Sir Jim Ratcliffe owns mansions, super yachts and even two football clubs - but his rags to riches story started in an unlikely place.
Britain's richest man now rules an empire worth billions and there has been previous speculation he was interested in buying Manchester United or Chelsea.
Another football club would add to his staggering sport portfolio, having also invested in sailing, cycling, athletics, Formula 1 and rugby.
Ratcliffe now resides amongst other high fliers in glamorous Monaco after leaving British shores, saving himself an estimated £4 billion in tax in the process.
His current jet-setting life is in stark contrast to his early days growing up on a council estate in Failsworth, Greater Manchester.
As a young kid, he would gaze at the city from the outskirts and count chimneys from his bedroom window.
"Being around Manchester when I was growing up, the manufacturing situation sort of seeps into your consciousness I suppose," Ratcliffe told MEN in 2015, adding that there's "a bit of the Industrial Revolution in my DNA".
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Ratcliffe was born in 1952 to a joiner father and a mother who was an accounts office worker.
They lived in a council house in Lancashire until he was 10, then moved to East Yorkshire when his father started running a factory making laboratory furniture.
"You should see a picture of the council house where I started out," he told the Daily Express in 2018, which is the same year he was named Britain's wealthiest man.
During his school days, Ratcliffe has stated he was only interested in playing football and he became an avid United supporter, which may give hope to fans he might one day take over the club he loves.
He remembers collecting frogs with pals on the way to school and paying the local blacksmith many visits to weld his 'smashed up' bike back together.
"I did have this inkling that I wanted to be successful - that I wanted to be a millionaire one day," he added. "Those things were in my head but I was just dreaming, really."
The billionaire attended Beverley Grammar School and lived in Hull until the age of 18 before studying chemical engineering at Birmingham University.
After graduating with a 2:1 he worked for BP during a summer holiday and was offered a full-time job.
However, he was controversially fired from his first ever role after just three days because he had a mild case of eczema.
Ratcliffe's boss saw his medical report and decided that he could not risk investing five years training in someone who might prove allergic to the company's products.
It was a bitter blow for Ratcliffe, but he was determined to be a success and worked as a trainee accountant at a pharmaceuticals company.
Then he landed a job with Esso, who funded his MBA at London Business School, after which he worked with a chemicals manufacturer until his 30s.
In 1992 he took the risk of mortgaging his house in order to buy BP's chemicals division for around £40 million.
It's been a rapid rise for the 69-year-old, who didn't start his first business until weeks before his 40th birthday.
Then in 1998 at the age of 45 he founded chemical giant Ineos and his business empire really started taking shape.
Headquartered and registered in London, Ineos was the fourth largest chemical company in the world as of 2021 and has an estimated turnover of £59.3 billion.
In 2006, Ineos bought BP's refining and petrochemical arm Innovene and as a whole employs more than 18,500 people at 181 sites across 22 countries.
They manufactures raw materials for products ranging from bottle caps and toothpaste to computers and cars. It employs thousands of people across more than twenty countries.
Ratcliffe relocated Ineos' head office to Switzerland in 2010 in what was a masterstroke of financial thinking as he cut the company's tax bill by £100 million per year.
Now owning a 60% stake in the business, Ratcliffe has an estimated annual salary of £7.4 while racking up lifetime earnings of £17.5 billion.
He told The Financial Times: "I can’t think of anything I set out to do and have not completed."
In May 2009, Ratcliffe was granted an honorary fellowship by the Institution of Chemical Engineers citing "his sustained leadership in building the Ineos Group and in 2013 he received the Petrochemical Heritage Award.
He was awarded a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2018 for his services to business and investment.
A keen outdoorsman, who has made expeditions to the North and South Poles, Sir Jim also founded the charity Go Run for Fun, which encourages children between five and 10 to get more active by arranging celebrity events.
The billionaire now lives far from his council estate life after moving to Monaco, which saved him £4billion in tax payments and led to criticism from British politicians.
He has two sons, George and Samuel, with first wife Amanda Towson, who he divorced in 1995 after 10 years of marriage.
Ratcliffe also has a daughter with his current partner Maria Alessia Maresca, who is an Italian tax lawyer.
Outside of sport, Ratcliffe has previously owned two super yachts, but still has the 78-metre long Hampshire II, while he also owns 50% of the Pig Hotels business group.
As well as the three family homes he reportedly enjoys four mega-money holidays every year, owns no less than four private jets to get him there, and a fleet of cars.
He purchased Swiss top flight football team FC Lausanne-Sport in 2017 and also owns French club Nice.
But it seems increasingly unlikely that he will take over his beloved Manchester United unless there are major changes.
Speaking in November 2019, he claimed United had "lost the plot" since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in May 2013.
"Not at the moment, no," said Ratcliffe when asked if he was interested in buying United. "They are in quite a big pickle as a business.
"[Ineos] never wants to be the dumb money in town, never, never... they haven't got the manager selection right, haven't bought well.
"They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred. We won't look elsewhere until we have had a good run here [at Nice].
"We need to find out how to be successful before you ever want to write a big cheque. It's quite difficult."
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