Mary Portas aka Mary Queen of Shops (born 28 May 1960), is an English businesswoman, retail expert, and broadcaster, best-known for her retail and business related television shows, and most recently for her appointment by the British prime minister to lead a review into the future of Britain's high streets.
Portas was born and brought up in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, in a family of five children. She was educated at St Joan of Arc Catholic Sc...
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Mary Portas aka Mary Queen of Shops (born 28 May 1960), is an English businesswoman, retail expert, and broadcaster, best-known for her retail and business related television shows, and most recently for her appointment by the British prime minister to lead a review into the future of Britain's high streets.
Portas was born and brought up in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, in a family of five children. She was educated at St Joan of Arc Catholic School, Rickmansworth. Her mother died of meningits when Portas was aged 16, and her father, a sales director of Brooke Bond, the tea manufacturer, died of a heart attack two years later forcing Portas, aged 18, to turn down a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in order to look after her younger brother.
Portas started her career in retail with a Saturday job in John Lewis. She then had a part-time, and later a full-time, job with Harrods where she was responsible for window displays for about three years, before joining TopShop as...
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