Perpetuating The Famil...
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Just a year ago, Holly Branson seemed poised to follow a very different career path from her father, British billionaire Richard Branson, who built his Virgin empire from scratch. Indeed, the flamboyant entrepreneur’s only daughter had spent five years studying at London’s University College preparing to become a pediatrician.
Yet last summer the allure of her family’s business proved too great to pass up. Soon after completing her studies, Holly decided to forgo her medical career and join Virgin instead. The British scion, who is said to be pals with Prince William, is now spending a year working in Virgin’s various groups and has already spent time in its health, fitness and airline businesses.
Holly is hardly the first heiress to abandon her own plans to join the family business.
Alannah Weston, daughter of Canadian retail billionaire Galen Weston who spent years writing about contemporary art for the Daily Telegraph and working as a public relations executive for Burberry, eventually started her own corporate branding business in 2003. But that same year her father convinced her to become creative director of Selfridges, a luxury department store chain in the U.K. he had just bought. "I was reluctant to fold up [my business], having just started it," said Alannah, 37. "But my family convinced me that this was the perfect job for me."
These women are the latest in a long line of billionaire offspring who have decided to work for mom or dad. The allure seems obvious: lots of responsibility at a young age, little chance of being fired by the boss and the opportunity to contribute to the family’s legacy.
But how seriously do these women take these jobs, and how likely is it that they’ll actually inherit the corner offices, eventually run billion-dollar enterprises and oversee thousands of employees?
May 29, 2009
