Richard was born in 1950 and at age 17, while at Stowe - the famous English public school - started a student advisory service. Three years later, he founded the Virgin mail order record company and shortly afterwards opened a shop on Oxford Street, London's main shopping thoroughfare.

In 1972 a studio was built in Oxfordshire, the very one that Mike Oldfield recorded his five millions selling album 'Tubular Bells'. This was to provide the catalyst for Virgin Records that went on to sign major names such as The Rolling Stones, Culture Club, Janet Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds and The Human League - all contributing to the continued success story.

By the early 1980s, Virgin Records was one of the top six record companies in the world. Then, in 1984, Richard got a phone call out of the blue suggesting a jumbo jet passenger service between London and New York. Richard liked the idea, much to the horror of his fellow directors who thought him crazy.

Undeterred, Richard announced to the world that Virgin Atlantic Airways would begin operating within three months! At which point a lot of other people agreed - he was crazy!

But, an aircraft was found, staff were hired, licences granted and, thanks in no small part to Richard's infectious enthusiasm, on 22 June 1984 an aircraft packed with friends, celebrities and the media set off for Newark, New Jersey - and a phenomenon was born!

Since then, Virgin Atlantic has become the second largest long-haul international airline operating services out of London's Heathrow and Gatwick Airports to 22 destinations all over the world - from Shanghai to the Caribbean and, of course, the US.

In 1992 Richard sold Virgin Music for $1bn to Thorn EMI and ploughed the profits back into Virgin Atlantic, improving an already great service even further. However, he still has a big role in the entertainment industry through the international Megastores, the V2 record label and interests in night-clubs, book and software publishing, film and video editing and hotels.

In December 1999, Richard signed an agreement to sell a 49% stake of Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines to form a unique global partnership - the deal valuing Virgin Atlantic at a minimum of £1.225bn. At the same time the combined sales of the different Virgin holding companies was around £3bn.

It turned out that 1999 was an eventful year for Richard and was topped off by being awarded a knighthood for his services to entrepreneurship.

As you might imagine, Richard never stops (which can be exhausting for the people around him!) and sets himself just as steep challenges in his personal life as in his business life. Just for fun, he has been involved in round the world balloon attempts as well as rekindling the spirit of the Blue Riband when he crossed the Atlantic in his Virgin Atlantic Challenger II boat in the fastest ever recorded time. What was it they said about him being crazy?

So what next? Well there's plenty planned, not least the introduction of the six A380 aircraft we have ordered which are due to arrive in 2006!

Oh, and there's somewhere Richard hasn't ventured yet - he has apparently been heard to wonder whether it would be feasible to increase our long-haul capacity, and just how do you build a hotel in space