*** Welcome to piglix ***

Richard Branson

Richard Branson
Richard Branson March 2015 (cropped).jpg
Branson at the UK Drugs Policy: Taking the Lead Internationally discussion at Chatham House in March 2015
Born Richard Charles Nicholas Branson
(1950-07-18) 18 July 1950 (age 66)
Blackheath, London, England
Residence Necker Island, British Virgin Islands
Other names Old Beardie
Occupation Founder of Virgin Group
Years active 1966–present
Net worth Increase US$5.2 billion (January 2016)
Spouse(s) Kristen Tomassi (m. 1972; div. 1979)
Joan Templeman (m. 1989)
Children 2
Parent(s) Edward James Branson
Eve Branson
Relatives Grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor.

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies.

Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age. At the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded the Virgin Records music label.

In March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for "services to entrepreneurship". For his work in retail, music and transport (with interests in land, air, sea and space travel), his taste for adventure, and for his humanitarian work, he became one of the most prominent figures in British culture. In 2002 he was named in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In July 2015, Forbes listed Branson's estimated net worth at $5.2 billion.

Branson was born in Blackheath, London, the eldest of three children of Eve Branson (née Evette Huntley Flindt; born 1924), a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson (1918–2011), a barrister. Branson has two younger sisters. His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor. Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Berkshire, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex. His third great-grandfather, John Edward Branson, left England for India in 1793. His father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined him in Madras. On the show Finding Your Roots, Branson was shown to have 3.9% South Asian (Indian) DNA, likely through intermarriage. Branson attended Stowe School, an independent 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's parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age. Branson's mother was an entrepreneur. One of her most successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins.


...
Wikipedia

...