When it comes to billionaires and their attitudes, Sir Philip Green almost puts blokes like Bill Gross to shame.
In Damaged Goods, an explosive new biography that will be released this week, the Topshop tycoon is revealed to be racist, misogynistic and foul-mouthed.
Yup, some people like Green just don’t know that things like human rights, dignity and equality exist in 2018.
IOL sheds a little light about the billionaire bully living up to his bad reputation while conducting his business affairs:
While more conventional captains of industry might snarl: “You’re fired!”, Green, 66, is said to have once chastised an underperforming female buyer at his High Street chain with the words: “You’re absolutely f*****g useless. I should throw you out of the window, but you’re so fat you’d probably bounce back in again!”
When Leslie Warman, a director of another Green company, spoke out of turn in a tense business meeting, he’s alleged to have found himself on the receiving end of death threats.
“If you don’t shut your f*****g mouth, I’ll get my friends from south of the river to come for you and your family,” Green supposedly declared …
[Wesley Taylor], who was brand director of the chain Burton, is said to have accused Green of using racist language towards him after he walked out from his job a couple of years back. Litigation between them was subsequently settled out of court.
Yeesh, dude, take a chill-pill and calm the hell down. Learn some manners and respect while you’re at it, too.
The racial abuse bit is especially awkward, given that his daughter Chloe just had a ‘mixed-race baby’ with Jeremy Meeks, aka “Hot Felon” (both pictured below), last month.
Better watch what flies out of your mouth, Grandpa Green.
Thing is, Green’s not the type to just calm down, especially when he feels someone is out to get him:
These and other accounts — some of which Green is understood to strongly dispute — were aired at the weekend by Oliver Shah, a business journalist at the Sunday Times [also author of Damaged Goods] who was himself once the subject of a tape-recorded death threat from the Topshop owner.
“If you want to come and call me a liar, come round to my office on Monday, call me a liar to my face, and face the consequences,” Green told Shah, during a dispute over a proposed newspaper story.
“How’s that, if you’re such a f*****g big boy? Because you will get thrown through the f*****g window. You’re not a nice individual. You couldn’t give a f**k what trouble you cause.”
Hoo boy, that’s one way to give a writer material for their work.
The biography promises to reveal all about the billionaire, including details about his lavish spending habits and the BHS scandal, the latter of which saw him extracting top dollar from the troubled BHS retail firm, which he eventually sold for a ridiculous R17,99 in 2015.
Heck, judging from the accounts alone, I reckon Shah isn’t leaving any stone unturned.
[source:iol]
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