Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is the founder and current chairman of the Virgin Group, one of the world’s most recognized and respected brands. Born in 1950 and educated at Stowe School, Richard’s first successful business venture came at the age of 16, when he established a national magazine called Student. At 17, he started a student advisory centre to help young people. In 1970, shortly after leaving Stowe School, Richard founded the Virgin brand as a mail order record retailer. The first Virgin record shop opened shortly thereafter on Oxford Street, London, where it remains to this day. In 1972, a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire and Virgin’s first artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded Tubular Bells, which was released in 1973, selling over 5 million copies and becoming the soundtrack to "The Exorcist". Today, the Virgin Group has expanded into air travel, mobile, financial services, rail, health & wellness, radio, hotels and resorts, space travel, and renewable energy. It invests through more than 200 companies’ worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people in 30 countries. In 2006, at the Clinton Global Initiative, Richard announced that all future proceeds of Virgin Group’s transportation companies will be invested into renewable energy initiatives. This commitment is estimated to be $3 billion over the next 10 years and corresponds with the focus of Virgin Unite, the independent arm of the Virgin Group that centres on entrepreneurial approaches to social and environmental issues. Through Virgin Unite, Richard supports a number of efforts with on-the-ground partners, ranging from the creation of sustainable health clinics in Africa to the fostering of new entrepreneurs through the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in South Africa. In December 1999, Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s millennium New Years honours list for “services to entrepreneurship”. Richard is married with two children.