About the author

John Lee was born in Manchester in 1942, the son of a family doctor father and child psychologist mother. After qualifying as a chartered accountant and spending a period in stockbroking, he established a company specialising in amalgamations and mergers, which developed into a small public investment banking group. He was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1979, spending 13 years in the House of Commons, including six years as a Minister in Defence, Employment and Tourism. Following his defeat in the 1992 election he chaired the Christie Hospital NHS Trust and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, becoming High Sheriff of Greater Manchester in 1998–9. In 2006 he was created a Life Peer – Lord Lee of Trafford – and currently sits in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat.

For more than 50 years John has been a serious private investor, having bought his first shares at the age of 15. For more than a decade he wrote his ‘My Portfolio’ column for FT Money, resulting in over 200 articles for the Financial Times. In December 2003 he disclosed that his PEP/ISA portfolio was worth £1 million, from £126,000 invested. It has since grown significantly. Over the years John has been on the boards of a number of public and private companies.