Simon Wolfson is an unlikely boss of one of the UK's most successful fashion chains. Contemporaries at Cambridge, where he read law, remember him as a "messy, jeans and T-shirt sort of bloke. A bit of a geek."

Even now, after 10 years at the chain, he is hardly the epitome of a fashion leader. He wears sober suits and is a quiet, bookish-looking man.

He is also rich, holding 1.7 million shares in Next, worth more than £16 million sterling - more than twice as many as outgoing chief executive David Jones - and most were bought with his own cash. "We all knew he had a lot of shares," said one company insider. "But it was only when he was made a director that he was forced to disclose his holdings. When it came out, it was like "bloody hell!'. Everyone was gobsmacked."

Mr Jones reckons his successor's shareholdings are a sign of his commitment. "There aren't many companies where the chief executive will put his hand in his own pocket." Wolfson junior's road to riches started with a holiday job at Next, fixed up when his father David Wolfson was chairman.