Robert Warren Miller
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- For other people of this name, see Robert Miller
Robert Warren Miller (May 23, 1933, Quincy City Hospital, Quincy, Norfolk County, Massachusetts) is a billionaire, entrepreneur, cofounder of Duty Free Shoppers Group (DFS), and sailing champion.
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[edit] Duty-Free Enterprise
A veteran of the Korean War, Miller attended the Cornell University School of Hotel Management.
The concept of "duty free shopping"--offering high-end concessions to travelers, free of import taxes--was in its infancy when, along with Chuck Feeney, Miller founded DFS on November 7, 1960. DFS began operations in Hong Kong (where it retains its corporate headquarters), later expanding to Europe and other continents. DFS' first major breakthrough came in the early 1960s, when it secured the exclusive concession for duty free sales in Hawaii, allowing it to market its products to Japanese travelers.
DFS eventually expanded to off-airport duty free stores and large downtown Galleria stores, and became the world’s largest travel retailer. [1] In 1996, Miller's and Feeney's interests were acquired by Louis Vuitton Möet Hennessy (LVMH), the French luxury goods group, for $1.63 billion. Miller still retains a 31% share of the company to this day.[2]
Miller is also the founder of Search Group, an international investment company. Along with other assets, Miller is currently ranked the 68th richest person in the U.K. [3], down from 22nd in 2003. [4]
[edit] Sailing Records
In October 2003, Miller's monohull yacht, the Mari-Cha IV, set a new world record for crossing the Atlantic. [5] In that same trip, the Mari-Cha also broke the 24-hour distance record, by sailing 525.5 nautical miles (973.2 km) in a 24-hour period. It was also the first monohull ever to cross the Atlantic Ocean in under seven days. The yacht’s crew included Crown Prince Pavlos, son of King Constantine II of Greece and Miller's son-in-law.
[edit] Family and Home Life
He is a son of Ellis Warren Appleton Miller (Concord, Massachusetts, February 7, 1898 - bef. May 1986), a bookkeeper and salesman whose maternal grandfather's mother was an Ashkenazi Jew and a descendant of three Mayflower couples and one Mayflower then single passenger, and wife, the former Sophia "Sophie" June Squarebriggs (Prince Edward Island, June 10, 1899 - Quincy, Massachusetts, March 20, 1998), a Canadian-born former governess, married at 32 Bates St., Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 15, 1923 by George E. Heath, Minister of the Gospel. [6] [7]
He is married to the former María Clara "Chantal" Pesantes Becerra, a native of Guayaquil, Ecuador, born on June 25, 1940, daughter of Servando Pesantes Chanduy, construction worker, who died at Mapasingue, near Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 1949, and wife Beatriz Becerra N. Their three daughters, often referred to as "The Miller Sisters," are Alexandra von Fürstenberg; Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece; and Pia Getty.
Miller, who is now a British citizen, remains based in Hong Kong but has homes in London, New York, Paris, and Gstaad. He also owns the 32,000-acre (129 km²) Gunnerside Estate in Yorkshire, one of the largest country estates in Britain.
