North Face mogul turned conservationist

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The American clothing billionaire Douglas Tompkins has died in a kayaking accident in southern Chile. The founder of the North Face and Esprit clothing brands, he gave it all up, saying his business "was simply making things that people did not need". Instead he and his wife devoted themselves to conservation, buying up large tracts of Chile and Argentina and handing them over to the state to create national parks. Some critics accused him of colonialism for buying land from Chilean and Argentine nationals. Here he is talking to the BBC in 2009. Picture shows Douglas Tompkins at home in Argentina in 2009. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)