Ralph Halpern

Ralph Halpern was born in October 1938.[1] He was born in London after his Jewish parents fled from the Nazis in the 1930s and emigrated to England, losing their fortune.[2][3]

Halpern joined Burton Group as a management trainee in 1961, and was directly involved in the establishment of Top Shop (above a Peter Robinson branch) in 1964.[2] 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.[4]

Halpern was knighted for "services to the retail industry" by Margaret Thatcher in 1986. He divorced his first wife Joan in 1999, with whom he had a daughter Jenny.[5] He had previously been linked by the British tabloids to a liaison with the page 3 model Fiona Wright, leading to a "five times a night" headline.[3] In 2000, Halpern became a father again, aged 61, when his second wife, Laura Blume gave birth to a son.[6][7] He and Laura were subsequently divorced in Miami in 2007.[8] He was still residing in Miami in 2019.[9]