Richard Branson

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate and the founder of the Virgin Group, which he established in 1970. He is best known for building the Virgin brand into a conglomerate spanning diverse sectors including travel, telecommunications, music, and banking, with more than 40 Virgin companies operating in over 35 countries. He struggled academically due to dyslexia and left school at age 16, going on to start a mail-order record business that evolved into Virgin Records and eventually the broader Virgin Group. He was knighted in 1999 for services to entrepreneurship and primarily resides on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.