Sir John Henry Ritblat (born 3 October 1935) is an English property developer. He is honorary president (and formerly chairman and CEO) of The

British Land The British Land Company plc is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It is headquartered in ...

Company PLC, an FTSE100 London-based property company that George Soros's G Soros Realty Investors acquired a stake in during 1993.

Early life

Ritblat was born in 1935 in Hampstead, North London, England. He was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...

, The Hall School, Hampstead and the College of Estate Management.

Career

He acquired British Land from Jim Slater in 1970 for £1m, and retired as chairman in 2006. Since June 2001, Ritblat has served as the non-executive chairman of property advisory Colliers CRE. He also serves as the chairman of the advisory board of Delancey, the property and asset-backed investment firm founded in 1995 by his son Jamie Ritblat (born 1967), which owns the

Alpha Plus Group Alpha Plus Group is a private-equity owned English education company which runs a network of pre-preparatory, preparatory and secondary independent schools, colleges and nurseries. It is the second largest private education business in the UK. Th ...

of schools of which Sir John is the chairman of the board of governors.

Political activity

He has donated to the Conservative Party. In August 2018 Jim Fitzpatrick MP forwarded a letter to the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

that made unsubstantiated allegations about the 2010 off-market sale of the Royal Mint Court freehold to DV4, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delancey based in the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

and questioning the Crown Estate's relationship with the Ritblat family.

Philanthropy

He is chairman of the board of trustees of the Wallace Collection, chairman of the governing body of The

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

and Honorary Fellow, a member of the Council of The Royal Institution and honorary president of The British Ski & Snowboard Federation, deputy chairman of The Royal Academy of Music and Honorary Fellow. Hon. Fellow of The Royal Institute of The British Architects. D.Litt. London Metropolitan University. Vice chairman of The International Students House. The John Ritblat gallery of the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

houses some of the finest items in the library's collection for public display; it is named after him since he was a major benefactor during the building of the gallery and donated one million pounds towards the gallery's display cases. He is also vice chair of

International Students House, London International Students House, London (colloquially shortened to ISH) is a set of lodgings for international and British students in London. It permanently occupies one large building in streets that faces Park Crescent which in turn across a squ ...

Personal life

He has been married twice. His second wife, Jill (Zilkha née Slotover), is a philanthropist. He has two sons, Jamie Ritblat (b 1967) and Nick Ritblat, and a daughter, Suki Ritblat.

References

External links

Alpha Plus on Delancey website
1935 births Living people Academics of London Business School British businesspeople People from Hampstead People educated at Dulwich College People associated with the Royal Academy of Music People associated with the Wallace Collection Conservative Party (UK) people Knights Bachelor British Land people Alumni of University College of Estate Management {{UK-business-bio-stub