Sir Richard Branson was born in 1950, and educated at Stowe School, where he established a national magazine called Student at the age of sixteen. He started a Student Advisory Centre aged 17 to help young people. In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer and shortly thereafter opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. During 1972 a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire where the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded “Tubular Bells” which was released in 1973.
The first album of the newly created Virgin Records went on to sell over 5 million copies. The equity of Virgin Music Group – record labels, music publishing, and recording studios was sold to THORN EMI in 1992 in a US$1Bn deal.
Today, Virgin is one of the world’s most recognized and respected brands. Virgin Group has expanded into international retail, air travel, mobile, financial, retail, music, rail, resorts and leisure, space travel, and clean fuels through more than 200 companies’ worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people in 29 countries. Revenues around the world in 2006 exceeded £5 billion (US$10 billion).
Virgin Atlantic Airways, formed in 1984, is now the second largest British long haul international airline and operates a fleet of Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 aircraft. The airline is founded on the concept of offering a competitive and high quality Upper Class, Premium Economy and Economy service.
In 2004 Richard’s dream of opening the world’s first ever commercial Space Tourism business was realised with the launch of Virgin Galactic. Based on the proven technology of Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, the VSS ENTERPRISE will take its first customers to the stars. A child of the moon landing Richard has dreamed, as have many millions across the world, that the experience of Space should be opened to all as Virgin Galactic grows this dream will finally become a reality.
In July 2007, on his and Nelson Mandela’s birthday, Richard joined Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu to help announce the formation of the Elders, a group of leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems.
In December 1999 Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s millennium New Years honours list for “services to entrepreneurship”.
Contact us to engage Sir Branson to speak at your next conference to inspire your audience.
Wisdom shared by Sir Richard Branson:
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Sir Richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson was born in 1950, and educated at Stowe School, where he established a national magazine called Student at the age of sixteen. He started a Student Advisory Centre aged 17 to help young people. In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer and shortly thereafter opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. During 1972 a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire where the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded “Tubular Bells” which was released in 1973.
The first album of the newly created Virgin Records went on to sell over 5 million copies. The equity of Virgin Music Group – record labels, music publishing, and recording studios was sold to THORN EMI in 1992 in a US$1Bn deal.
Today, Virgin is one of the world’s most recognized and respected brands. Virgin Group has expanded into international retail, air travel, mobile, financial, retail, music, rail, resorts and leisure, space travel, and clean fuels through more than 200 companies’ worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people in 29 countries. Revenues around the world in 2006 exceeded £5 billion (US$10 billion).
Virgin Atlantic Airways, formed in 1984, is now the second largest British long haul international airline and operates a fleet of Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 aircraft. The airline is founded on the concept of offering a competitive and high quality Upper Class, Premium Economy and Economy service.
In 2004 Richard’s dream of opening the world’s first ever commercial Space Tourism business was realised with the launch of Virgin Galactic. Based on the proven technology of Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, the VSS ENTERPRISE will take its first customers to the stars. A child of the moon landing Richard has dreamed, as have many millions across the world, that the experience of Space should be opened to all as Virgin Galactic grows this dream will finally become a reality.
In July 2007, on his and Nelson Mandela’s birthday, Richard joined Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu to help announce the formation of the Elders, a group of leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems.
In December 1999 Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s millennium New Years honours list for “services to entrepreneurship”.
Contact us to engage Sir Branson to speak at your next conference to inspire your audience.