Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and, as of 2016, controlled five companies.
Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age. His first business venture, at the age of 16, was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. He opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records—later known as Virgin Megastores—in 1972. His Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he started the Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded the Virgin Records music label. In 1997 he founded the Virgin Rail Group to bid for passenger rail franchises during the privatisation of British Rail. The Virgin Trains brand operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 1997 to 2019, the InterCity CrossCountry franchise from 1997 to 2007 and the InterCity East Coast franchise from 2015 to 2018. In 2004, he founded the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, based at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, United States, noted for the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane.
In March 2000, Branson was knighted for "services to entrepreneurship". Due to his work in retail, music and transport, his taste for adventure and for his humanitarian work, he has become a prominent global figure. In 2007 he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine. In June 2023, Forbes magazine listed Branson's estimated net worth at US$3 billion.
Early life
Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on 18 July 1950 in Blackheath, Royal Borough of Greenwich, London, the son of Edward James Branson, a barrister, and his wife, Evette Huntley Branson, a ballet dancer and air hostess. He has two younger sisters, Lindy and Vanessa. His paternal grandfather, Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor.Branson's great-great-great-grandfather John Edward Branson left England for India in 1793; John Edward's father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined his son in Madras. Starting from 1793, four generations of Branson's family lived in India, mostly at Cuddalore, in modern-day Tamil Nadu. On the television series Finding Your Roots Branson was shown to have 3.9% South Asian DNA, likely through intermarriage. He later said that one of his great-great-great-grandmothers was an Indian named Ariya.
Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a preparatory school in Surrey, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex. He attended Stowe School, a public school in Buckinghamshire until the age of sixteen.
Branson has dyslexia, and had poor academic performance; on his last day at school, his headmaster, Robert Drayson, told him he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. Branson has also talked openly about having ADHD. Branson's parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age. His mother was an entrepreneur; one of her most successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins. In London, he started off squatting from 1967 to 1968.
Branson is an atheist. He said in an interview in 2011 with Piers Morgan that evolution is a demonstrable fact and he believes in the importance of humanitarian efforts, not in the existence of God: "I would love to believe", he said. "It's very comforting to believe".
Early business career
After failed attempts to grow and sell both Christmas trees and budgerigars, Branson launched a magazine named Student in 1966 with Nik Powell. The first issue of Student appeared in January 1968, and a year later, Branson's net worth was estimated at £50,000. The office for the venture was situated in the crypt of St John's Church, off Bayswater Road, in London. Though not initially as successful as he hoped, the magazine later became a vital component of the mail-order record business Branson started from the same church he used for Student. Branson used the magazine to advertise popular albums, driving his record sales. He interviewed several prominent personalities of the late 1960s for the magazine including Mick Jagger and R. D. Laing. Branson took over full direction of Student after successfully lying to Powell that the workers at the magazine opposed Powell's plans to turn the magazine into a co-operative.His business sold records for considerably less than the "High Street" outlets, especially the chain WHSmith. Branson once said, "There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration." At the time many products were sold under restrictive marketing agreements that limited discounting, despite efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to limit retail price maintenance.
Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London. In 1971 he was questioned in connection with the selling of records declared export stock. The matter was never brought before a court because Branson agreed to repay any unpaid purchase tax of 33% and a £70,000 fine. His parents re-mortgaged the family home to help to pay the settlement.
Virgin
1972–1980: Founding of Virgin Records
In 1972, using money earned from his record store, Branson launched the record label Virgin Records with Powell. The name "Virgin" was suggested by one of Branson's early employees because they were all new at business. Branson bought a country estate north of Oxford in which he installed a residential recording studio, The Manor Studio. He leased studio time to fledgling artists, including the multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, whose debut album, Tubular Bells, was the first release for Virgin Records and became a chart-topping best-seller.Virgin signed controversial bands such as the Sex Pistols, which other companies were reluctant to sign. Virgin Records would go on to sign other artists including the Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, XTC, Japan, UB40, Steve Winwood and Paula Abdul, and to become the world's largest independent record label. It also won praise for exposing the public to such lesser known avant-garde music as that of the German bands Faust and Can. Virgin Records also introduced Culture Club to the music world.
Branson's net worth was estimated at £5 million by 1979, and a year later, Virgin Records went international.
1981–1987: Package holiday industries, compilation albums, and Virgin Atlantic
Branson's first successful entry into the airline industry was during a trip to Puerto Rico. His flight was cancelled, so he decided to charter his own plane the rest of the way and offered a ride to the rest of the stranded passengers for a small fee to cover the cost.In 1982, Virgin purchased the gay bar Heaven in London. In 1991, in a consortium with David Frost, Branson made an unsuccessful bid for three ITV franchises under the CPV-TV name. The early 1980s also saw his only attempt as a producer—on the novelty record "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", by The Singing Sheep in association with Doug McLean and Grace McDonald, on which he was credited as "Jeff Mutton". The track consisted of samples of animal noises recorded at his aunt Claire Hoares' farm in Norfolk, set to a drum-machine-produced track and reached number 42 in the UK charts in 1982.
In 1983, Now That's What I Call Music! emerged from Virgin Records offices as a compilation series. Collaborating with EMI, Peter Jamieson orchestrated the partnership on Branson's boat, leading to the concise and influential title "Now That's What I Call Music!", inspired by a Danish Bacon poster gifted to Simon Draper. Branson's introduction to the antique shop owned by Joan Templeman, played a pivotal role in his growing fascination with old signs and advertisements, ultimately shaping the collection.
