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Paul Allen
Paul Allen was a programmer at Honeywell in Boston when he read an advertisement for a microcomputer kit in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. He convinced Bill Gates to team up with him and create software for it.

Intel and Motorola followed with more powerful microprocessors. The likes of Radio Shack, Apple and IBM designed personal computers based on them. For the software that made these machines useful, they turned to Paul Allen and Bill Gates, who in Albuquerque had started a new company called Microsoft. Allen was head of research and new product development, the company's senior technology post. He championed and helped engineer many of the company's most successful products, including MS-DOS®, Word, Windows® and the Microsoft Mouse.

He left the company in 1983, after a serious illness led him to re-evaluate his personal priorities. He retains his seat on the Microsoft board and remains its second largest stockholder. Allen now commits his time to other projects.

Barbara Amiel aka Barbara Black - Libertarian journalist and political hostess
Barbara was born in Watford. When her parents divorced, she moved to Canada. A scholarship to the University of Toronto was followed by a career in journalism, which once saw her imprisoned in Mozambique for the sake of a scoop. She then became the first female editor of the Toronto Sun.

Returned to Britain in the 1980s, her witty broadsides at liberal targets earned her the name 'the Iron Lady of Wapping'. When she met Conrad Black it has been reported that he was so infatuated he had to see a shrink, but its was alright, it was nothing more than love. Barbara is now chatelaine of this country's foremost political salon. Her fourth husband owns publishing group Hollinger, which includes the Spectator and the Telegraph for which she also writes for.

Richard Branson - Mr. Virgin, lives in Holland Park
Branson sells out - June 04
Richard Branson is to sell hundreds of Virgin record stores.

The tycoon is planning to sell around a third of his record shops after losing out to internet retailers. It will mainly be the Virgin Xpress shops that face the chop as Branson plans to open bigger stores in their place. This is part of a £90m strategy which will streamline the entertainment arm of Virgin.

Presenter Branson - 17/06/03
Holland Park based businessman Sir Richard Branson is to front an edition of the new Five series Extreme…

Each week the programme will feature a different celebrity who will focus on ill-fated adventures. Sir Richard will be describing his own transatlantic ballooning attempt and a terrifying skydiving near miss.

He recounts how two experienced skydivers saved his life in 1986 when he pulled the wrong ripcord and lost his parachute.

The series will be aired on the channel beginning in September.

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Richard Branson to float Virgin Blue in 2003 - 28/11/02
Mogul Richard Branson plans to float Australian airline Virgin Blue, which he half owns, in the first half of next year. Australia's Sunday Times newspaper reported the float would have a likely value of up to 520 million sterling or US$828 million.

Branson also revealed that Virgin Atlantic would fly to Australia via Hong Kong in 2003. "We will finally be able to connect up Virgin Blue with Virgin Atlantic," he said.

London to Australia via Hong Kong would be the longest haul flight Virgin Atlantic operates.

Born 1950 in Surrey, the son of an English barrister and his former airline hostess wife. He was beaten at Scaitcliffe Preparatory School for poor grades. Skipped college and moved to London in the late 1960s to work on Student, a magazine he co-founded.

His marriage to American Kristen Tomassi ended after a wife-swapping episode. He then married Joan Templeman in 1989 after living together for many years and having two children, Holly and Sam.

Richard Branson is the founder of many companies bearing the "Virgin" trademark including Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Cola, music production, retailing and other ventures including interests in a radio station, financial services, hotels and even cosmetics and blue jeans - over 150 companies in all.

Branson began his entrepreneurial life growing Christmas trees as a youngster. At 21, Branson started Virgin Records he signed such names as The Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Janet Jackson.

He sold Virgin Music in 1991 for close to $1 billion.Branson is a trustee of several charities including the Healthcare Foundation, a leading healthcare charity responsible for a health education campaign relating to AIDS in 1987. He assisted in the initial funding of Charity Projects to help the organization raise over £27 million in 1989 alone through events such as Comic Relief.

Now, head of 150 or so enterprises that carry the Virgin name, with a personal wealth estimated at nearly $3 billion. In 1981 Branson bought his own Balinese island (Necker) for a mere £200,000, about three quarters of a mile long the island had two good beaches, but no buildings, no fresh water and very few trees.

