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Ron Zwanziger

Millions of people who have waited nervously for the thin blue line to appear on a home pregnancy test kit have contributed to Zwanziger’s fortune. The Cyprus-born and London-educated Zwanziger, 53, is behind leading brands such as Accu-clear, Clearblue and Fact Plus. He is one of the top 25 British business people in America and his company, Massachusetts-based Inverness Medical Innovations, is the world’s largest maker of pregnancy test kits. Nothing else it manufactures captures better its advertising slogan: “The body talks. We translate.” Alongside its consumer diagnostic ranges, IMI also makes similar products for professional use. Zwanziger took an engineering degree from Imperial College London in 1975 before getting a Harvard Business School MBA in 1981. On graduating from Harvard, he set up MediSense, a medical device company. In 1992 he founded IMI’s predecessor, Inverness Medical Technology, selling it in 2001 to Johnson & Johnson for $1.2 billion. IMI also has a £60m joint venture with Scottish Enterprise’s ITI Life Sciences research agency to develop heart disease monitors. Its shares are riding high and it is valued at about £820m. Zwanziger’s stake and share options are worth about £63m, and we add his earlier sale proceeds.