Born	Richard Charles Nicholas Branson 18 July 1950 (age 69)[1] Blackheath, London, England
Other names	Old Beardie[2]
Occupation	Businessman
Years active	1966–present
Known for	Founding Virgin Group
Net worth	US$4 billion (2019)[3]
Children	3
Parent(s)	Edward James Branson Eve Branson
Relatives	Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson (grandfather)
Signature

 

Warm up

—- * * FOR NEW STUDENTS ** ————————————— ————

1. 🔊 What industry do you work in and what is your role?
2. 🔊 What are your responses in your role / position?
3. 🔊 Can you describe to the function of your workplace / company?
4. 🔊 How many departments, how many offices. National or International?
5. 🔊 What are the minimum requirements for employment ie Education or Experience?
6. 🔊 How many opportunities are there to ‘move up the ladder’?
7. 🔊 What is the process for changing job roles ie Interview? Test?

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🔊 General discussion about your workweek:

1. 🔊 Current projects? Deadlines? Opportunities?
2. 🔊 Anything of interest happening?

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Script

1. 🔊 Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy event of the week. Each week our staff of educators tries to introduce you to a person of interest in the financial world. This could be a person in government or banking or important investors or traders, on just someone making the financial headlines in recent days.

2. 🔊 Over the past years, Richard Branson has continued to make headlines as he grows his Virgin brand. Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English businessman and investor. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies. At the age of sixteen, his first business venture was a magazine called Student.

3. 🔊 Born on July 18, 1950, in Surrey, England, Richard Branson struggled in school and dropped out at age 16—a decision that ultimately leads to the creation of Virgin Records. His entrepreneurial projects started in the music industry and expanded into other sectors making Branson a billionaire. Branson is also known for his adventurous spirit and sporting achievements, including crossing oceans in a hot air balloon.

4.🔊 In 1969, Branson was living in a London commune, surrounded by the British music and drug scene. It was during this time that Branson had the idea to begin a mail-order record company called Virgin to help fund his magazine efforts.

5.🔊 The company performed modestly but made Branson enough that he was able to expand his business the venture, adding a record shop in Oxford Street, London. With the success of the record shop, the high school drop-out was able to build a recording studio in 1972 in Oxfordshire, England. His first artist on the Virgin Records label, Mike Oldfield, recorded his single “Tubular Bells” in 1973 with the help of Branson’s team.

6.🔊 The song was an instant smash, staying on the UK charts for 247 weeks. Using the momentum of Oldfield’s success, Branson then signed other aspiring musical groups to label, including the Sex Pistols. Artists such as the Culture Club, the Rolling Stones, and Genesis would follow, helping to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world.

7.🔊 Branson expanded his entrepreneurial efforts yet again, this time to include the travel company the Voyager Group in 1980, the airline Virgin Atlantic in 1984, and a series of Virgin Megastores. But Branson’s success was not always predictable. By 1992, Virgin was suddenly struggling to stay financially afloat. The company was sold later that year for $1 billion.

1.🔊 Which business person do you admire the most and why?

2.🔊 Richard Branson struggled in school and dropped out at age 16, have you ever thought of dropping out? Do you think the education is helping your career right now?

3.🔊 If you won a lottery and got 1 million dollars, which company or industry would you invest in and why?

Keywords

1. 🔊 Comprises = consist of; be made up of. 
2. 🔊 Entrepreneurial =relating to someone who starts their own business or is good at seeing new opportunities to make money
3. 🔊 Entrepreneurial =relating to someone who starts their own business or is good at seeing new opportunities to make money
4. 🔊 Commune = a group of families or single people who live and work together sharing possessions and responsibilities : the smallest administrative district of many countries especially in Europe, obsolete : TALK OVER, DISCUSS
5. 🔊 Modestly =not large in size or amount, or not expensive: not usually talking about or making obvious your own abilities and achievements:
6. 🔊 Momentum =the force that keeps an object moving or keeps an event developing after it has started:
7. 🔊 Aspiring =someone who is trying to become a successful actor, politician, writer, etc.. 
8.  🔊 Struggling =unsuccessful but trying hard to succeed:.
9. 🔊 Afloat =floating on water: having enough money to pay what you owe: