Richard Allan Caring (born 4 June 1948)
is a British businessman. He initially built a business,
International Clothing Designs, supplying
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
-manufactured fashion to UK retailers. After surviving the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, he diversified his business interest into restaurants and nightclubs and is the chairman of Caprice Holdings, which owns and runs
The Ivy
The Ivy is a British restaurant which is known for being popular with celebrities. It is located on West Street near Cambridge Circus in London, opposite the Ambassadors and St Martin's theatres, making it a popular restaurant for theaterg ...
chain of restaurants.
According to the
Sunday Times Rich List in 2021, Caring's net worth is estimated to be £1.005 billion.
Early life
Caring was born on 4 June 1948,
the middle child of three born to Louis Caringi, an Italian-American
GI, stationed in London during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and Sylvia Parnes,
a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
-immigrant
nurse
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...
who met him in the
ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
on his way to hospital, and cared for him during his recovery.
[
After deciding to stay in London after the war, the couple married. Louis Caringi anglicized his surname to Caring, and set up in the clothing industry in offices off ]Great Portland Street
Great Portland Street in the West End of London links Oxford Street with Albany Street and the A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road. A commercial street including some embassies, it divides Fitzrovia, to the east, from Marylebone to the west. ...
; Louis Caring Originals sourced knitwear
Knitted fabric is a textile that results from knitting, the process of inter-looping of yarns or inter-meshing of loops. Its properties are distinct from woven fabric in that it is more flexible and can be more readily constructed into smaller pi ...
for retailers including Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
.
Caring's prowess at golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
, playing off of scratch,[ resulted in him representing ]Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
at county level, and being accepted into Millfield School in Street, Somerset
Street is a large village and civil parish in Somerset, England, with a population of 11,805 in 2011. On a dry spot in the Somerset Levels, at the end of the Polden Hills, it is south-west of Glastonbury. There is evidence of Roman occupation ...
on a 10- shilling-a-week sporting scholarship.
Career
Clothing
With golf talent insufficient to make an income, Caring left Millfield aged 16 and joined a shopping centre
A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre ( Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof.
The first known colle ...
development company as an office boy:
However, the family business was in trouble. In the designer-led 1960s, Caring's father didn't understand fashion
Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion i ...
, and the resulting losses in the business threatened losing the family home.[ At the time, Louis Caring Originals had become a dress manufacturer that employed seven people. Caring had a girlfriend at the ]Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...
, with whom he ran up a range of mini-skirt
A miniskirt (sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, separated as mini skirt, or sometimes shortened to simply mini) is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a ...
s that cost £2 to make, selling them for 69s 6d (£3.475 in decimalisation). With an initial target of 200 a week, after a few years they were selling 25,000 a week:
In 1971 Caring first visited Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
,[ where labour and materials were far cheaper than in Britain.] Until this point, Hong Kong made basic clothing cheaply, such as underpants
Underpants are underwear worn on the lower body.
In British English the term is often shortened to pants and refers to men’s clothing only.
Types of underpants
Long underpants
Long underpants are the bottom half of a style of two-piece unde ...
. Spending a year living out of a suitcase
A suitcase is a form of luggage. It is a rectangular container with a handle typically used to carry one's clothes and other belongings while traveling. The first suitcases appeared in the late 19th century due to the increased popularity of m ...
and resident in one hotel, Caring educated local manufacturers through producing the same garment over and over again to get the quality right. As a result, he became one of the first western high fashion
''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became the ...
buyers to develop localised Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
relationships,[ and returned to the UK to sell the new high quality but cheaper garments to UK ]retailer
Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...
s.[
Forming International Clothing Designs (ICD) to exploit the new opportunity, Caring moved his family permanently to Hong Kong in 1979. Due to its international trading nature, the company's structure and holdings are complex, held through a series of offshore companies and trusts, making it hard to detect Caring’s full earnings from the fashion world.] The manoeuvre worked, and Caring cornered the market in fast fashion. ICD at its height supplied 70% of the clothing sold by British high street retailers,[ supplying Marks & Spencer, ]Mothercare
Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to eight years of age. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap In ...
and Next
Next may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare
* ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage
* '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film
Lit ...
.
It was through ICD and its trading that he met and developed his relationship with Sir Philip Green
Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company the Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. As of Ma ...
, the fashion retailer. Up to this day, ICD is the dominant supplier to 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 (BH ...
, the Green-owned fashion retail chain that includes Dorothy Perkins
Dorothy Perkins is an online British women's fashion brand based 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 of Boohoo.com, having bee ...