After months of work Branson now spends three months of the year on Necker, keeping open house for his friends. When he isn't there, the island is available to rent to the likes of Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Robert DeNiro - and you if you have the odd $14,000 a day to spare on a holiday.

He still holds the record as fastest to cross the Atlantic ocean by boat, and hopes to be first to circle the globe in a balloon. It is a success that was never expected for a dyslexic, nearsighted boy.

Branson Threatens To Sue Railtrack 5 March 2001
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Rail group has threatened to take Railtrack to court to recoup the £100m of lost revenue due to the four months of chaos caused by the Hatfield rail crash.

Blow To Branson's Rail Franchise Bid 15 February 2021
Kensington's most famous businessman Sir Richard Branson's plan to take over the important East Coast Main Line has been put on hold.

Branson Bows out of fight for Lottery 11 January 2021
Sir Richard Branson yesterday abandoned his long campaign to win control of the national lottery, but not before a last bitter swipe at the commission which frustrated his ambition. The founder of the Virgin empire said he had decided not to proceed with a judicial review to re-open the contest for the next licence. He said he feared that further delays and controversy could lead to good causes losing millions of pounds. The decision, Sir Richard said, flew in the face of legal advice suggesting he had a strong case for overturning the national lottery commission's decision last month to award the next licence to Camelot.

Branson looks at an alternative lottery 8 January 2021
Sir Richard Branson is considering the launch of a non-profit making game to rival the National Lottery. The plan is a fall-back position for Sir Richard, whose People's Lottery lost out in the contest against Camelot for the next licence to run the national lottery at the end of last year.

Judge backs Branson over lottery July 2000
SIR RICHARD BRANSON was last night given the all-clear to begin exclusive negotiations to take over the National Lottery despite objections from Camelot, the present operator.

War of words over Virgin's naked rivalry November 12 1999
Richard Branson's Virgin Group yesterday marched into Britain's fast-growing mobile phone market and into an immediate slanging match with the largest independent mobile retailer, Carphone Warehouse.

When two airlines go to war October 03 1999
It could be the final ignominy for British Airways and its embattled chief executive Bob Ayling. Upstart arch-rival Richard Branson has revived plans to take a stake in the national airline.

Dr Chris Evans
At the age of 40, Chris Evans is one of Europe's leading biotechnology entrepreneurs. He has established several high quality bioscience companies and has successfully sold one, Enzymatix Limited, and floated two others on the London Stock Exchange.

Over the last five years his businesses have raised over £300 million in the UK. His latest venture is Merlin Ventures Limited which is a biotechnology seed investment company focused on creating exciting start-up ventures.

Marco Pierre White - Chef & restauranteur
17/01/01
Marco Pierre White (who runs Kensington restaurant The Belvedere), won damages thought to be as much as £1million in the High Court yesterday.

Rival restauranteur Tony Allan agreed to pay his former friend's damages and both sides' legal costs after the celebrity chef sued him for libel over claims that he had once served a squid with real ink to a food critic.

In a statement read out in court Allan accepted the ink story was untrue and was the result of a joke that had got out of hand. Allan said that he had apologised straight away, offering to put the record straight. He went on to say that he now deeply regretted the episode, not least because it led to the end of his ten-year friendship with Mr White.

Lord Jenkins
Roy Jenkins was born in Wales in 1920. He was educated at University College, Cardiff, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took First Class Honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, proceeding to war service with the Royal Artillery in 1942. It was as Captain Jenkins that he married in 1945 Dame Jennifer Jenkins.

He first entered Parliament in 1948. He was MP for the Stechford Division of Birmingham from 1950 until 1976, and later from 1982 to 1987 for the Hillhead Division of Glasgow. He was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1970 to 1972, resigning on an issue of principle. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 1987.

Roy Jenkins has held two of the great offices of State-Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, also serving between 1975 and 1981 as President of the European Commission, the first British citizen to have held that office.

Roy Jenkins is now an accomplished biographer and historian.

Denise Kingsmill - Deputy chairman of the Competition Commission
Denise was born in New Zealand where she spent most of her time on a sheep farm before emigrating as a child to Croesyceilliog in Wales. After gaining a degree at Girton College, Cambridge, she worked in fashion. Later in life she decided upon law and became one of the most successful lawyers in the country. She specialised in high-profile redundancies and pay-offs - memorably securing £24 million for Direct Line's Peter Wood - she took a serious drop in salary to work for the Competition Commission and is best friends with Salman Rushdie, the pair have been friends since they shared a house after university.

