Early years: Mitt Romney, 61, grew up in Detroit, where his father, George, was chief executive of American Motors, a now defunct carmaker, and later, governor of Michigan. His family were Mormons with deep roots in the church -- his great-great grandfather was one of its earliest leaders and his father was born in Mexico in a Mormon colony that had fled anti-polygamy laws. After leaving school, he spent two and a half years as a missionary in France. While there, he was involved in a fatal road accident when a car he was driving collided head-on with another vehicle. One of his passengers was killed and Romney was mistakenly pronounced dead at the scene. Fault was attributed to the other driver. Following his recovery, he took a leadership role over the missionary operation, encouraging innovative forms of outreach such as holding ”American nights” at local youth clubs. His efforts helped the church win its largest number of converts in France for a decade. While he was in Europe, his father launched a bid for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. Romney followed the campaign via 10-day old news clippings. His father faced relatively little scrutiny of his Mormon faith, but his presidential chances were undermined by remarks he made about having been ”brainwashed ” by generals and diplomats during a visit to Vietnam. Romney was in France during the riots of 1968 and he says the experience hardened his conservative beliefs.

Career: After graduating in the top 5 per cent of his Harvard Business School class, he took a job with the Boston Consulting Group before defecting to its arch-rival, Bain & Company. In 1984, he co-founded Bain Capital, a private equity spin-off. Over the next 14 years, he built Bain into one of the world’s largest private equity companies with an average annual rate of return of 113 per cent. He first ran for public office in 1994 but failed in a bid to unseat Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy. His second chance came in 2002, after gaining national attention for his successful turnaround of the corruption-plagued Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He used the role as a springboard to election as governor of Massachusetts, running as a moderate Republican in one of America’s most liberal states. During his four years in office, he turned a $3bn budget deficit into a $700m surplus and pushed groundbreaking reforms to create a near-universal state healthcare system. He stepped down after one term to run for president.