Senior team
Josh Bayliss
Josh Bayliss has been CEO of Virgin Group since 2011. He has led the development of the Group’s strategy, with significant emphasis on the Virgin brand. Under Josh’s leadership, the Group has started and grown new businesses in a range of consumer industries. It has also diversified its investment portfolio into unbranded venture capital, real estate and a range of ESG investments.
Andrew Swaffield
Andrew Swaffield is the Chief Commercial Officer for the Virgin Group and Chief Executive Officer for Virgin Red – the rewards club for Virgin customers. With more than 20 years’ CEO experience, Andrew is a loyalty expert having created the Avios platform for International Airlines Group (IAG), held senior roles in British Airways and was responsible for the restructuring of Monarch Airlines. Andrew joined the Virgin Group in 2018.
Holly Branson
Holly Branson is the Chief Purpose and Vision Officer on the Virgin leadership team, Chair of Virgin Unite, and Founder and Trustee of Big Change.
After achieving medical and physiology degrees and realising her dream of working as a doctor, Holly joined the Virgin Group as a member of the leadership team in 2008. She dedicates her time to her passions: people, purpose, the environment and developing Virgin’s vision of a better future for all, based on: flourishing people, thriving communities, a healthy planet for all and radical collaboration.
In 2018, Holly published her first book, the international best-seller: WEconomy and is behind Virgin Management and Virgin StartUp signing up to the Better Business Act - an important campaign calling for a crucial change to Company Law that will ensure that all businesses in the UK, have a legal obligation to do the right thing for their people, the communities they serve and our wonderful planet.
Peter Norris
Peter Norris is the Chairman of the Virgin Group, a position he took up in 2009. Prior to this he had acted as an adviser to the Group from 1996 and had chaired Virgin Active from 2002 to 2007. He also currently chairs Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Hotels. Peter has over 40 years’ experience in investment banking and business management.
Ian Woods
Ian Woods is the General Counsel and COO of the Virgin Group and has been with Virgin since 2005. Ian holds responsibility across various functions within Virgin Management. This includes legal, people, company secretarial, facilities and IT. Ian previously worked for leading international law firm Slaughter and May.
Ash Shah
Ash Shah has been the Finance Director of the Virgin Group since Jan 2021 and is responsible for the day to day leadership and management of all financial matters for Group including Tax and Treasury. Ash has over 30 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate and international tax planning and risk management. Ash qualified with Coopers and Lybrand (now PwC) and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA).
Evan Lovell
Evan Lovell is the Chief Investment Officer of the Virgin Group and is responsible for managing the Virgin Group’s investments globally and its portfolio in North America. Evan is a seasoned private equity investor and operator, having invested and participated in global private equity and M&A over the last 20 years, working previously at TPG Capital.
Nikki Humphrey
Nikki Humphrey is the Chief People Officer for the Virgin Group. She is excited to be leading on critical areas such as wellbeing, future of work, talent development, human leadership and inclusion.
Prior to this role, Nikki was Chief People Officer at John Lewis Partnership. And before that, she held the position of Chief People Officer at Virgin Atlantic for four years, where she was a member of the Virgin Atlantic Foundation, which focuses on encouraging more girls into STEM education.
Nikki’s 25-year career spans many sectors including retail, aviation, banking, insurance, asset management, media, manufacturing and engineering. Her passion lies in helping individuals, teams and businesses flourish, achieve their potential and deliver stellar performance.