Jim O'Neill takes Treasury post for infrastructure and devolution

He built a career at Goldman Sachs based on his early championing of emerging markets and their huge economic potential. Two decades later, Jim O'Neill has been appointed as a UK government minister with the task of helping Britain compete against the rising powers of the eastern and southern hemispheres.

The 58-year-old was on Thursday awarded a life peerage by the Queen and given the title of commercial secretary to the Treasury. His responsibilities will include public sector infrastructure projects - including attracting foreign investment to help finance them. Competition policy and regulation will be other areas of interest.

Mr O'Neill will also be an ally of George Osborne in his drive to narrow the north-south divide and devolve powers to city administrations. The chancellor's "northern powerhouse" plan drew heavily from recommendations last year from the City Growth Commission, chaired by Mr O'Neill.

As the son of a postman from Gatley, south Manchester, who rose to the upper echelons of Wall Street's most powerful bank, his life story is the perfect fit for a Conservative government eager to associate itself with meritocracy and aspiration.

But he also brings heavyweight experience and a blue-chip contact book from roles including chief economist and head of global asset management during 18 years at Goldman Sachs.

It was in the former role that Mr O'Neill rose to fame in 2001 with a report that coined the term Brics for the rising economic powers of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, he said he decided to leave Goldman Sachs in 2012 after seeing others overstay their welcome.

"I've seen so many people who've been pushed and their ego couldn't cope with it," he said.

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Instead, he turned towards public policy by taking the reins of the City Growth Commission - set up to explore ways of helping UK regional cities keep pace with London - and becoming a non-executive director at the department of education. This latter role reflected a longstanding area of interest as founder of the Shine charity for disadvantaged children.

A further, very different job was added to his portfolio last year when David Cameron recruited him to head an international commission on antimicrobial resistance - the rise of "superbugs" immune to antibiotics.

Mr O'Neill has since admitted that the world of microbes and pharmaceuticals is "like Swahili" to him but the prime minister wanted an outsider to focus on economic solutions to the market failures that have caused the antibiotics pipeline to dry up.

His commission on Thursday unveiled a multibillion-dollar plan aimed at spurring more research and development hours before Mr O'Neill's ministerial appointment was announced. He is expected to continue the superbugs role in parallel with his new job.

Aside from his "Mr Brics" moniker, he is also remembered as the original "Red Knight" who led an unsuccessful campaign to arrange a consortium of wealthy fellow fans to buy Manchester United in 2010. He still regularly attends the team's matches and Sir Alex Ferguson, the club's former manager, is a friend.

His political allegiances have always been opaque even though his northern background and unreconstructed Mancunian accent has often led people to assume - erroneously, he says - that he supports Labour. This non-partisan identity could help build bridges between the Conservative Treasury and Labour-led northern councils as infrastructure projects are rolled out.

Talking to the FT recently, he said the northern powerhouse plan must result in more than just "shiny buildings in the centre of Manchester". "The long term measure of success will be reducing deprivation in large areas of Manchester and other northern cities".

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