Danish entrepreneur, fashion retailer, environmentalist and largest landowner in Scotland. Born in Denmark, Povlsen was educated in Denmark, Germany and the UK. He took over the his parent's clothing company (Bestseller) at the age of 28 and continued its growth to become an international chain, with brands including Jack & Jones. He is also the largest shareholder in the British internet clothes retailer ASOS, with significant stakes in the Danish online grocery store Nemlig, German internet clothes retailer Zalando and Swedish online payments company Klarna Bank. He is the richest Dane, with a net worth of around £6.6 billion (2020).
Since visiting the Scottish Highlands on a family holiday in the 1980s, he has developed his interest in the country and began to acquire land in 2006. First was the Glenfeshie Estate in the Cairngorms, later expanded by buying the neighbouring Killiehuntly farm. He then added the Braeroy Estate (Fort William), Tulloch Estate (Fort William), Lynaberack (Cairngorms) all in 2008, together with the Ben Loyal Estate (Sutherland; 2012), Kinloch Lodge Estate (Sutherland; 2012), Gaick Estate (Cairngorms; 2013), Aldourie Castle (Inverness-shire; 2014), the Eriboll Estate (Sutherland; 2014) and Kinrara (Kincraig; 2018). His total land holdings now exceed 89,000 ha / 220,000 acres, managed from the Wildland Estate office in Aviemore, making him the UK's largest private landowner next only to the Duke of Buccleuch. As part of a long-term project, Povlsen aims is to conserve, restore and protect these landscapes, with the intention of removing plantation forest and restoring native woodland, wetlands and rivers. The eventual aim is to connect habitats and reintroduce long-extinct animals to the Highlands. Povlsen has also bought land in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania to create a reserve for bears, lynx and wolves. He also owns the Jenners Department Store building in Edinburgh and property in London.
Povlsen married Anne, who had worked for his Bestseller group, but tragedy struck in 2019 when the couple lost three of their four children in a terrorist attack while on holiday in Sri Lanka. The family live on an estate at Constantinsborg in Denmark.
