has been described as “very shy” and “certainly not the showing off type of American”. A father of four whose money was managed by Jeffrey Epstein until he...