, Topshop
TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British fashion brand for women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, but went into administration in late 2020 before being purchased by ASOS o ...
and Top Man.[ This was not the normal retailer and supplier set-up but described as more of a partnership,][ with Caring presenting Green with a Ferrari F430 Spider for his 50th birthday:]
For less than a year, Caring worked for Green, and he is still a supplier to the chain.[ Caring supplied ]Next plc
Next plc (styled as NEXT) is a British multinational clothing, footwear and home products retailer, which has its headquarters in Enderby, England. It has around 700 stores, of which circa 500 are in the United Kingdom, and circa 200 across Eu ...
via a joint venture company NV, but sold his share in the 1990s back to the retailer.[ He built a joint venture to supply ]Freemans
Freemans is a British online and catalogue clothing retailer headquartered in Bradford, England. Freemans offers a range of products, predominantly clothing, footwear and homewares.
History
The company was founded as Freemans & Co in 1905 by ...
catalogues, again now sold to the partner.[ He also co-developed the ''Together'' brand, which after buying out partners he sold to ]German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
catalogue firm Otto Versand. In 2004–05, ICD saw sales drop to £74.2m from £85.5m, making a pre-tax loss of £523,644 from a £3.99m profit the year before after an exceptional loss on the sale of Amanda Wakeley's designer label.[ In 2007, Caring looked at buying the distressed Prada brand.
ICD is a smaller operation in the UK than it was, but still today employs 250 people.][ Based between ]Fitzroy Square
Fitzroy Square is a Georgian square in London. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia.
The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding district to be known as Fitzroy Square or Fitzro ...
and Euston Road, Caring's office is a bespoke built top-floor addition, with a fully equipped bar and a roof terrace that faces south across the West End. His personal office includes drawings by Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...
, a Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...
, and a Henry Moore sculpture bronze of a mother and child, lifted in by crane.[
]
Property
It is proposed by many that Caring first started investing in property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
while resident in Hong Kong, ploughing back profits from clothing sourcing into other assets.[ His first UK publicised deal was the £45m purchase of a part of the ]Camden Market
The Camden markets are a number of adjoining large retail markets, often collectively referred to as Camden Market or Camden Lock, located in the historic former Pickfords stables, in Camden Town, London. It is situated north of the Hampstead ...
complex in 2004, that he purchased from Bebo Kobo
Zari David "Bebo" Kovo (a.k.a. Kobo; born February 1951) is an Israeli-Bulgarian property developer, the co-founder of property company Camden Market Holdings & Developments (including Stanley Sidings and the Stables Market Property Group), with ...
and OD Kobo
Oded David "O. D." Kobo (Hebrew: קובו עודד) is a Hong Kong-born Internet businessman. He is the co-founder of PIR Equities and Israel Investment Partners (IIP), both employee owned private equity firms, and a member of the partnership ne ...
.[
Later that same year his friend ]Elliott Bernerd
Elliott Bernerd (born 23 May 1945) is a British property developer, the co-founder of the property company Chelsfield with Sir Stuart Lipton.
Early life
He was born in Maida Vale, London on 23 May 1945, the only child of a film producer father. ...
called him to ask whether, as an avid golfer, he might be interested in buying Wentworth Golf Club.[ In partnership with then minority shareholder, airport hotel entrepreneur ]Surinder Arora
Surinder Arora (Punjabi: ਸਰਿੰਦਰ ਅੜੋਰਾ, born September 1958) is an English billionaire businessman of Indian descent in the hotel sector. He concentrates on hotels near airports, making a speciality of providing rooms for air ...
, the pair paid £130m, £50m more than the club’s book value at the time:[
He sold Wentworth in 2014 for £135m to Reignwood Investments, a Chinese holding company associated with billionaire Yan Bin.]
In the meantime, Caring also purchased the former American Navy Building in London's Grosvenor Square in 2009.[
]
Restaurants and private members' clubs
After buying Wentworth, Caring realised he needed to raise the standard of food. He approached his favourite restaurant Le Caprice in summer 2005, but as discussions deteriorated Caring joked it was costing him so much he might as well buy the whole Caprice Holdings group; it emerged that the management was looking for a buyer.[ Six weeks later, after selling designer evening wear label ''Amanda Wakeley'', Caring secured a £31.5m deal to take over Caprice Holdings, owner of ]The Ivy
The Ivy is a British restaurant which is known for being popular with celebrities. It is located on West Street near Cambridge Circus in London, opposite the Ambassadors and St Martin's theatres, making it a popular restaurant for theaterg ...
, Le Caprice
Le Caprice was a restaurant in London's St James's
St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocra ...
and J Sheekey, as well as Italian restaurant Daphne's and Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
ese restaurant Bam-Bou.
