Richard Branson

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on 18th July 1950 in Surrey which is situated in England. Edward James Branson was his father who used to work as a barrister. Eve Branson was his mother and used to work as an air hostess. Richard was diagnosed with dyslexia and had to face many troubles in getting educated. He almost failed at the age of thirteen from the all-boys Scaitcliffe School. He was then shifted to a boarding school in Stowe, known as Stowe School. He soon left the school midway, and at the age of sixteen, he started his youth-oriented publication named Student. The magazine was operated by students and for the students. It got advertisements worth $8000 for its first edition which was introduced in the year 1996.

Branson wanted to become a businessman, and later in the year 1970, he started a record shop, and a went on to open a recording studio in 1972. In 1973 his label Virgin Records signed its first singer Mike Old field, and his song "Tubular Bells" became an instant hit, and the label went on to acquire other popular musicians and groups. He extended his business again in 1980 by starting a travel firm Voyager Group, an airline Virgin Atlantic in the year 1984 and a chain of Virgin Megastores. Due to the financial crisis of the company, it was later sold to THORN EMI for $1 billion. Later in the year 1993, he started a radio channel called Virgin Radio and also went on to start another music label named V2.

The Virgin Group holds more than two hundred companies across the globe and has branched into a rail company, a cell phone company and a space expedition company named Virgin Galactic. He was knighted at the Buckingham Palace in March in the year 2000 for his successful endeavor in retail, music, and transport. In July 2006 Branson sold his Mobile company to UK-based company NTL/NTL: Telewest for a whopping £1 billion. In 2006, Branson started Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment association aimed at creating new anecdotes and characters for audience worldwide.

Branson also introduced the Virgin Health Bank which gives would-be parents an opportunity to preserve their child's umbilical cord blood stem cells. Branson got married to his first wife Kristen Tomassi in the year 1972 and later got divorced in the year 1979. He later remarried in the year 1989 to Joan Templeman and had a daughter called Holly and a son called Sam with her. In the year 1998, he released his autobiography named Losing My Virginity which became a huge success. As of July 2015, Forbes recorded Branson's estimated net worth at $5.2 billion.