The titles of being rich and famous often come hand in hand, with one seemingly coming with the other. Naturally, then, many of the world’s richest folk soon became household names, whether it’s Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or Bill Gates in America, or even Ineos and Manchester United owner Jim Ratcliffe over here.
However, fewer people have heard of Britain’s new richest person, Michael Platt. Platt made his fortune as a hedge fund manager, having co-founded Bluecrest Capital Management in 2000 after previously spending almost a decade working for banking giant JP Morgan.
Born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1968, Platt is thought to have come from a relatively normal background, his dad a teaching engineer at Manchester University while his mum worked in admin, but even as a youngster, he would become fascinated with investing.
According to LancsLive, at just 14 years old, he began trading stocks and shares, turning a £500 birthday gift from his grandma into £1500 after investing in a shipping line.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he began an engineering degree at Imperial College London, but after a year, he switched to studying mathematics and economics at the London School of Economics, where he began to earn up to £30,000 from investments while a student.
After graduating in 1991, Platt joined JP Morgan in New York as a trainee before rising through the ranks and becoming the manager of swaps for many of the Eurozone countries.
After 10 years under the JP Morgan blanket, he founded BlueCrest Capital, which in its 25-year history has risen to be one of the world’s largest hedge funds, and at its peak, it managed more than £26 billion in assets.
But now, despite being ranked as the 115th richest person in the world, many do not even know what he looks like, consistently refusing to have his photo taken for the Times Rich list and staying out of the media.
Financial editor Patrick Hosking wrote: “They guard their privacy fiercely and detest their regular appearances in newspaper rich lists.”
Although apparently he is still happy to speak of his wealth in person, according to a recording by a New York Taxi driver, he described himself to the cabbie as “the highest-earning person in the world of finance,” and even played a small cameo of himself in the TV show Billions.
According to Forbes, Platt now calls Switzerland home, having left London in 2010 for Geneva. There were reports he was set to relocate to Jersey, but those seem to have fallen through, and he remains off British soil.