Sir Richard Branson, the thrill-seeking billionaire founder of Virgin Records, will be in Vancouver later this month to kick off his airline’s inaugural Vancouver-to-London flight.
Virgin Atlantic’s first Vancouver-London flight takes off May 24. While in Vancouver, Branson will speak to the Vancouver Board of Trade at the Vancouver Convention Centre on May 25.
“Sir Richard Branson is no stranger to Vancouver,” said board chairwoman Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia. “When he was here during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, he announced a public-private consortium aimed at unlocking market-driven solutions to climate change.”
Iain Black, board of trade CEO, said, “Richard Branson’s creative way of looking at the world and today’s business opportunities is a good benchmark for our organization and its members.”
Branson’s Virgin Group is a diversified company with businesses that include mobile phones, travel, financial services, leisure and music.
Virgin employs close to 50,000 people in more than 30 countries and has global revenue of $21 billion.
Branson is known for his attempts to break a number of world records. In 1991, he flew from the Canadian Arctic to Japan – 10,800 kilometres – in a balloon and broke a speed record in doing so.
Tickets for Branson’s talk on May 25 went sale Wednesday exclusively to members of the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Tickets will be available to the general public on May 8. Ticket information is available on the board of trade’s website.