Caring began to reshape the group, which created much media coverage for someone who previously preferred to stay out of the limelight.[ In 2005 he added fish restaurant Scott’s and catering firm Urban Productions, but sold Pasha to ]Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
n restaurateur Tony Kitous. He also bought Signature Restaurants from Luke Johnson for £57m, owner of mid-market Strada and 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 ...
chains.[
In 2006 he bought Rivington, a two-restaurant group independently set up by Caprice Holding’s chef director Mark Hix.][ He sold Strada in 2007 for £140m. In 2007 he purchased the Birley Group (]Annabel's
Annabel's is a private members club at 46 Berkeley Square in Mayfair, London.
It was opened at 44 Berkeley Square in 1963 by Mark Birley and named for his wife Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart. It was founded in the basement of the Clermont ...
, Harry's Bar, Mark's Club) for £95m including the vast art collection,[ concluded just a few months before ]Mark Birley
Marcus Oswald Hornby Lecky Birley (29 May 1930 – 24 August 2007), known as Mark Birley, was a British entrepreneur known for his investments in the hospitality industry.
Early life
Mark Birley was the son of Sir Oswald Birley (1880–1952), ...
's death.[
In 2008 he agreed a ]leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...
of 28 small investors in private members' club
Private members' clubs are organisations which provide social and other facilities to members who typically pay a membership fee for access and use. Some were originally elitist gentlemen's clubs to which members first had to be elected; others ...
Soho House
Soho House is a museum run by Birmingham Museums Trust, celebrating Matthew Boulton's life, his partnership with James Watt, his membership of the Lunar Society of Birmingham and his contribution to the Midlands Enlightenment and the Ind ...
, taking 80% for £105m, with the remainder held by Nick Jones who remains CEO, also his partner in Cecconi’s.[ Caring also owns stakes in ''Cote'' (formed by the former management team of Strada),][ and ]Alternative Investment Market
AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...
listed chain Carluccio's
Carluccio's is an Italian cuisine, Italian restaurant chain founded in London in 1999.
In 1991, Antonio Carluccio and his then wife opened an Italian food shop, named Carluccio's.
In 1999, the first "Carluccio's Caffè" was opened in Market ...
.[
Caprice Holdings also owns Sexy Fish.
The speed with which Caring has built his restaurant chain has resulted in many questioning his reasoning, on both a strategic level as well as the high purchase prices paid.][ He has been dubbed by some as ''"the ]Lex Luthor
Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Lex Luthor originally appeared in ''Action Comics'' #23 (cover dated: April ...
of Mayfair"'' for his apparent supermarket-sweep approach to buying companies. Other critics say he is brandishing a credit card, playing a high-stakes game of Monopoly, buying every square he lands on.[
But Caring insists he has a masterplan:][
Caring's strategy is built around three brands, with 60,000 people:][
*Annabel's – including the Birley clubs (Mark's, Harry's Bar, George and Bath & Racquets), 12,000 members: He says "They're refined, discreet, elegant."
*Soho House – 17,000 members: He says "They're for an arts, journalistic, younger crowd."
*Caprice – 30,000 regular customers, the restaurant link between the two club chains
The brands have opened in several countries including: Le Caprice New York; Cecconi's Miami; Soho House, via £130m credit line supplied by ]HBoS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Ba ...
,[ in Berlin, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles.]
Restaurant critic AA Gill
Adrian Anthony Gill (28 June 1954 – 10 December 2016) was a British journalist, critic, and author. Best known for his food and travel writing, he was also a television critic, was restaurant reviewer of '' The Sunday Times'', wrote for ''Van ...
once commented:
Caring owns restaurant chain The Ivy Collection.
Politics
A friend of Lord Levy
Michael Abraham Levy, Baron Levy, (born 11 July 1944) is a Labour Party peer. He is a former chartered accountant and was chairman and CEO of a large independent group of music companies. He now acts as a consultant for a number of companies a ...
,[ Caring lent £2m to the Labour Party to fund the ]2005 United Kingdom general election
The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect List of MPs elected in the 2005 United Kingdom general election, 646 members to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The Labour Party (U ...
.[ Caring was not later implicated or named as part of the ]Cash for Honours
The Cash-for-Honours scandal (also known as Cash for Peerages, Loans for Lordships, Loans for Honours or Loans for Peerages) was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the connection between political donations an ...
investigation.[ The loan monies have since been repaid.]
Caring has donated to the Conservative Party on several occasions, mainly in the form of auction prizes. This includes the hire of Annabel’s in 2008 for the Conservative Party's ''Black and White Ball'' in Battersea Park
Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858.
The park occupies marshland recla ...
, which was as an auction prize that raised £70,000.
