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From The Sunday Times
September 30, 2007

Rich backer

Brian Kennedy, the home improvements tycoon with a fortune estimated at £350m, has become a key figure in funding and organising “Team McCann” and the search for Madeleine, writes Steven Swinford.

Kennedy has pledged to meet the growing costs of the search for the four-year-old, covering private investigators as well as legal and media fees.

Kennedy, 47, the son of a window cleaner, was raised in a high-rise block of flats in Edinburgh, earning £1 a week helping his father. His mother worked in a shop.

After just a week studying at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, he quit to join a bank and train as an accountant. At the age of 19, he married his wife, Christine, with whom he has five children, and joined a kitchen design company. He then started his own firm and sold it for £13m at the age of 28.

He bought Everest in 1999 for £47m, before selling it for £63m three years later. His business empire includes about 20 companies spanning conservatory roofs, glass processing and plastics, and last year made a combined £45m profit on more than £500m sales.

Kennedy lives in the village of Swettenham in Cheshire.

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