Julie Meyer - Founder of firsttuesday.com
What began as an informal pub gathering on the first Tuesday of every month has turned into the web's top business forum, with this glamorous San Franciscan expat at the helm. With a degree in English from Valparaiso, and an MBA from Insead. Meyer had to sacrifice a lot in order for Firsttuesday to succeed. Her last proper holiday was in March 1999, however she did manage to get four days off when Firsttuesday merged with Yazam in July 2000.

The sale of Firsttuesday netted her £12 million, many more breaks to come I say!!

Network, while you still can... 1 February 2001- The Guardian

Julie Meyer's Dot-Com Support System 8 December 2020 - The Standard

Sally Clarke- chef
Her name may be not as recognisable as Jamie Oliver's but those who know, know. Her London restaurant Clarke's in Kensington Church Street is one of the best, where written menus do not exist, the entire lunch and dinner menus change daily according to what the vegetable and fish markets dictate.

Not content in having a packed restaurant, Sally also owns the delicatessen next door 'Clarke's &', which sells delicious breads and cheeses - all made on the premises, or carefully selected from producers.

She has also just completed a book, which is a collection of her dishes especially for cooking at home. Arranged by season, to take advantage of the freshest and best quality ingredients there are simple menus for lunch and supper.

Michael Portillo MP
Kensington & Chelsea MP hits the MyVillage Celebrity pages ... Coming soon news and views on your local prospective Tory leader.
When does a politician become a celebrity? Well for MyVillage it's when he is spotted punching his hands in the air at the Madonna concert at Earl's Court, singing along to his favourite song La Isla Bonita. This on the very day that former Tory cabinet minister Peter Lilley advocated de-criminalising cannabis. New Tory here we come...
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Gerry Robinson
Officially 'Gerrard Jude'-chairman of the Granada Group & head of the Arts Council

Robinson made his first millions with a management buy-out at Grand Met, and then did it again by taking over Trusthouse Forte with Granada. His post on the Arts Council is unpaid, but that shouldn't matter as last year he was Britain's highest-earning chairman.

As well as his Granada and Arts Council portfolio, Robinson is not only at the helm of the vast media, catering and hotels group, but he also controls and allocates government arts funding.

George Soros
George Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1930. He emigrated in 1947 to England, where he graduated from the London School of Economics, and in 1956 to the United States, where he began to accumulate a large fortune through an international investment fund he founded and managed. While a student at the London School of Economics, Mr. Soros became familiar with the work of the philosopher Karl Popper, who had a profound influence on his thinking and later on his philanthropic activities.

Mr. Soros established his first foundation, the Open Society Fund, in New York in 1979, his first Eastern European foundation in Hungary in 1984, and the Soros Foundation-Soviet Union in 1987. He now funds a network of foundations that operate in 31 countries throughout Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Central Eurasia, as well as South Africa, Haiti, Guatemala, and the United States. These foundations are dedicated to building and maintaining the infrastructure and institutions of an open society. Soros has also founded other major institutions, such as the Central European University and the International Science Foundation. In 1994, the foundations in the network spent approximately $300 million; in 1995, $350 million; and in 1996, $362 million. Projected giving for 1997 is expected to be maintained at a similar level.

In addition to many articles on the political and economic changes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Mr. Soros is the author of The Alchemy of Finance, published by Simon & Schuster in 1987 and republished in 1994 by John Wiley & Sons; Opening the Soviet System, published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in 1990; Underwriting Democracy, published by The Free Press in 1991; and Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve, published by John Wiley & Sons in September 1995. Mr. Soros's most recent book, The Crisis of Global Capitalism, was published in November 1998 by Public Affairs.

Mr. Soros has received honorary doctoral degrees from the New School for Social Research, the University of Oxford, the Budapest University of Economics, and Yale University. In 1995, the University of Bologna awarded Mr. Soros its highest honor, the Laurea Honoris Causa, in recognition of his efforts to promote open societies throughout the world.

Mr. Soros is Chairman of Soros Fund Management LCC, a private investment management firm that serves as principal investment advisor to the Quantum Group of Funds. The Quantum Fund N.V., the oldest and largest fund within the Quantum Group, is generally recognized as having the best performance record of any investment fund in the world in its 28-year history.