Profile: Richard Branson - UK

Net Worth: $3 bil
Hometown: London
Marital Status: Married , 2 children
Education: N/A

Claim to fame: Self-made master marketer created one of Britain's best-known brands. Latest moves: Sold 49% of airline Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines for $888 million in December. Last year launched Virgin.com and Virgin Mobile, which hopes to be the first global mobile brand. Other holdings range from telecom to fashion. For fun: Skydiving, hot-air ballooning.

Richard Branson's latest adventure will take Virgin into space

Sir Richard Branson started business life as a hippy entrepreneur with a flair for publicity.

Born in 1950 and educated at Stowe School, he went into business at 16, publishing 'Student' magazine.

By the age of 20, he was the subject of a television documentary.

Having originally founded Virgin as a mail order record company he later opened his first store, in London's Oxford Street.

The Virgin Records music label was formed in 1972.

Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, recorded in Virgin's first recording studio - an Oxfordshire barn - and released in 1973, caught the laidback flavour of the era to become a phenomenal best-seller.

When punk came along, Virgin signed the outrageous Sex Pistols when other record companies refused to touch them. The move turned out to be a marketing coup.

Lottery attempt

Many other stars were signed up, including Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds and The Rolling Stones, making Virgin Records a major player in the international music business.

Since then Virgin has expanded into air and rail travel, mobile phones, finance, retail, internet, drinks, hotels and leisure, with around 200 companies in over 30 countries.

Virgin Radio, the first national commercial rock music station, was launched on to the airwaves in 1993 and sold to Chris Evans in 1997.

In 1985, Sir Richard set out from New York to beat the record for crossing the Atlantic by boat, but barely a hundred miles from home the boat had hit some floating driftwood and sank.

Sir Richard and the crew had to be plucked from the sea but the escapade made him and his company household names.

A year later the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was congratulating him on the fastest ever Atlantic crossing in a new boat, but it was not enough.

Soon he was setting out to be the first to cross the Atlantic by hot air balloon. That trip, too, nearly ended in disaster.

At journey's end the balloon, out of control, repeatedly ditched in the Irish Sea. Sir Richard and his pilot, Per Lindstrand, jumped. Once more he was plucked from the water.

Showman

In the mid-1980s the Branson company was floated on the Stock Exchange, but the Branson style didn't fit the way City institutions expected public companies to behave. So he bought the company back from the shareholders.

To find the money he had to sell Virgin Records to Thorn-EMI. Even so the price, agreed in 1992, was huge, at almost £500million.

In 1994 Sir Richard made a bid to run the National Lottery, promising to give all the profits to charity, and lost. He lost a second attempt in 1999.

Virgin first carried paying passengers on a tilting train in 2001

Meanwhile, the Virgin bandwagon rolled on as he won important franchises in the country's rail network, taking over CrossCountry and West Coast Main Line.

In 1999 the married father-of-two was knighted for "services to entrepreneurship."

In 2000 Virgin launched a series of new businesses including Virgin Cars, Virgin Wines, Virgin Student, Virgin Money.com, Virgin Energy and Virgin Travelstore.com.

The next year Virgin Trains ran its first "Pendolino" tilting train on the West Coast Main Line with passengers on board.

In April 2004 fare-paying passengers travelled for the first time on the Virgin Super Voyager tilting train, which ran between Reading and Manchester.

However, large sections of rail had to be upgraded before the trains could actually use their tilting facility. Scheduled tilting services began in September 2004.

In June, Sir Richard set the record for the fastest crossing of the English Channel by an amphibious vehicle to mark the 20th anniversary of Virgin Atlantic.

He and fellow adventurer Steve Fossett also unveiled an aircraft designed to attempt the first solo-piloted non-stop trip around the world without re-fuelling.

Then, the final frontier.

In September 2004, Sir Richard signed a £14m contract to have five "spaceliners" built in the US, set to take Virgin passengers into space by around 2008.

