Virgin is a leading international investment group and one of the world's most recognised and respected brands. Conceived in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group has gone on to grow successful businesses in sectors ranging from mobile telephony, travel, financial services, leisure, music, holidays and health & wellness. Across its companies, Virgin employs approximately 50,000 people, in 34 countries and global branded revenues in 2011 were around £13bn ($21bn). Virgin believes in making a difference. We stand for value for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge. We strive to achieve this by empowering our employees to continually deliver an unbeatable customer experience. Virgin frequently creates partnerships with others and excels in combining skills, knowledge, and operational expertise from a range of industries to build exciting and successful companies. Virgin Group companies are part of one big family rather than a hierarchy. They are empowered to run their own affairs, yet the companies actively help one another, and solutions to problems are often sourced from within the Group. In a sense they form a commonwealth, with shared ideas, values, interest and goals. At our core we believe business must be a force for good and use its influence and resources to help find solutions to some of the world's major issues.