It wasn’t a start fizzing with privilege or promise. After his early years spent on a council estate near Manchester and an unexceptional school career, the aspiring industrialist found himself sacked four days into his first job. His boss had insisted there was no way he could work in BP’s labs after a medical report had shown he suffered from mild eczema. Ratcliffe didn’t even start his chemicals behemoth Ineos until his mid-40s, a time when many entrepreneurs begin eyeing up the chairman’s office. But by then Ratcliffe was well-placed to harness the expertise and knowledge of the industrial sites and dealmaking he had nurtured in the first half of his career. His genius has been spotting hidden value: buying up unloved chemical plants owned by the world’s industrial giants and seeing where such facilities could be knitted together with other overlooked sites. This alchemy would not have been possible without an appetite for borrowing too brave for many. Ineos now has nearly 200 facilities across 29 countries, making the materials used to produce everything from food packaging and car parts to antibiotics and the chlorine used to purify water. Energised by interests away from the day job, he also made his own updated version of the Land Rover Defender with the Ineos Grenadier – and is now trying to turn around his beloved Manchester United. Still completing marathons in his 70s, Ratcliffe appears to be in it for the long run.