It is impossible to ignore Sir Richard Branson. He passes in front of me by swinging his blonde signing mane on the way at the bottom of the Atlas Ferrone mountains – and I always go to the turnaround, wishing to have chosen an electric bike on our 30 -mile ride.
The 74 -year -old billionaire moves quickly. He is here in Morocco For the opening party of her 20 year old child, 42 rooms Kasbah Tamadot Resort, about an hour south of Marrakech, which was rebuilt after the devastating earthquake of September 2023. But for a guy who lives on a private island, kitesurfs with Barack Obama and Unarths new properties mainly by bypassing the planet via a hot ball, Sir Richard is especially equal.
“I love people,” he said during lunch, before asking the guy next to me if he will finish his branzino. No? All right. “Move this plate here,” he said before searching the net. “Wonderful.”
During the meal, the sun is high on the Atlas, the sounds of Berber music resonate through the valley and Branson has great ideas. The conversation of the war in Ukraine in Ukraine (he works with Zelenskyy on permanent funding) in the Hamas-Israel war (“I have an organization with an idea for a solution to two states, but with a twist,” he reveals). He talks about the group of his son, Kasbah chic of his sister, the historic palace of Caïd Upstairs In Marrakech, the philanthropy of her beloved mother and the lessons she transmitted to her before spending in 2021.
Kasbah Tamadot has been completely redesigned since the devastating earthquake.
Adam straw
“We are just trying to be appropriate citizens in places where we have a property,” explains Branson between dicks.
At the Kasbah, this means to hire Moroccans, the manager and keep them all employed during the pandemic and the earthquake and its consequences. Through his Eve Branson Foundation (EBF), created by and appointed for his late mother, he and his family have built a new primary school in the village of Imi Oulghlad, which can now accommodate 140 students. A textile store sells carpets made on site by villagers and a lumberjack supports young men, all of them learn and practicing old skills. From the city of Asni to the Kasbah, the road is now strewn with EBF trash cans, their simple presence instilling clean cleanliness and pride in the Tamadot region.
“I thought of the way my mom is now a trash can, and she was smiling there,” he said with a smile from Cheshire.
He has a weakness for his family: this dyslexic child in London who has become the self-employed billionaire is still married to Joan, whom he met at the age of 25. His daughter, Holly, a qualified doctor, recently took a management position at the top of Virgin's Philanthropic efforts, when he does not make the band with his bands.
The Berber tents and the Kasbah Tamadot Resort Répanied are spectacular.
Matt Livey
But, now in his last years, he thinks of the heritage and the future of his private affairs, Virgin Group – which now includes an airline, a fitness center, a spatial exploration company, a cell supplier, trains, cruising ships, wines, music, non -profit organizations and of course hotels.
“We will keep the business in the family, but the money out of it will go to other things,” he said.
By “other things”, he means the non -profit organization of the Branson family, Virgin to uniteWho works with partners from around the world to tackle the apparently impossible problems, from climate change to ocean health to the reform of criminal justice. Groups like the ancients, the carbon war room, the man at work, the daring ideas and the EBF of his mother deploy virgin money and human capital to make significant and worldwide changes worldwide.
“If you lose your reputation, you lose everything you have,” he says.
In Branson's account, his work is to create and develop companies that offer a clear advantage in the world we live in. This is why he rebuilt Kasbah Tamadot Being better (the new tents are superb) without increasing prohibitive levels, while widening preschool through the Kasbah ravine after the earthquake. This is why he does not consider his Virgin Limited Edition (Vle) Group of experiential pensions as “luxury” properties, but as experiences to improve a well -lived life.
“To be perfectly honest, I don't think of” luxury “, he says. “We are just looking for places in the world that are completely preserved and completely unique and completely special. And they are rare.
In 2023, Vle welcomed the Mallorca They are bunyola In the portfolio of nine distinctive properties (Finch Hattons in Kenya, was added last year). For two decades, Branson was died on the restoration of the 16th century Finca which is on the historic 810 acres area located along three miles of intact coastal and in relief by the large Timunta mountain range. He had acquired the land in the mid -1990s, sold him in 2002, bought it in 2015, and finally – when the bureaucrat who was retired – he used his signature speed to rebuild the retreat of 27 rooms.
“There are not many places in the world that you can go where there is no light pollution, where you can sit down by looking at the stars, where there are not many people, where food is exquisite,” he said.
It took two decades to Branson to buy back SpainBunyola sounds.
In this way, he shares many characteristics with IslandOfficial residence of Branson in the British Virgin Islands. He bought the private island of 74 acres in 1978 for less than a million dollars in today's silver, transforming it into one of the first vle properties when he opened his house to take over visitors in 2000. More recently, he authorized the rental of individual rooms during peak seasons, which is thus delighted with a lemur refugee.
But, ironically, Vle's growth was deliberately slow. The collection includes five properties on the African continent (including Ulusaba says Sables), another in the Bvis, a chalet in VerbierAnd now son Bunyola.
“The way I look is Virgin Hotels is a hard brand. Everyone's design is inspired by each destination, but you know that you are in a virgin hotel, ”explains James Bermingham as CEO of the Virgin Hotels collectionwhich includes eight properties in America and the United Kingdom “Vle, on the other hand, is a brand house, where you have nine extraordinary pensions which are only different from each other, but gathered by what we call the red thread:` `an accent on sustainability, a community commitment, offering customers the opportunity to benefit from the best of the situation, the service without altitude and the super luxury. comfortable”.
It looks less like a marketing plan, and more to reflect the way Branson lives his life. As when he says that he will stay “everywhere” when he goes to the Serengeti next week with his son and his nephew to check a new potential property, in a way, I believe it.
“We are trying to create the best absolute of everything we do and if people think it's luxurious, then it's good,” says Branson. “But we would not have the kind of pretentious luxury that certain hotels do, which is a superficial luxury, in my opinion.”
