Interview: Developer Gerald Ronson

Gerald Ronson

‘I’m in good spirits,’ he says. ‘Don’t underestimate 50 years of experience.‘Eighteen months or two years ago, people were saying: he’s yesterday’s man. But I laughed when those 30-year-olds were saying: he’s past his sell-by date. They can’t afford a roll of toilet paper now.’

After being jailed for his role in the Guinness scandal – in 2000, the European Court ruled that he had an unfair trial – and seeing his business almost collapse in the early 1990s, Ronson is arguably in better shape than ever before.

But to understand the method and graft behind Ronson’s renaissance, you need to spend time within his Heron business alongside the man himself.

Property Week did just that, travelling at 550 mph and 43,000 ft on Heron’s hired Challenger jet on a series of ‘inspections’ and meetings focusing on the company’s properties in Spain.

Read the full interview in Property Week at A day in the life of the Guv’nor.