Historical Figures Codexery

Richard Branson

English business magnate and founder of the Virgin Group

Richard Branson

U.S. Department of State from United States · via Wikipedia: Richard Branson · Public domain

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on 18 July 1950 in Blackheath, London, to a barrister father and a ballet dancer and air hostess mother.[1] The Virgin Group was established in 1970 by Branson, and by 2016 he held leadership positions in five separate companies.[2] Forbes magazine's June 2023 valuation placed Branson's wealth at 3 billion US dollars.[3]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Richard Charles Nicholas Branson
Born
18 July 1950
Birthplace
Blackheath, London, England
Occupation
Business magnate, Author
Known for
Founder of the Virgin Group
Years active
1966–present
Children
3One child is deceased.
Mother
Eve Branson

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

He launched a magazine named Student in 1966 with Nik Powell, and the first issue appeared in January 1968.[4] Using money from his record store, Branson launched the record label Virgin Records in 1972 with Powell.[5] The Sex Pistols, a band many record companies avoided, were signed by Virgin Records.[6] Virgin Atlantic Airways was founded by Branson in 1984.[7]

A knighthood for "services to entrepreneurship" was conferred upon Branson in March 2000.[8] Branson's journey to the edge of space occurred on 11 July 2021 aboard the Virgin Galactic spacecraft VSS Unity.[9] Branson announced in September 2023 that he would not provide further capital to Virgin Galactic.[10]

What the cited sources add

The same source states that Branson once said, "There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration".[7] The OFT article states that Virgin Atlantic escaped punishment for colluding with British Airways to fix prices on transatlantic routes.[11] The EPN profile states that Branson's entrepreneurial career began at age 16 in a church crypt with a publication titled "The Student Magazine".[7] After losing the West Coast Main Line bid, Branson stated his belief that civil servants had miscalculated, as reported by BBC News.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; "Famous birthdays for July 18: Vin Diesel, Kristen Bell", 18 July 2019; "Edward Branson", The Daily Telegraph, 8 May 2011; "Finding Your Roots", 2 February 2016; Myskow, "Like mother, like son", Saga, 13 March 2013; "Forthcoming Marriages", The Times, 22 June 1949, p. 7. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Billionaire Richard Branson reaches space in his own ship", Evening Standard}} * {{cite web, 11 July 2021 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Richard Branson", Forbes (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "How an Anglican Church Bootstrapped Virgin Records", www.garlandpollard.com, 28 February 2016 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Richard Branson – Losing my Virginity; "Richard Branson Biography", The Biography.com website; "Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story", BBC (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Richard Branson The P.T. Barnum of British Business", Entrepreneur, 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "Entrepreneur Guru Sir Richard Branson", EPN, 2 December 2012. facts only, no text reused. epnofny.com
  8. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Virgin tycoon is knighted", BBC News, 3 January 2016; Barling, "The Sage Handbook of Organizational Behavior: Volume Two: Macro Approaches", Sage, p. 383; Hollingshead, "Thirty of the very best of British", The Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wattles, "Everything you need to know about Richard Branson going to space", CNN, 9 July 2021 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Richard Branson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hollinger, "Richard Branson rules out further investment in Virgin Galactic", Financial Times, 2 December 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Sunderland, "OFT defends 'snitch' policy", 5 August 2007. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  12. "West Coast Main Line deal scrapped after contract flaws discovered", BBC News, 3 October 2012. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Richard Branson (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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