Branson formed Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo in 1984. He formed Virgin Holidays in 1985.
1988–2000: Telecoms ventures, railways, and worldwide impact
In 1992, to keep his airline company afloat, Branson sold the Virgin label to EMI for £500 million. Branson said that he wept when the sale was completed because the record business had been the very start of the Virgin empire. He created V2 Records in 1996 to re-enter the music business, owning 5% himself. Virgin also acquired the European short-haul airline Euro Belgian Airlines and renamed it Virgin Express. In 1997 Branson took what many saw as being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into the railway business during the privatisation of British Rail. Virgin Rail Group won the InterCity CrossCountry and InterCity West Coast franchises, beginning operations in January and March 1997 respectively. Both franchises were scheduled to run for 15 years.A series of disputes in the early 1990s caused tension between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, which viewed Virgin as an emerging competitor. Virgin subsequently accused British Airways of poaching its passengers, hacking its computers and leaking stories to the press that portrayed Virgin negatively. After the so-called campaign of "dirty tricks", British Airways settled the case, giving £500,000 to Branson, a further £110,000 to his airline, and had to pay legal fees of up to £3 million. Branson distributed his compensation among his staff. In 1993, Branson was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Technology from Loughborough University.
Branson launched Virgin Mobile in 1999, and airline Virgin Blue in Australia in 2000. In the New Years Honours list dated 30 December 1999, Queen Elizabeth II signified her intention to confer the honour of Knight Bachelor on him for his "services to entrepreneurship". He was knighted by Charles, Prince of Wales, on 30 March 2000 at an investiture in Buckingham Palace. Also in 2000, Branson received the Tony Jannus Award for his accomplishments in commercial air transportation.
2001–2007: Entry into space travel and Virgin Media
On 25 September 2004 Branson announced the signing of a deal under which a new space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind SpaceShipOne—funded by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and designed by the aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan—to take paying passengers into suborbital outer space. Virgin Galactic plans to make flights available to the public with tickets priced at US$200,000 using the Scaled Composites White Knight Two. The spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, which was founded by Branson and Rutan and is now solely owned by Virgin Galactic. In 2013, Branson said that he planned to take his two children, 31-year-old Holly and 28-year-old Sam, on a trip to outer space when they ride the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane on its first public flight, then planned for 2014. As part of his promotion of the firm, Branson has added a variation of the Virgin Galactic livery to his personal business jet, the Dassault Falcon 900EX "Galactic Girl".He was ninth in The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 of the wealthiest people or families in the UK, worth slightly more than £3 billion. Branson wrote in his autobiography of the decision to start an airline.
In 2006, through a merger with SN Brussels Airlines, Virgin Airlines formed Brussels Airlines, while retaining its separate listing. It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria, which ceased operations in 2009. Another airline, Virgin America, began flying out of San Francisco International Airport in August 2007.
Branson's next venture with the Virgin group was Virgin Fuels, which was set up to respond to global warming and exploit the recent spike in fuel costs by offering a revolutionary, cheaper fuel for automobiles and, in the near future, aircraft. Branson has stated that he was formerly a global warming sceptic and was influenced in his decision by a breakfast meeting with Al Gore, a former vice president of the United States.
On 21 September 2006 Branson pledged to invest the profits of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains in research for environmentally-friendly fuels. The investment is estimated to be worth US$3 billion.
On 4 July 2006 Branson sold his Virgin Mobile company to the British cable, television, broadband and telephone company NTL:Telewest for £900 million. A new company was launched with much fanfare and publicity on 8 February 2007, under the name Virgin Media. The decision to merge his Virgin Media Company with NTL was made in order to integrate compatible areas of the two businesses. Whilst Branson had owned three-quarters of Virgin Mobile, he would now get paid £8.5 million per annum for the use of the Virgin brand name. He does not own any part of Virgin Media.
In 2006, Branson formed Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience. The company was founded with the author Deepak Chopra, the filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and the entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra. Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering expecting parents the opportunity to store their babies' umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem-cell banks.
In June 2006, a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic led both British and American competition authorities to investigate price-fixing attempts between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. In August 2007 British Airways was fined £271 million over the allegations. Virgin Atlantic was given immunity for tipping off the authorities and received no fine—a controversial decision the Office of Fair Trading defended as being in the public interest.
On 9 February 2007 Branson announced the setting up of a new global science and technology prize—The Virgin Earth Challenge. The Virgin Earth Challenge was to award US$25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design that will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects.
In July 2007, Branson purchased his Australian home, Makepeace Island, in Noosa. In August 2007 he announced that he had bought a 20 per cent stake in the Malaysian airline AirAsia X.
On 13 October 2007, Branson's Virgin Group sought to add Northern Rock to its empire after submitting an offer that would result in Branson personally owning 30 per cent of the company and changing its name from Northern Rock to Virgin Money. The Daily Mail ran a campaign against his bid; Vince Cable, financial spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, suggested in the House of Commons that Branson's criminal conviction for tax evasion might be felt by some as a good enough reason not to trust him with public money.
In September 2023, Branson declared his decision against injecting additional funds into Virgin Galactic, his space travel company experiencing financial losses. He highlighted that his business empire no longer possesses extensive financial resources, indicating constraints on further investment.