 He was educated at Prior Park College, a Catholic boarding school in Bath, Somerset, and considered becoming a priest before deciding to join the family business, Peel Mills.In the 1980s he fought a bitter battle to take over the Manchester Ship Canal Company, out of which the Trafford Centre emerged.Whittaker sold the 1.5m sq ft Trafford Centre to Capital Shopping Centres (now Intu Properties) in January 2011.