Gerald Ronson

Gerald Maurice Ronson, CBE (born 27 May 1939) is a British business tycoon and convicted criminal. He became known in the UK as one of the 'Guinness Four' for his part in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s as a result of which he was convicted and imprisoned. Early life and career Ronson was born into a middle-class Jewish family. He left school aged 15 to join his father in the family furniture business, named Heron after his father Henry. The company expanded into property development, at first with small residential projects, and later with commercial and office properties. By 1967 the company was active in seven European countries and fifty-two British municipalities. In the mid-1960s Ronson brought the first self-service petrol retail outlets to the United Kingdom. Heron International By the early 1980s Heron was one of the largest private companies in the United Kingdom, with assets of over £1.5 billion. In 1989, Ronson was listed by The Times as having a net worth of £500 million.