Bruce Ritchie

Bruce Weir Ritchie was born in February 1965.[2] He was educated at Dulwich College where he was a contemporary of Nigel Farage.[3] He is the son of professor H. David Ritchie, a leading surgeon in the 1980s at the Royal London Hospital and Dean of the Medical College, and his wife Jennifer Prentice, a State School teacher. His older brothers are a Queen's Counsel and a scientist.[4][5]

Ritchie was brought up in Dulwich, South London.

Ritchie left school after A levels and joined Harrods as a management trainee.[3] He bought his first properties whilst still working for Harrod's.[3]

In 1991, Ritchie founded Residential Land Limited and is its CEO.[3] The company grew strongly in the 1990s and 2000s. Ritchie through his Residential Land Group of 163 companies owns around 1,200 privately rented properties in prime central London and Mayfair.[6]

In the early 2000s Ritchie had a business partnership with the chef Marco Pierre White and his business partner Jimmy LaHood[7] in relation to some central London restaurants.

Residential Land is one of the largest residential property companies in London. In 2016, Ritchie sold a block of 58 flats at Garden House, 86–92 Kensington Gardens Square, London W2, which he bought for "a low price" in 2001.[8]

In the same year, Residential Land was named Asset Manager of the Year at the RESI Awards 2016, organised by Property Week.[9]

In May 2016, Ritchie was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the PROPS Awards, a UK property industry awards event.[10]

In July 2017, Ritchie was ranked 28^th in Property Week’s annual Power 100 list, having been described as a ‘consummate dealmaker’.[11]

Ritchie was one of the co-chairmen of the Presidents Club charitable trust,[12] which disbanded in 2018 after reports of sexual harassment and assault at its charity dinner.[13]

In January 2018, as a result of the media attention that the presidents Club received, the Canadian investment group, Ivanhoé Cambridge, and a major financial backer of Ritchie, announced that it would make no further investments with his company, Residential Land.[14]

Ritchie has been a staunch supporter of the Conservative Party throughout his adult life. In 2013, he and his wife Shadi donated £111,600 to the Conservative Party.[7][1] As of 2018, the two had given the Conservative Party more than £750,000 personally and through their wholly owned company, Residential Land.[15]

Bruce Ritchie is married to Shadi[7][1] and has two teenage children.

Ritchie alongside his wife Shadi are Event Chairs for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Bruce was part of the committee that helped launch the first-ever Midsummer Party in July 2019, which raised $6m.[16]

In May 2020, after suffering from Coronavirus, Bruce donated £50,000 to Mail Force, a charity appeal established to help the National Health Service during the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Since it launched in April 2020, Mail Force has raised over £6.9m.[17]