- Sir Richard Branson founded Virgin Group in 1968 as a youth magazine. Over the following decades he expanded into music, airlines, publishing, radio, vacations and more. - By the 1990s Virgin had operations in Japan, publishing, radio, vacations, and other areas. In the 2000s it expanded further into financial services, travel, student communities, cars, wines and more. - Today Virgin operates over 300 companies worldwide employing around 50,000 people across 30 countries, with annual revenues exceeding $18 billion.