Richard Branson
b. 18 July 1950. Branson's achievements while at the liberal Stowe public school belied an entrepreneurial flair that would extend to a multi-national empire by the mid-80s. Its roots lay in 1968 with his establishment of a student journal and advisory service. Profits were then ploughed back into Virgin, a mail-order record business centred in London, and then Britain's first cut-price record store—which would eventually have branches in 25 other countries. By 1973, Branson was also to found an independent label, Virgin Records, that produced a million-seller with its first album, Mike Oldfield's TUBULAR BELLS. If considered bold in embracing punk and new wave acts such as Sex Pistols and Culture Club, the company remained reputable emough to attract veterans like Scott Walker and Steve Winwood. After launching Virgin Records in the USA, Branson—‘the nice guy nobody in the business trusts’—hit the jackpot in 1991 in his signing of the The Rolling Stones. By then, records were but one division of a business with tentacles in spheres that included recording studios, book and sheet music publishing, board games, discotheques, condoms, video, cable television franchises, Virgin Atlantic Airlines and the rich man's folly of a loss-making holiday villa in the Virgin Islands. 
No shrinking violet, Branson cut an urbane public figure with his clipped beard, gold-rimed spectacles and perpetual Aran sweater as he appeared in television commercials for Virgin product and services, and lent his name to government anti-litter campaigns and charities such as 1987's Healthcare Foundation. After relaxing on golf course and tennis court, he became better known as a hot-air balloonist, breaking the sport's speed record and managing a daredevil Atlantic crossing with Per Lindstrand. In 1992, Branson sold his interests in Virgin Records to Thorn-EMI in order to concentrate on his airline.