Topshop Founder Sir Ralph Halpern Dies at 83

Sir Ralph Halpern, founder of the British women’s brand Topshop, died this week at age 83.

Known for his flamboyant lifestyle and “retail is showbusiness” mantra, Halpern guided the Burton Group as its head for a decade. During his tenure, the storied U.K. clothier flourished in the 1980s through its acquisitions of companies like Dorthy Perkins, Harry Fenton, Debhams and John Collier. He turned the Topshop store he established in 1964 into a leading British brand.

Halpern joined Burton as a management trainee in 1961. He rose through the ranks and became chief executive in 1978.

Ambitious to a fault, Halpern had its then-chief executive, Cyril Spencer, fired with a surreptitious recording Halpern made of Spencer’s plans to buy the company, the Daily Mail writes. Stepping into his boss’ shoes, Halpern turned Burton into a retail giant in Britain with 2,800 stores and more than 60,000 employees. The company is currently valued at $2 billion.

Halpern’s Jewish family fled their home in Austria, moving to England in 1938 to escape the Nazi regime. Halpern’s mother was a fashion designer, and his father a successful retailer.

Halpern was knighted for “services to the retail industry” in 1986. He married Joan Donkin in 1967, but the pair divorced in 1999 following a sex scandal in British tabloids linking him to a longtime affair with British model Fiona Wright. He was let go as the head of the Burton Group by its board in the wake of the scandal.