Richard Branson

‘Screw it, let’s do it.’ Branson is a British entrepreneur, best known for his Virgin Group of over 400 companies. His first successful business venture was a magazine called Student at age 16. He is the 212th richest man in the world and worth £2.97 billion with companies ranging from Virgin megastores, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin mobile, Virgin Trains, V2 Records and even Virgin Galactic a space tourism company which plans to take paying passengers into suborbital space for $200,000 a trip. In the late 1990s, Branson and musician Peter Gabriel discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small, dedicated group of leaders, working objectively and without any vested personal interest to solve difficult global conflicts. On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of The Elders, an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together to offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.