Sir Richard Branson founded Virgin, one of the world’s most admired brands, which has expanded into many diverse sectors from travel to telecommunications, health to banking and music to leisure. There are now more than 40 Virgin companies worldwide in ove r 35 countries. Richard launched the youth culture magazine Student aged 16 and started Virgin as a mail order record retailer in 1970. Richard then founded Virgin Records and opened a record shop on Oxford Street, London. After building a recording studio, The Manor, the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield,
recorded and released ‘Tubular Bells’. Virgin Records went on to sign household names from The Sex Pistols to The Rolling Stones, becoming the biggest independent label in the world.
Since Richard founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984, it has established itself as a leading global airline. Virgin Australia, Virgin America, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Limited Edition, Virgin Trains, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Voyages and Virgin Galactic followed in travel, while expansion elsewhere saw Richard become the only person to build twelve billion dollar companies in eight different sectors. Richard also challenged himself with many record breaking adventures, including the fastest ever
Atlantic Ocean crossing, a series of hot air balloon adventures and kitesurfing across the English Channel. He described Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, as being “the greatest adventure of all”.
Richard was the world’s most followed CEO on LinkedIn and maintained a dail y blog on
www.virgin.com discussing everything from entrepreneurship, onservation and sustainability to travel, music and humour. He had more than 35 million followers across his social networks. He also wrote eight books, including Losing My Virginity and most recent autobiography, Finding My Virginity.
Since starting Student magazine, Richard has found entrepreneurial ways to provoke positive change in the world. He started a Student Advisory Centre aged 17 to help young people overcome issues ranging from abortion to sexuality. Richard launched Mates condoms at a time when HIV was beginning to affect a large number of people, but awareness of AIDS was low. In 2004 he established the non-profit entrepreneurial foundation Virgin Unite to tackle tough social
and environmental problems and strives to make business a force for good. Richard spent a lot of time working with Virgin Unite and the organisations it has incubated, such as The Elders, Carbon War Room, B Team and Ocean Unite. Richard also served on the Global Commission on Drug Policy and supported ocean conservation with the Ocean Elders.
Richard was awarded a knighthood in 1999 for services to entrepreneurship. He lived in the British Virgin Islands with his wife Joan, and had two children, Holly and Sam. He was a proud grand -dude to five grandchildren –Etta, Artie, Lola, Eva-Deia and Bluey.