THE man who founded the Ted Baker fashion brand is to give a talk in Bournemouth – the town where he has invested £80million.

Ray Kelvin financed the development of the Hilton Hotel and the development of THIS Workspace in the Daily Echo building.

He will speak at THIS Workspace on Thursday, November 29, 6-9pm.

He will tell how he grew Ted Baker from a single shop in Glasgow to a global brand valued at £1.6billion, as well as his latest ventures.

At a sold-out event last year, he recalled loving Bournemouth since childhood, when he visited its Jewish hotels such as the Ambassador, Majestic, Cumberland and Green Park.

His father was stationed with the RAF at Hurn and Ray played tennis at the West Hants Club.

He said: “I have a big attachment to Bournemouth. That’s one of the reasons why when property became available up the road, I bought the land. I’m proud of the Hilton Hotel. I own the Hilton Hotel, not Ted Baker but Ray.”

He said of Ted Baker: “I own 40 per cent of the business, which is not bad.

“We’re very modest and we don’t talk about money every day, like I think most businesses do. What we talk about is how we can do things better.

“It all starts with people and I love the people so much. This is genuine. I’m just a boy done good. I love the people in the business and I want to see them be successful.”

The forthcoming talk has been organised by Alex Chisnall, coordinator for Virgin StartUp and presenter of the podcast Screw It, Just Do It.

Mr Chisnall said: “We tried to get him to speak at the recent StartUp & Scale Summit but as Ray still works every Saturday in a Ted Baker store, he couldn’t make it.

“The evening will offer an extremely rare opportunity to meet Ray and pick his brains about how Ted Baker started, how the brand became a global icon, how he maintains his elusive public presence, and anything else you’d like to ask him personally. He’s really easy to talk to, and happy to answer questions from anyone and everyone.”

Tickets are available at bit.ly/2CMgzeN