David Gold - Business
EN Magazine Interview Part One
The man who put the oomph into numerous marriages, or purveyor of filth? This man, one of the richest in the country, simply wants to be judged on his business record. Still, Andrew Moody feels compelled to ask...Why should anyone listen to a word that David Gold has to say?
There are many adjectives one might use about the £4 million Surrey home of multi-millionaire David Gold but understated is not one of them.Something of a local landmark, the Victorian pile with its Gothic entrance and huge fountain would be notable in its own right. But as the home of the man who founded the Ann Summers empire. a long-list of top shelf magazines, and a man who is also a major shareholder in Sport newspapers and chairman of Birmingham City FC, it has the necessary ingredients for local notoriety. "The Gold House" is all the local taxi-driver needs in terms of direction.
David Gold is not just rich, he is very rich. The Sunday Times estimates his £300 million family fortune makes him the 66th richest person in Britain, richer than Lord Rothschild (78th) and the poor old Queen (87th). Indeed so proud is his mum, now in her 80s, of this statistic she is apparently the first at the newsstand when the list comes out, charting her son's progress. Gold's ambition, meanwhile, is to make the top ten. Politely, and on time, the diminutive Gold jaunts in, seemingly , high on Sanatogen. He is 63 but looks at least ten years younger, a fact he attributes to personal freedom.
"The day I became successful I threw away my alarm clock"
"The day I became successful I threw away my alarm clock. I wake up in my own time and my one pleasure is to get up and work out, either swim in the pool or jog in the grounds and relax," he says. No mention of playing golf on the private nine-hole golf course, each hole named after a part of his business empire, nor of his new girlfriend, a vast. painting of whom (impressionist) hangs on the wall.