James Dyson - UK

You know the feeling when some everyday product lets you down. You wish someone could solve the problem. James Dyson does that. He is a man who likes to make things work better. With his research team he has developed products that have achieved sales of over $10 billion worldwide.

Early products by James Dyson

James Dyson's first product, the Sea Truck, was launched in 1970 while he was studying at the Royal College of Art in London. A few years later came the award-winning Ballbarrow - instead of a wheel it had a ball which stopped it sinking into soft ground. Then there was the Wheelboat and the Trolleyball. Even the integral hose, seen on most upright vacuum cleaners, is a Dyson invention.

The bag problem

In 1978, while vacuuming his home, James Dyson realized his bag vacuum cleaner was constantly losing suction power. He noticed how dust quickly clogged the pores of the bag and blocked the airflow, so that suction dropped rapidly. He set to work to solve this problem. 5 years and 5,127 prototypes later, the world's first cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner arrived.

No place for new technology

James Dyson offered his invention to major manufacturers. One by one they turned him down, apparently not interested in new technology. They seemed determined to continue selling bags, worth $500 million every year. Later, Hoover's Vice President for Europe, Mike Rutter, said on UK national TV: "I do regret that Hoover as a company did not take the product technology off Dyson; it would have lain on the shelf and not been used".

The first Dyson

So James Dyson decided to manufacture his own vacuum cleaner. In June 1993 he opened a research center and factory near his home in England to begin making his machine. It even collected the finest particles of dust (microscopic particles as small as cigarette smoke) without clogging. The result was the Dyson Cyclone, the first vacuum cleaner that didn't lose suction.

Something to hide

In under 2 years, Dyson was the UK's best-selling vacuum. Miele, Bosch, Siemens, Electrolux and Philips tried to stop Dyson showing how their models clogged and lost suction. Later, manufacturers started to admit that bags reduced suction, and then tried to jump on the bandwagon to produce `bagless' vacuums, but these also clogged just like a bag vacuum. Meanwhile 60% of people were buying a Dyson because it was recommended to them.

More cyclones

The original team of 3 Dyson engineers grew to 350 scientists in a new research center, investigating ways to make products work better. Determined to create vacuums with even higher suction, the cyclonics team set to work developing an entirely new type of cyclone system. They discovered that spreading higher airflow through many cyclones generated even higher suction power, which picked up more dust from the floor. Hence the Root8Cyclone™ was created.

The patent nightmare

James Dyson's vacuum was nearly never made due to patent fees and legal costs incurred defending his invention against patent infringement by a giant corporation. During the development years when James had no income, this nearly bankrupted him. He risked everything, and fortunately the risk paid off. Then in 1999, Hoover UK tried to imitate a Dyson and James was forced back to court to protect his invention again. After 18 months Dyson finally won a victory against Hoover UK for patent infringement.

Two drum, not humdrum

When Dyson re-examined the washing machine, they were astonished to discover that 15 minutes of handwashing washed clothes cleaner than 67 minutes in a best-performing washing machine. So Dyson set about replicating a hand wash action to manipulate and flex fabric to release dirt more quickly. The result was the Contrarotator™, the world's first washing machine with 2 drums. Suddenly you could wash clothes faster and more gently, and with cleaner results.

Another problem to solve

"I like your vacuum cleaners but when will you make one you don't have to push around?" This casual remark set James Dyson's mind working. Producing something that bounced off furniture and picked up very little dust would have been easy, but James Dyson insisted his robot should not only clean well but also guide itself more logically than a human would. So Dyson designed a robot with 3 on-board computers and 50 sensory devices to navigate itself around a house and clean properly.

Forbes World's Richest People

The 14th Annual List of the World's Billionaires

The dawn of the new century brought with it a surge of wealth creation around the globe. Despite the April hiccup in technology stock prices, as a whole the world's richest billionaires are even wealthier than they were last year. Their combined net worth tops $1.1 trillion--up $100 billion from 1999. But that increase wasn't driven by the folks at the peak of this money pyramid. Three of the four wealthiest men have lost billions on paper over the past 12 months--and the richest of them all, Bill Gates, is poorer by tens of billions. The good news is that riches are spreading, albeit slowly, to more parts of the world.

