Retail tycoon Sir Philip Green owns Arcadia Group Ltd., whose crown jewel is Topshop, as well as department store chain Bhs (formerly British Home Stores).

With a track record of buying and selling retail companies for handy profit, the flamboyant Green is most known for his swift turnaround of Bhs and Arcadia, the U.K.’s second-largest apparel chain whose porftolio includes Topman, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins.

Green was privately educated at Carmel College, a now-closed Jewish boarding school in Berkshire, England. He left at the age of 15 without graduating and went to work for a shoe importer. Green’s purchase and highly lucrative sale of London’s Jean Jeannie denim stores in the 1980s launched a career of similar coups on a larger scale.

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He was CEO of discount apparel chain Amber Day, which was publicly traded, but when he departed in 1992, the entrepreneur would work only in the private arena. Green’s purchase of Bhs in 2000 and Arcadia in 2002 further solidified his mogul status. His much-publicized, failed attempt to buy Marks & Spencer in 2004 continues to fuel speculation that he may try for that prize again.

London’s Fashion Retail Academy is Green’s brainchild. The government and privately funded school counts retail forces like Marks & Spencer and Tesco among its sponsors. Green was knighted in 2006 for his retail and social responsibility contributions and was an inaugural inductee to the World Retail Hall of Fame in 2008.