His company’s assets include Liverpool’s John Lennon airport and Salford’s MediaCityUK where a significant portion of the BBC is now based. With an empire now valued at over £2.3 billion, John Whittaker, 73, had considered a vocation to the priesthood before joining his family’s quarrying and waste-disposal business. Whittaker, 73, went on to become chairman of Peel Group that owns real estate including the Trafford shopping centre and is overseeing Ocean Gateway, a 50-year £50bn scheme to revitalise the north-west. He is number 43 on the Sunday Times Rich List. Born in Bury, he has four children and sent his three sons to Ampleforth College, the Benedictine-run boarding school in North Yorkshire. He was among the benefactors of the Ampleforth Bicentena