# William Pears Group

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**William Pears Group** is one of Britain's largest [property companies](/source/Property_companies), with £6 billion of property in London and south-east England.

The William Pears Group was founded in 1952, by [Bernard Pears](/source/Bernard_Pears) and his son Clive Pears.[1] It is run by [Mark Pears](/source/Mark_Pears) with his younger brothers [Trevor](/source/Trevor_Pears) and David.[2] There was never a person named William Pears in the business: Bernard Pears changed his name from Bernard Schleicher to the "more English-sounding" Pears, and set up a fruit and vegetable business under the name William Pears because of the [Williams pear](/source/Williams_pear) fruit name.[1]

According to *[The Daily Telegraph](/source/The_Daily_Telegraph)*, [Mark Pears](/source/Mark_Pears) is a director of 212 companies, a "complex labyrinth of operating and [investment companies](/source/Investment_companies)", but he will not say which is the main [holding company](/source/Holding_company) or what the group's [annual profit](/source/Annual_profit) is.[2]

William Pears Group owns 3–4,000 London freehold residential properties, including large areas of [Notting Hill](/source/Notting_Hill).[2]

In 2009, William Pears Group paid £750 million to [Land Securities](/source/Land_Securities), to buy [Telereal Trillium](/source/Telereal_Trillium), a commercial [property management](/source/Property_management) and investment company.[citation needed]

In April 2013, William Pears Group bought [The Spires Shopping Centre](/source/The_Spires_Shopping_Centre) in [Barnet](/source/Chipping_Barnet), London, from the bank [UBS](/source/UBS) for a reported £34 million.[3] The Spires has since been bought by the Canadian investment fund [AIMco](/source/Alberta_Investment_Management_Corporation).

Through Pears Global, they have "up to 6,200 apartments" in Berlin, managed through a series of "[letterbox companies](/source/Brass_plate_company)".[4] In 2019, a collaboration of investigative journalists in Germany, headed by [Correctiv](/source/Correctiv), tracked down the ownership of about 25 companies with property in Berlin to six firms in Luxembourg, who belong to two firms on Cyprus, who belong to two firms on the [British Virgin Islands](/source/British_Virgin_Islands), who the journalists concluded to be controlled by the William Pears Group.[5]

The Pears brothers have invested in New York City as well, through the purchase of $147 million of at least 344 unsold [condominium](/source/Condominium) and [cooperative](/source/Cooperative) units in mostly 1980s-era cooperatives and one rental building, according to PincusCo Media.[6] The acquisitions began in 2011.

## Pears Foundation

The Pears Foundation, formally The Pears Family Charitable Foundation, is a charity established by the Pears family "to apply some of the resources of their family’s business, the William Pears Group, to fund organisations and projects working to deliver progress on key issues affecting the wellbeing of people in the UK and all over the world".[7] It was founded in 1992, and in the five years prior to 2012 it gave £30 million to charitable causes.[1] A 2017 report listed it as the 31st largest foundation (and 18th-largest family foundation) by size of donations, having given £16.32 million in the year ending March 2016.[8] In the year 2022/23 its charitable expenditure was £23.3 million, the largest donations being £5 million to the UK Youth Fund (part of [UK Youth](/source/UK_Youth)),[9] and £1 million each to [Hebrew University of Jerusalem](/source/Hebrew_University_of_Jerusalem), [Home-Start UK](/source/Home-Start_UK) and [Samaritans](/source/Samaritans_(charity)).[10] As of 2024 [Trevor Pears](/source/Trevor_Pears) is its full-time Executive Chair.[11][7]

Organisations and initiatives supported by the foundation include the [Pears Cumbria School of Medicine](/source/Pears_Cumbria_School_of_Medicine) (a cooperation between the [University of Cumbria](/source/University_of_Cumbria) and [Imperial College London](/source/Imperial_College_London)),[12] [The Scout Association](/source/The_Scout_Association),[13] [Carers Trust](/source/Carers_Trust),[14] and other medical projects including the Pears Building at the [Royal Free Hospital](/source/Royal_Free_Hospital), the [Kent and Medway Medical School](/source/Kent_and_Medway_Medical_School), the Clarice Pears Building at the [University of Glasgow](/source/University_of_Glasgow) (named after Clive Pears's Glasgow-born wife, Clarice, mother of David, Mark and Trevor)[15] and the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People in London, which is a joint project of [South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust](/source/South_London_and_Maudsley_NHS_Foundation_Trust), the Maudsley Charity, and [King's College London](/source/King's_College_London)'s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience.[16][17][18]

In partnership with the British Council and the UK government's Science and Innovation Network, the Pears Foundation has also played a leading role in supporting BIRAX (Britain–Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership), a bilateral initiative launched in 2011 to advance cutting-edge scientific collaboration between UK and Israeli institutions.[19][20] Since its inception, BIRAX has funded over £13 million in joint research projects, primarily in fields such as regenerative medicine and ageing, supporting more than 25 partnerships between universities in both countries.[21]

## References

1. Cohen, David (13 February 2012). ["Let's all make it a bumper year for good causes, says man who gave away £30m"](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/lets-all-make-it-a-bumper-year-for-good-causes-says-man-who-gave-away-30m-7442487.html). *Evening Standard*. Retrieved 18 February 2015.