Warren Edward Buffett - USA

Net Worth: $26 bil
Hometown: Omaha
Marital Status: N/A , 0 children
Education: N/A

Self-deprecating value investor gave himself a "D" after "worst absolute performance of my tenure" as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Passed on New Economy stocks, clung to blue chips like Coke, Gillette. Result: Book value per share up 0.05%, price per share down 22%. Predicts he'll edge S&P over next decade but concedes "large superiorities over that index are a thing of the past."

William Henry Gates III - USA

Net Worth: $60 bil
Hometown: Seattle
Marital Status: Married , 2 children
Education: COLLEGE/DO

Even after a 45% slide in Microsoft stock, still the world's wealthiest man. In the midst of antitrust trials, the company's cofounder edged away from the spotlight, handing over chief exec post to Steven Ballmer, declaring himself chief software architect. Now facing the prospect of having his company broken up, he's been pleading Microsoft's case in the court of public opinion. Also more public about charitable donations, made through his $22 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison - USA

Net Worth: $47 bil
Hometown: Atherton
Marital Status: single , 2 children
Education: COLLEGE/DO

Oracle's flamboyant founder is not shy about his distaste for the competition: "Microsoft's biggest problem is that it missed the Internet and has all the wrong products now." Immodest? Not with Oracle shares up more than 500% in the past year. Known for expensive and adventurous toys, but U.S. Customs wouldn't let him import a Russian MIG.

Sainsbury, David - UK

Net Worth: $4 bil
Hometown: N/A
Marital Status: Married , 3 children
Education: N/A

Claim to fame: Family owns 40% of U.K. grocery chain Sainsbury. Latest moves: The family fortune dropped by over a half billion dollars as the stock price stumbled. The company continued to lose market share to market leader Tesco and even Asda, a Wal-Mart-owned grocery chain. David's father, Sir Robert, died in April.

Albrecht, Karl & Theo - Germany

Net Worth: $20 bil
Hometown: N/A
Marital Status: N/A , 0 children
Education: N/A

Claim to fame: Reclusive but hugely successful retailers. Their deep-discount Aldi Stores had revenues last year of $26 billion. With the land under 3,400 stores, believed to be one of Germany's largest landowners. U.S. holdings: Trader Joe's chain and 7% of Albertson's supermarkets. Latest moves: Expanding U.K. operations, moving into Australia.

Masayoshi Son - Japan

Net Worth: $19 bil
Hometown: Saga
Marital Status: Married , 2 children
Education: N/A

Claim to fame: Japan's Internet cover boy. As president of Softbank, leveraged original fortune selling used software into broad, deep presence on the Internet. Star holding is major Internet portal Yahoo. Latest moves: Despite Son's investment acumen, Softbank's revenues fell 20% to $4 billion, while profits plummeted 77% to $80 million in the year through March. Lately Softbank's been selling its Internet holdings, including some of Yahoo. After extended negotiations the Softbank consortium sealed a deal to take over Japan's Nippon Credit Bank. Son's net worth fluctuated between $6 billion and $78 billion during the past year. For fun: Golf.

Ecclestone, Bernard

Net Worth: $2 bil
Hometown: N/A
Marital Status: N/A , 0 children
Education: N/A

Claim to fame: Turned Formula One car racing from a hobby of the rich and eccentric into one of the world's most popular sports. Latest moves: Sold 50% of Formula One Administration to Morgan Grenfell and Hellman and Friedman, for $1.04 BILLION. They resold to Thomas Haffa's EM.TV. Owns related companies that do everything from travel arrangements for Formula One teams to selling Formula One T shirts. Time off: Recuperating from major heart surgery.