Richard's Blog - 2011

Employing more ex-offenders

I would like to encourage more companies to proactively recruit ex-offenders. Our experience of this within Virgin has been wholly positive – particularly when working with organisations such as Working Chance, who offer restorative recruitment for women offenders.I believe our society should do more to support positive initiatives to encourage the rehabilitation of prisoners. We should create more chances for people who have been in jail to make a positive contribution to the workforce.In…

Announcing the Virgin Mobile FreeFest line-up!

I wanted to say how much Virgin Mobile and I are thrilled to share with you the long-awaited line-up for this year's FreeFest on September 10th in Columbia, Maryland.Each year I usually announce the line-up on some big TV show or something. But then I got to thinking, since you all are the ones that make this festival so great, then who better to announce the line-up than you?Watch the video above to find out the line-up for Virgin Mobile FreeFest 2011 presented by Kyocera –…

Last shuttle launch

Just heard from our Virgin Galactic team who were down at Cape Canaveral with a group of our future astronauts to witness the very last launch of the space shuttle. I saw the penultimate launch and, like our customers and team today, found it dramatic, moving and memorable.The shuttle program has been a magnificent achievement in the way it regularised manned orbital spaceflight for the first time and because of the immeasurable benefits it brought to science research. It is a real testimony to …

Sending an Aussie in to space

Delighted to be back in Australia and even more thrilled to be here celebrating Virgin Money Australia's first birthday.They have had the very clever idea to make someone's dream come true by sending them in to space on a Virgin Galactic flight. I always dreamt of going to space and it seems Aussies did too. Virgin Money Australia's research told us that half of all boys and 1 in 5 girls dreamt of going to space when they were children and I'm thrilled that we'll be making the ultimate childhood…

The Trillion Dollar Question

As entrepreneurs who have built successful global businesses, Jeff Skoll and I were appalled to learn recently that world spending on nuclear weapons is now forecast to amount to more than $1 trillion during the next decade. According to experts at Global Zero, of which we are founding members, spending is rising even as governments around the world are being forced to cut back on programs that would boost our economies and improve our global quality of life. Read a full blog on the Trillio…

Male circumcision can prevent 3 million deaths in the next 5 years

There's a way that few people know about that can save millions of lives at next to no cost. That is voluntary medical male circumcision. The bottom line is that it reduces transmission of HIV by 60% in men, the greatest benefits accruing in developing nations that are hardest hit by the epidemic. The World Health Organisation (WHO), UNAIDS and PEPFAR are leading the world in scaling-up circumcision efforts as part of the fight against AIDS. The WHO estimates that voluntary medical male circumc…

Open letter to all Virgin Atlantic pilots

Dear Virgin Atlantic Pilots,  The very founding of Virgin Atlantic in 1984 was born out of an idea to reinvent the airline industry. To create an airline where the staff were united to offer a wonderful service to their customers. An airline with a special culture where the people working for it were treated well and where the company was responsive. It literally takes a lifetime to build that kind of culture – well 27 years to be precise! And what a great airline everyone has created…

What good means to me

I'm supporting A Good Week because I believe businesses should think about their social impact and work harder to tackle tough social and environmental problems. My aim, through our foundation, Virgin Unite, is to help change the way businesses and the social sector work together – driving business to be a force for good.I believe this is the only way we can address the scale and urgency of the challenges facing the world today. Every week should be A Good Week so let's use t…

Let's end child marriage

The Elders recently visited some promising projects in the northern part of Ethiopia to build an alliance to end child marriage. Gro Brundtland, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu helped convene a very successful meeting of more than 70 activists and experts on child marriage in Addis Ababa. Child marriage endangers girls’ health, restricts their education, and perpetuates the cycle of poverty.  Desmond Tutu said he was “shattered” to m…

Virgin Money can shake up the sector

Thought best to expand on my earlier note. Pleased to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer has put Northern Rock up for sale. Virgin Money will be assessing the opportunity in detail once the information is out. We have the ambition to become a major high street bank in the UK and we have the expertise, the management and the brand to achieve it. Banking is very competitive but Virgin has never shied away from competition – making a name for ourselves in the competitive aviation and…

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