Are you easy to work for? Do you lose your temper?I’m really easy to work for, probably too easy. I never lose my temper or go completely mad until something happens, like I read a piece in the press about someone who has been a sly deceitful bastard. I hate politics in companies, and sly deceitful clever dicks who don’t have the respect to realise that people like me know they are sly deceitful clever dicks.13. What was the happiest day of your working life?The day I made my first £1m by selling Enzymatix, my first biotechnology company, in 1988 I created two other companies, Chiroscience and Celsis.

The worst day was 18 February 1997 – the day I had to get rid of the management team at Toad, my specialist car security company, because they’d let me down so badly. I remember it with a passion because it was a really bad miserable day.14. How do you choose people to run your companies?Picking chief executives is one of the hardest things in business. They look good on paper, they have great references and you think it’s going to work.

But until they’re in the job and exposed to the elements, you don’t know. They may do well in another company but in yours they can’t get the people behind them, the deals don’t happen and the science goes wrong. I’ve got 90 directors across all the companies so the fact that I’ve sacked six people over the last several years isn’t that big a number.15. What was the first lesson you learned in business?Never back a friend. It took me a few years to learn but it leads to major complications when you sack them.16.

If you didn’t run Merlin, which company would you most like to run?Microsoft. I would diversify its skills, talents and resources into healthcare because it could make an enormous contribution to the world healthcare market. Once I’d changed the strategy into healthcare big time, I’d emotionally persecute the judges who want to break up the company Bill Gates has become a victim of his success It’s really sad that Microsoft is going to be broken up.17. Do funding shortages hold back UK science?Science is a huge consumer of money so there is always a shortage of funding. The Government has increased it, but there needs to be more money put into fundamental science. It was very difficult to get any money 10 years ago but now we’re talking about billions going into it because people like me are investing huge amounts.18. You’re worth £125m; how much is enough?I could comfortably spend a billion because you could do great things like investing £900m of it Once you’ve got to £3bn that’s too much money.

I wouldn’t mind having it though because the interest would be £300m a year.19. Where do you want to be five years from now?Managing an empire that is at least 10 times bigger than Merlin.20. If you were bankrupt tomorrow would you start again?I’d relish being bankrupt for a day. I’d go fishing, watch rugby, drink some beer, get my head clean, and start again..