1. Quinn, James (12 June 2011). ["Pears family comes out of the property shadows"](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/profiles/8569562/Pears-family-comes-out-of-the-property-shadows.html). *The Daily Telegraph*. Retrieved 3 October 2015.

1. Jones, Nick (9 April 2013). ["New owner for the Spires Shopping Centre"](http://barnetsociety.org.uk/component/k2/new-owner-for-the-spires-shopping-centre). *Barnet Society*. Retrieved 4 October 2015.

1. ["Syndikat: The local pub taking on a corporate giant"](https://freedomnews.org.uk/syndikat-the-local-pub-taking-on-a-corporate-giant/). *Freedom Press*. 14 December 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2019.

1. ["Das verdeckte Imperium"](https://interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/das-verdeckte-imperium/) [The concealed empire] (in German). *[Der Tagesspiegel](/source/Der_Tagesspiegel)*. 31 May 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2019.

1. ["Billionaire British Pears brothers quietly buy NYC unsold condos, co-ops in bulk"](https://www.pincusco.com/billionaire-british-pears-brothers-quietly-buy-nyc-unsold-condos-co-ops-in-bulk/). *PincusCo*. 2020-07-03. Retrieved 2020-07-04.

1. ["Who We Are"](https://pearsfoundation.org.uk/who-we-are/). *Pears Foundation*. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

1. Pharaoh, Cathy; Walker, Catherine; Keiran, Goddard. ["Giving Trends 2017: Top 300 Foundation Grant-Makers"](https://www.acf.org.uk/common/Uploaded%20files/Research%20and%20resources/Research/Foundation%20Giving%20Trends/ACF135_Foundation_Giving_Trends_2017_SP_FINAL.pdf). Association of Charitable Foundations. p. 23. Retrieved 19 September 2024.

1. ["The UK Youth Fund: Thriving Minds"](https://www.ukyouth.org/thriving-minds/). *UK Youth*. Retrieved 19 September 2024.

1. ["Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 31 March 2023"](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search?p_p_id=uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=2&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_resource_id=%2Faccounts-resource&p_p_cacheability=cacheLevelPage&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_objectiveId=A14605388&p_p_auth=zPoBpseJ&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_mvcRenderCommandName=%2Faccounts-and-annual-returns&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_organisationNumber=1009195). The Pears Family Charitable Foundation. pp. 5, 16. Retrieved 18 September 2024. – via Charity Commission.

1. ["Imperial and Cumbria"](https://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/partnerships/collaborative-partnerships-office/global/cumbria/). *Imperial College London*. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

1. ["Scouts – Pears Foundation"](https://www.scouts.org.uk/supporters/pears-foundation/). *www.scouts.org.uk*. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

1. ["Support from Pears Foundation"](https://carers.org/make-a-major-gift/pears-foundation). *carers.org*. Carers Trust. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

1. Mcarthur, Maxine (21 November 2018). ["Mum's the word for 40m uni health centre"](https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-times-mums-the-word-for-40m-uni/155560289/). *Evening Times*. p. M10. Retrieved 19 September 2024. – via newspapers.com.

1. Lorenzato-Lloyd, Alice (5 February 2020). ["McAlpine team chosen for £65m south London mental health hospital"](https://www.building.co.uk/news/mcalpine-team-chosen-for-65m-south-london-mental-health-hospital/5104136.article). *Building*. Retrieved 19 September 2024.

1. ["New centre of excellence for children and young people's mental health"](https://www.charitytoday.co.uk/new-centre-of-excellence-for-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health/). *Charity Today News*. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2024.

1. ["Pears Foundation"](https://cumbriamed.ac.uk/pears-foundation/). *The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine*. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

1. ["BIRAX"](https://www.britishcouncil.org.il/en/birax). *britishcouncil*

1. ["Grants for joint UK-Israel scientific research announced"](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grants-for-joint-uk-israel-scientific-research-announced). *GOV.UK*. Retrieved 2025-07-17.

1. ["BIRAX projects"](https://www.britishcouncil.org.il/en/birax/projects). *britishcouncil.org.il*

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [William Pears Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pears_Group) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pears_Group?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.