Britain's richest man worth £14 billion so secretive receptionist hasn't heard of him
Britain's richest man might also be the country's most secretive man.
Michael Platt is worth about £14.3 billion, but his own receptionist in the business' London headquarters doesn't even know who he is.
He is best known for founding the British-American investment firm BlueCrest Capital Management alongside co-founder William Reeves in 2000.
Platt beats out the likes of Vacuum mogul James Dyson (10.8 billion), Manchester United minority shareholder and INEOS owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe (£13.1 billion), among other entrepreneurs for top spot in the UK.
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As the Daily Mail reports, the company website doesn't even load and the 56-year-old tycoon doesn't reply to emails.
Some of his own staff aren't aware of the big man in charge either, despite being the self-proclaimed 'highest-earning person in the world of finance', as he boasted to New York taxi driver Manny Anzalota, known as the unofficial 'cabbie to the stars'.
The business owner is very serious about keeping his privacy, even going as far to refusing to be photographed in 2006, when The Times did a piece on him and co-founder Reeves and their company.
Patrick Hosking, financial editor at the time, wrote: "They guard their privacy fiercely and detest their regular appearances in newspaper rich lists."
According to 'Hedge Fund Market Wizards: How Winning Traders Win', he is from a working class background on the outskirts of Preston, with his father being a lecturer in civil engineering at Manchester University.
It was also reported that when he was a child, he would visit his grandmother, who taught him to trade in shares, and invested a £500 birthday gift from her that tripled in price.
Reading maths and economics at the London School of Economics, he allegedly made up to £30,000 as an undergraduate student through his investments.
Joining J.P. Morgan as a trainee in New York, he built his way up to being a managing director in the English capital.
He then established BlueCrest Capital in 2000 and the rest of history.
When asked what kind of trader he likes to hire by Jack Schwager, the author of Hedge Fund Market Wizards, he replied: "I look for the type of guy in London who gets up at seven o'clock on Sunday morning when his kids are still in bed and logs on to a poker site so he can pick off the US drunks coming home on Saturday night...that's the type of guy you want, someone who understands an edge."
Platt recently put his £120 million super yacht up for sale, and owns a Chelsea penthouse with views of the Shard and the LondonEye, as well as an exquisite New York apartment overlooking Central Park, and several other homes across Switzerland and the US.
He has also reportedly donated at least £225,000 to the Conservative party.
Platt's son seems to be following in his footsteps too, as he joined BlueCrest, with his father congratulating him in a post on LinkedIn, saying: "You deserve this new opportunity. I wish you the best of luck but I don't expect you will need luck!"
Joshua Nair