Jim Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe was born in Failsworth, Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester), where his father worked as a joiner and went on to run a factory that made laboratory furniture. His mother worked in an accounts office. He was raised in a council house in the town until the age of 10, when the family moved to East Yorkshire. He was educated at Beverley Grammar School. In 1974, he graduated with a 2:1 in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham.

After graduating, Ratcliffe worked at the oil firm BP but was fired after 3 days. The reason given for his dismissal was that he had eczema, which made him unfit to work around toxic chemicals. This was a medical condition that BP had overlooked prior to Ratcliffe joining. After leaving BP he took up a position as a trainee accountant at a pharmaceuticals company.

A few years later, Ratcliffe joined oil giant Esso. From 1978 to 1980, Esso funded his MBA at the London Business School. Ratcliffe went on to work for the fabric and chemicals producer Courtaulds, where he stayed until his mid-thirties. In 1989, he joined US private equity group Advent International.

INEOS

Ratcliffe was a co-founder of Inspec, which leased the former BP Chemicals site in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1998, Ratcliffe formed INEOS in Hampshire to buy-out Inspec and the freehold of the Antwerp site.

From this small base, using high-yield debt to finance deals, Ratcliffe started buying unwanted operations from groups such as ICI and BP, selecting targets based on their potential to double their earnings over a five-year period. In 2006, INEOS bought BP's refining and petrochemical arm Innovene, giving INEOS refineries and plants in Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and Canada.

The company acquired Norsk Hydro's polymers business in 2007, allowing INEOS to expand its presence in the European polymers market, particularly in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production, significantly strengthening its market position.

In April 2010, Ratcliffe moved INEOS's head office from Hampshire to Rolle, Switzerland, cutting the amount of tax the company paid by £100 million a year.

In 2015, Ratcliffe opened the UK headquarters of the chemicals and energy group in Knightsbridge, London, along with gas and oil trading, and other functions, saying he was "very cheerful about coming back to the UK". He was pleased with UK policy and London as a business base, and untroubled by the prospect of Brexit. Full year 2015 EBITDA was €577 million compared to €253 million for 2014.

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2018, he was named as the richest man in the UK, with a net worth of £21.05 billion.

In February 2019, it was announced that INEOS would invest £1bn in the UK oil and chemical industries, to include an overhaul of the Forties pipeline system that is responsible for transporting a significant percentage of the UK's North Sea oil and gas.

On 1 May 2019, Ratcliffe criticised the current government rules that say fracking in Britain must be suspended every time a 0.5 magnitude tremor is detected, which has led to a de facto ban on fracking, calling the government "pathetic".

Ineos Automotive was founded by Ratcliffe, initially to build a replacement for his Land Rover Defender. He unsuccessfully approached Jaguar Land Rover to buy the tooling to continue production after the original model was cancelled. Instead, in 2019 Ratcliffe formed partnerships with BMW and Magna Steyr to design and build a similar vehicle under the codename Projekt Grenadier. The 5-door Grenadier Station Wagon went into production in October 2022, followed by the launch of the Quartermaster utility vehicle in 2023.

Ratcliffe has two sons with previous wife Amanda Townson, and one daughter from a previous relationship with Italian tax lawyer Maria Alessia Maresca. He is married to Catherine Polli.

Ratcliffe enjoys sport and physical adventure, and has made expeditions to the North and South Poles, as well as a three-month motorbike trek in South Africa. In 2013, he completed the Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara Desert, and founded the charity Go Run for Fun, which creates celebrity-led events to encourage five-to-ten-year-olds to get physically active. Another charity, the Jim Ratcliffe Foundation, helped build a new ski clubhouse in Courchevel to help underprivileged children learn to ski. The Charity Commission for England and Wales has opened an investigation into this charity over a regulatory compliance concern after a donation to a private ski resort.

Ratcliffe splits his time between Hampshire and Monaco. In 2017, he submitted his fifth plan to build a luxury home at Thorns Beach near Beaulieu in Hampshire, which would replace an existing two-bedroom bungalow. In September 2020, he officially changed his tax residence from Hampshire to Monaco, which was estimated to save him £4 billion in tax. He owns an estate on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, as well as the hotels Le Portetta in Courchevel and Lime Wood in Hampshire.

Ratcliffe has owned two super yachts by Feadship: Hampshire and Hampshire II. His first yacht was built by Feadship under the name Barbara Jean, and was later sold. In 2012, he took delivery of the 78-metre (256 ft) Hampshire II, built by Royal Van Lent, which he still owns.

Brexit

Ratcliffe supported the UK leaving the European Union. Ratcliffe is a Eurosceptic and said in 2019, "As a business, INEOS supported the common market, but not a United States of Europe". He is opposed to the "layers and layers" of European legislation that he feels is making European economies increasingly cumbersome and inefficient. He has publicly expressed his disdain for politicians, criticising them for the way they negotiated the Brexit withdrawal agreement, and how they are often "happy to lunch around bankers" but less keen to discuss economic issues with industrialists and business owners.

Immigration

On 12 February 2026, Ratcliffe stated that the UK has been "colonised by immigrants" during an interview by Ed Conway of Sky News. Ratcliffe also criticised the number of people receiving state benefits. His claim was criticised by some football fans, union leaders, anti-racism campaigners and politicians. Manchester United put out a statement in response to his claims and their Sikh fan group stated that his claims were offensive. Government ministers including Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves labelled Ratcliffe's comments 'offensive and wrong' and 'disgusting' respectively, and asked Ratcliffe to apologise.

Ratcliffe later apologised that his "choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe," but qualified his apology saying "it is important to raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration that supports economic growth."