JIM RATCLIFFE graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in chemical engineering in 1974.

His first job was with oil giant Esso, but he quickly decided to broaden his skills into finance by studying management accounting and taking an MBA at London Business School.

In 1989 he joined US private equity group Advent, where he discovered the catalytic qualities of leveraged finance. Subsequently, Mr Ratcliffe, now one of the ten richest people in the UK with personal wealth estimated at more than £3.3bn, has built up his business interests with the assistance of billions of pounds of debt-laden private equity funding.

An early deal was the acquisition of the former and ageing ICI chlorine plant at Weston, near Runcorn, for a reported £300m. His group now owns the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland and former BP refining facilities in Texas. In all the group, based near Southampton, owns 70 different operation sites in 20 countries around the world and employs 16,000 people. Mr Ratcliffe’s rise to wealth has been achieved quietly. His name is not as well known as other British billionaires such as Sir Richard Branson or Sir Philip Green. If quoted on the stock market, Ineos could now rank among the UK's top 100 companies.

He left Advent and teamed up with a former director of the chemicals company, Laporte. Radcliffe bought out the specialty chemicals operations of BP at Hythe in Kent, paying £40m.

It was the first of several deals on both sides of the Atlantic and in 1994 the business – Inspec – floated on the London stock exchange. Radcliffe quit in 1997, and soon after received nearly £30m when Inspec was acquired by Laporte.

Ratcliffe then started Ineos, backed by venture capitalists Murray Johnstone.

Ineos – short for international ethylene-oxide sales – has continued to grow to the 30bn euro business it is today through a long list of acquisitions.