Brought up in Gatley and attending schools in Wythenshawe and Burnage, Lord Jim O'Neill rose to become one of the country's most feted economists and a Minister at the heart of government.
But the crossbench peer, who helped George Osborne come up with the Northern Powerhouse concept while a Treasury Minister in 2015 and 2016, still keeps a very close eye on his home city.
And as debate rages about whether the next Prime Minister is going to invest in the North and continue Boris Johnson's 'levelling up' agenda, Lord O'Neill says the 'oomph' behind Manchester's resurgence is an example for other cities in the region to follow.
However the former chief economist at Goldman Sachs tells the latest episode of The Northern Agenda podcast that some of the outer boroughs around Manchester are yet to share in its success. Listen to the full interview here on The Northern Agenda podcast This 'oomph' - a willingness to do things differently and with more ambition - is one of the things he says is key to making a reality the Northern Powerhouse concept of the North's great cities functioning as one to compete on a global scale.