Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is one of Britain's best known entrepreneurs who combines his enthusiasm for running the Virgin group of companies with his love for high-risk, high-adventure world record-breaking attempts.
After founding the hugely successful Virgin Records music label in the 1970s, Richard expanded the Virgin name into 'Megastore' retailing, book and software publishing, film and video editing, clubs, travel, hotels, cinemas, financial services, telecommunications, rail and air travel.
In 1984 Richard formed Virgin Atlantic Airways and in the last two decades has grown the airline into Britain's second-largest carrier. To promote the Virgin Atlantic name, Richard became involved in a number of high-publicity record-breaking attempts throughout the 1980s and '90s. In 1986, his boat Virgin Atlantic Challenger II crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time. A year later he flew the Virgin Atlantic Flyer balloon - the largest ever built - across the Atlantic.
In 1991 Richard's balloon crossed the Pacific from Japan to Canada breaking all existing records and he followed that with a number of attempts to circumnavigate the entire world. These were sadly thwarted by bad weather and in 1999 a Swiss team became the first to complete the trip. In 2002 Steve Fossett (Richard's partner for the earlier Virgin Global Challenger balloon project and now the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer) became the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the globe by balloon.
Now the pair are reunited to attempt another great aviation first - Steve's solo, non-stop flight around the world in less than 80 hours.
Richard received a knighthood for his services to entrepreneurship in 1999. He is married and lives with Joan and their two children, Holly and Sam, in London and Oxfordshire, UK.