Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is the founder and the Chairman of one of the most important English companies: Virgin.

He was born 18 July 1950 in Blackheath, South London, Uk.

Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student, but discovered his ability to connect with others.

Branson's first successful business venture was at age 16, when he published a magazine called Student.

He then set up an audio record mail-order business in 1970.

In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores, which grew rapidly during the 1980s, to make him 236th richest person according to Forbes' 2008 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of approximately $4.4 billion USD.

In 1977 he reached to sign the Sex Pistols and he went on to sign many household names from Culture Club to the Rolling Stones, helping to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world.

He has created one of the most recognizable brands in the world. In Britain where he focuses much of his attention, Branson has managed to "Virginize" a very wide range of products and services. The variety of businesses he controls is as vast as the geographical coverage the brand has, with business located throughout The United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Asian, Europe and South Africa.

Branson is passionate about life and living every minute to its fullest. Since 1985 he has been getting his adrenaline rushes through world record breaking attempts by boat and hot air balloon. Several distance and speed records have been attempted and achieved, but his attempt to be the first person to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon was never achieved. Branson makes each record attempt a media event with his Virgin logo prominently displayed during every launch, which has been an excellent source of free advertising and brand placement for the Virgin Group.

In February 2007, he announced the Virgin Earth Challenge - a $25 million prize to encourage a viable technology which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases.

In July of the same year he had the honour of joining Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu to announce the formation of The Elders, a group of leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world's toughest problems.

Branson was originally married to Kristen Tomassi but is now married to his second wife, Joan Templeman, with whom he has two children: Holly (born 1981), a doctor, and Sam Branson (born 1984).

In 1998 Branson released his autobiography entitled Losing My Virginity, an international best-seller.