He was also recorded as donating just over £50,000 to the party in 2010. In 2012 he was recorded as donating £170,000. This was followed by a £290,000 donation in the third quarter of 2015.
Philanthropy
After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Caring donated £1m to the relief effort.[ He supports the ]NSPCC
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity.
History
Victorian era
On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...
at its Fresh Start centre in Camden,[ to combat child abuse and ]paedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...
.[
In 2005, he organised a charity costume "Napoleonic Ball" for the NSPCC in St Petersburg's ]Catherine Palace
The Catherine Palace (russian: Екатерининский дворец, ) is a Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), 30 km south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. The Palace is part of the ...
, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, featuring a performance by Sir Elton John. Caring spent £8m flying in 450 guests in by private jet, including Bob Geldof and former US president
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, raising £11m.[
]
Personal life
Caring married his first wife, Jacqueline Stead, in 1971. She is an Aldershot
Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...
-born model and the daughter of a retired British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
major.[ They have two sons, who were raised in Hong Kong: Jamie, a vice-president of ]MTV Networks Europe
Paramount Networks Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia (EMEAA) is a division of Paramount International Networks which is fully owned by Paramount Global. The unit's headquarters are in Berlin, with additional offices in Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Am ...
; and Ben, who works for Soho House.[
The family lived in Hampstead, north London, in a house known as the '']Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...
of London.'' It has a ballroom, a cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
, a dining room that seats 30; and a garden with a lake. He has homes in Hong Kong, and owns the former stable block of Pixton Park
Pixton Park is a country house in the parish of Dulverton, Somerset, England. It is associated with at least three historically significant families, successively by descent: Acland, amongst the largest landowners in the Westcountry; Herbert, ...
, Dulverton
Dulverton is a small town and civil parish in west Somerset, England, near the border with Devon. The town had a population of 1,408 at the 2011 Census. The parish includes the hamlets of Battleton and Ashwick which is located approximately ...
, on the Somerset/Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
borders. Purchased in 2005, the Pixton building has an interior designed by Tara Bernerd, daughter of property developer Elliott Bernerd
Elliott Bernerd (born 23 May 1945) is a British property developer, the co-founder of the property company Chelsfield with Sir Stuart Lipton.
Early life
He was born in Maida Vale, London on 23 May 1945, the only child of a film producer father. ...
,
In 2016, Caring and Stead divorced in a high-profile case, which was described as "Britain's biggest divorce". He left his wife to move into a £32 million home in St John's Wood with 35-year-old Brazilian Patricia Mondinni, with whom he had a son. In March 2018, Caring married Mondinni. The couple also have two daughters.
His friends include Sir Philip Green and Scottish philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter.
His family relations include stockbroker Anthony Parnes
Anthony Keith Parnes (born 1945) is an English ex-stockbroker, who was convicted and jailed with Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, and Jack Lyons (financier), Jack Lyons in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s; they collectively became kn ...
and his son Michael Parnes, CEO of stock brokerage Old Park Lane Capital.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
In 2004 over the Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
period, Caring and his sons were scuba diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...
in the Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
. On Boxing Day, the dive-master suggested they sail to an atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...
and dive nearby. Anchored on the north side of the atoll, they dived to for 45 minutes. On their return to the surface, Caring received calls from friends around the world asking: "Are you all right?"[
Protected by the atoll, the divers had "felt a blip, but it could have been a big boat."] Divers on the southside of the atoll in the path of the tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
were later found washed-up away. Sir Philip Green
Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company the Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. As of Ma ...
sent his private jet to pick the family up, and Caring donated £1 million to the tsunami relief fund:
Controversy
In December 2014, Michelle Young accused Philip Green, Caring and Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...
of helping her ex-husband, businessman Scot Young
Scot Young (Dundee 10 January 1962 – London 8 December 2014) was a Scottish property developer, who came to media attention during a protracted and bitter divorce case brought by his former wife Michelle. He claimed to have lost all his asse ...
, to hide assets and so avoid paying maintenance to his ex-wife and their two daughters. In February 2015, a note from HSBC bankers in Caring's files mentioned that Philip Green's wife Tina Green had been holding part of Caring's assets in cash on his behalf, prompting suspicions that Caring might have funnelled profits through Tina Green to avoid paying taxes on his assets.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caring, Richard
1948 births
Living people
People from Finchley
People from Hampstead
English people of American descent
English people of Italian descent
English people of Polish-Jewish descent
People educated at Millfield
English businesspeople in fashion
English company founders
Businesspeople from London
20th-century British businesspeople
21st-century British businesspeople
British restaurateurs
Restaurant founders
Labour Party (UK) people
Conservative Party (UK) people
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people