Richard John Livingstone (born November 1964) is a British

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

property developer, through the privately held

London & Regional Properties London & Regional Properties (L&R) is a private real estate and leisure investment firm based in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest privately held principal investors in Europe, performing private equity style investments in direct ...

, owned jointly with his brother

Ian Livingstone Sir Ian Livingstone (born 29 December 1949) is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of a series of role-playing gamebooks, ''Fighting Fantasy'', and the author of many books within that se ...

Early life

Richard John Livingstone was born in November 1964 in the UK, the son of a dentist in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

, London. He was educated at St Paul's School, a leading private school.

Career

He trained as a chartered surveyor. Together with his brother Ian, a former optometrist, they acquired the David Clulow opticians chain in 1992. They sold it in 2011 and are now primarily property developers. Many of their early developments were financed by

Jacob Rothschild Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, (born 29 April 1936) is a British peer, investment banker and a member of the Rothschild banking family. Now mostly retired, he has held many important roles in business, finance an ...

's merchant bank

Dawnay Day Dawnay Day is a privately owned financial services group. Founded in 1928, the London-based group, employs more than 1,000 employees and claims to own gross assets of more than $4-billion. It has offices in Europe, the Middle East, India, the Unit ...

, who Ian said "proved very supportive". Through their company

, they own

David Lloyd Leisure David Lloyd Leisure is Europe's largest health, fitness and leisure business by revenue, operating 130 clubs across nine countries. History David Lloyd established David Lloyd Leisure in 1982 and opened the first club, aimed at providing a fa ...

and luxury hotels including

Cliveden House Cliveden (pronounced ) is an English country house and estate in the care of the National Trust in Buckinghamshire, on the border with Berkshire. The Italianate mansion, also known as Cliveden House, crowns an outlying ridge of the Chiltern H ...

in Berkshire,

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...

in London's

Green Park Green Park, officially The Green Park, is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the southern part – the core part – of the City of Westminster, Central London, but before that zone was extended to the north, to take in Maryleb ...

and

Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from May ...

. They redeveloped

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 ...

's former headquarters at

55 Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...

, which now houses the offices of

Knight Frank Knight Frank LLP is an estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy founded in London by John Knight, Howard Frank and William Rutley in 1896. Knight Frank together with its American affiliate Cresa is one of the world's large ...

, the accountant

BDO Stoy Hayward BDO (an acronym for Binder Dijker Otte) is an international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms that provide professional services under the name BDO. It is the fifth-largest accounting network in the wor ...

, and London & Regional itself. , together with Jaime Gilinski Bacal, they are developing the $700 million

Panama Pacifico Panama Pacifico is a mixed-use real estate development in Veracruz, Panama, Veracruz, Arraiján District, Panama, located on the site of the former Howard Air Force Base. Panama Pacifico is located 15 minutes from downtown Panama City, 35 minutes ...

project in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

, Panama on the former

Howard Air Force Base Howard Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Panama. It discontinued military operations on 1 November 1999 as a result of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which specified that US military facilities in the former Pa ...

. They are also reveloping the former Elizabeth House hotel near London's

Waterloo station Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of t ...

in a $930 million project. In the 2014 Sunday Times Rich List, together with his brother Ian, they have an estimated net worth of £2.6 billion.

Personal life

In 1997, he married Claire Burns, the daughter of

John Burns John Elliot Burns (20 October 1858 – 24 January 1943) was an English trade unionist and politician, particularly associated with London politics and Battersea. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. He was ...

, who founded the

Derwent London Derwent London is a British-based property investment and development business. It is headquartered in London and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was originally established as the operator of the Derwent Valley Ligh ...

property group. They are now divorced. He is Jewish. The ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' notes that they are eager to avoid publicity and seek to lead a normal life for the sake of their children, and calls them "arguably the lowest-profile billionaire siblings in London" and "these most secretive of brothers".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Livingstone, Richard 1964 births Living people British real estate businesspeople British billionaires People educated at St Paul's School, London British Jews