History of Richard Branson

Branson was born in Blackheath, London, to Eve Branson, a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson (1918–2011), a barrister.

Richard attended Stowe School, an independent school in Buckinghamshire until the age of sixteen.

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.

In London, Branson started off squatting from 1967 to 1968.

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 pay the settlement.

Branson bought a country estate north of Oxford in which he installed a residential recording studio, The Manor Studio.

In 1972, using money earned from his record store, Branson launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell. The name "Virgin" was suggested by one of Branson's early employees because they were all new at business.

He leased studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, whose debut album Tubular Bells (1973) was the first release for Virgin Records and became a chart-topping best-seller.

In 1982, Virgin purchased the gay nightclub "Heaven".

Branson formed Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo in 1984.

Branson formed Virgin Holidays in 1985.

In 1991, in a consortium with David Frost, Branson made an unsuccessful bid for three ITV franchisees under the CPV-TV name.

In 1992, to keep his airline company afloat, Branson sold the Virgin label to EMI for £500 million.

In 1997, Branson took what many saw as being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into the railway business during the privatization of British Rail in the late 1990s.

Virgin Rail Group won the InterCity CrossCountry and InterCity West Coast franchises, beginning operations in January and March 1997 respectively.

Branson launched Virgin Mobile in 1999.

In the New Years Honours list dated 30 December 1999, Elizabeth II signified her intention to confer the honor of Knight Bachelor on him for his "services to entrepreneurship".

Branson was knighted by Charles, Prince of Wales on 30 March 2000 at an investiture in Buckingham Palace.

Branson launched Airline Virgin Blue in Australia in 2000.

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 Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and designed by 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.

In June 2006, a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic led both UK and US competition authorities to investigate price-fixing attempts between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways.

On 4 July 2006, Branson sold his Virgin Mobile company to UK cable TV, broadband, and telephone company NTL:Telewest for £900million.

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 $3 billion.

In 2006, the airline was merged with SN Brussels Airlines forming Brussels Airlines.

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 author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra.

Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity to store their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem-cell banks.

A new company was launched with much fanfare and publicity on 8 February 2007, under the name Virgin Media.

On 9 February 2007, Branson announced the setting up of a new global science and technology prize—The Virgin Earth Challenge—in the belief that history has shown that prizes of this nature encourage technological advancements for the good of mankind.

In July 2007, Branson purchased his Australian home, Makepeace Island, in Noosa.

In August 2007, Branson announced that he bought a 20-percent stake in Malaysia's AirAsia X.

Another airline, Virgin America, began flying out of San Francisco International Airport in August 2007.

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% of the company and changing the company's name from Northern Rock to Virgin Money.

On 10 January 2008, Virgin Healthcare announced that it would open a chain of health care clinics that would offer conventional medical care alongside homeopathic and complementary therapies, a development that was welcomed by Ben Bradshaw, the UK's health minister.

In February 2009, Branson's Virgin organization was reported as bidding to buy the former "Honda Formula One" team. Branson later stated an interest in Formula One but claimed that, before the Virgin brand became involved with Honda or any other team, Formula One would have to develop a more economically efficient and environmentally responsible image.

At the start of the 2009 Formula One season on 28 March, it was announced that Virgin would be sponsoring the new Brawn GP team, with discussions also underway about introducing a less "dirty" fuel in the medium term.

It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria, which ceased operations in 2009.

In 2010, Virgin Hotels was launched under the Virgin Group. In February 2018, Branson announced the first Virgin Hotel in the UK would open in Edinburgh.

In 2010, Branson became patron of the UK's Gordon Bennett 2010 gas balloon race, which has 16 hydrogen balloons flying across Europe.

In April 2012, Virgin Care commenced a five-year contract for the provision of a range of health services that had previously been under the aegis of NHS Surrey, the local primary care trust.

In July 2012, Branson announced plans to build an orbital space launch system, designated LauncherOne.

Virgin Rail continued to operate the West Coast line until 7 December 2019, when it was replaced by Avanti West Coast.

Branson and Tony Fernandes, owner of Air Asia and Lotus F1 Racing, had a bet for the 2010 F1 season where the losing team's boss should work on the winner's airline during a charity flight dressed as a stewardess. Fernandes escaped as the bet winner, as Lotus Racing ended tenth in the championship, while Virgin Racing ended twelfth and last. Branson kept his word after losing the bet, as he served his duty as a stewardess on an Air Asia flight between Perth and Kuala Lumpur on 12 May 2013.

In September 2014, Branson announced his investment in drone company 3D Robotics stating, "It's amazing to see what a little flying object with a GoPro attached can do. Before they came along the alternative was an expensive helicopter and crew. I'm really excited about the potential 3D Robotics sees in drones. They can do a lot of good in the world, and I hope this affordable technology will give many more people the chance to see our beautiful planet from such a powerful perspective."

In March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast commenced operating the InterCity East Coast franchise; the company was a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%).

In October 2017, Branson appeared on the Season 9 Premiere of Shark Tank as a guest investor, where he invested in Locker Board, a sustainable line of skateboards invented by 11-year-old, Carson Kropfl.

In 2017, Virgin Group invested in Hyperloop One, developing a strategic partnership between the two. Branson joined the board of directors, and in December 2017, became its chairman.

In April 2018, Branson announced the acquisition of the Las Vegas-based Hard Rock Casino-Hotel with plans to re-brand the property under his Virgin Hotels business. Virgin Hotels Las Vegas opened on March 25, 2021.

In September 2018, Branson took part in his fourth Virgin Strive Challenge, where he and a core team traveled more than 2,000 km from Cagliari in Sardinia to the summit of Mont Blanc entirely under human and sail power. It was a grueling month-long challenge where they hiked, biked, and kayaked across Europe and had a near-miss on Mont Blanc when a rockfall rained down on them as they crossed the perilous Gouter Couloir. They raised more than £1m for Holly and Sam Branson's charity Big Change, which supports young people.

In February 2019, Branson helped organize an international benefit concert, Venezuela Aid Live, to bring worldwide attention to the humanitarian crisis and raise funds for humanitarian aid. The concert took place on 22 February in Cúcuta, Colombia, on the Venezuelan border.

On 5 May 2020, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline would lay off 3,000 staff, reduce the fleet size to 35 by the summer of 2022, retire the Boeing 747-400s, and would not resume operations from Gatwick following the pandemic.

On 11 July 2021, Richard Branson took a flight with Beth Moses, Sirisha Bandla, and Colin Bennett and reached the edge of space (86 kilometers or 53 miles) on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft called VSS Unity. This made him the first billionaire founder of a space company to travel to the edge of space.