Virgin Group founder Richard Branson is one of the most influential business people in the world. The company he built at this time has penetrated into various business fields. To achieve success until now, Richard has been in business since he was young. Her first business started since she was 15 years old.
In 1970, Richard started his business empire, Virgin Group. His business made him one of the richest people in the world with a fortune of USD 5.1 billion. Until now, Virgin Group has more than 60 companies, one of which is the Virgin Atlantic airline.
In total, Virgin Group has around 71,000 employees spread across 35 countries and every year Virgin Group generates around USD 22.3 billion.
Richard Branson first built his giant business as a retail record business via post in 1970. The business developed into a music store located in London. Then Richard built a recording studio under the Virgin Record label. One of the iconic rock bands from England, the Rolling Stones is a band under the auspices of Virgin Record. In 1992 Richard then sold Virgin Record for USD 1 billion.
Not only that, but in 1984 Richard also founded the Virgin Atlantic airline to reach 23 million pounds sterling. Even as a figure who has high curiosity, Richard plans to build a business on vacation into space. The company was named Virgin Galactic and planned to be accessed by all those who want to vacation in space.
In 2017, Virgin Galactic has received an additional investment of USD 1 billion from Saudi Arabia. Until now there have been 700 people who have paid a deposit of USD 250 thousand to become Virgin Galactic astronauts.
Apart from being a businessman, Richard is also active as a philanthropist. He devoted much of his time to his non-profit organization, Virgin Unite which he founded in 2004. One of the projects undertaken by Virgin Unite is to provide health services for people in Kenya and to create Branson Center Entrepreneurship.
