Richard Branson

Richard Branson married Kristen Tomassi in 1972 and divorced her in 1979.

He married Joan Templeman in 1989 on Necker Island, one of the islands from British Virgin Islands, which he owns. He also owns land in Barbuda and Antigua. He has a son and a daughter.

He is an avid supporter of the football team, the Oxford United.

He was eldest child of barrister Edward James Branson and Eve Huntley Branson. His grandfather, Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor.

He studied at Scaitcliffe School and then attended Stowe School, until the age of 16. He was academically poor, but was able to connect with others around him. Eventually, he dropped out of school, realizing it was not where he wanted to be.

At the age of 16, he started his record business from the crypt of a church and advertised the famous records in ‘The Student’, a magazine. The magazine became an instant success and he soon began trading records under the name, ‘Virgin’.

During the music-drug scene in the early 70s in UK, Branson set up a small recording studio in Oxfordshire, England in 1972. The first artist on the Virgin Records label was Mike Oldfield, who recorded the song, ‘Tubular Bells’.

After Oldfield’s success, he signed other musical groups with Virgin Records such as the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols and the Culture Club. These groups would eventually make Virgin Records one of the top record companies in the world.

After the success of Virgin Records, he expanded his entrepreneurial efforts and began his own travel company, the Voyager Group in 1980.

In 1984, he expanded his business and started his own group of airlines, ‘Virgin Atlantic’ and a series of Virgin Megastores thereafter. It was not that he always tasted success and his businesses faced liquidity problems as well.

The Virgin Group had financial problems in 1992 and was finally sold to THORN EMI for $1 billion. He was devastated but continued to stay in the music business.

He is the chairman and owner of Virgin Group, which currently holds more than 400 companies in 30 countries around the world. His business empire includes a train company, an airline company, a mobile phone company, a luxury game preserve and a space tourism company.

He is the author of ‘Losing my Virginity’, which is an autobiography that features his story from rags to riches. The book became an international success overnight and was adapted into a biopic by David Mirkin and Steven Paul.