Richard Branson is one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs, present and past. Richard left school at 15 to start Student magazine and later in his teens started Virgin Records. He then started businesses including Virgin Airlines, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Fuels and Virgin Galactic, a private sector space tourism company. He is the first man to travel the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by balloon. Also, in collaboration with Peter Gabriel and Nelson Mandela, Richard founded The Elders, a group of world leaders working objectively to help solve global conflicts. In the early 1990's, Richard helped negotiate the release of Western hostages held in Iraq by writing a letter to Saddam Hussein which was delivered through his friend, the former King Hussein of Jordan. Richard has been married 30 years to his wife Joan, and has two children, Holly and Sam.