[imagesource: Instagram / @holly_branson]

Holly Branson is not really like her billionaire father, Sir Richard Branson.

He’s never been shy of an attention-grabbing antic or two, whereas his daughter doesn’t seem to have a pretentious, showy, spotlit life in the least.

Rather, the 40-year-old mother of three comes across as studious, grounded, and authentic, working at Virgin to help the company’s thousands of employees achieve a work-life balance after taking a break from medicine.

She oscillates between being a philanthropist, an executive at Virgin Group, Virgin Unite, and being a family gal, and she’s trying to bring those skills and know-how to the 80 000 people working for Virgin across the world, reports Luxury Launches:

 

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Growing up as Branson and Joan Templeman’s elder daughter, Holly, brother Sam, and sister Clare Sarah did well to stay out of the spotlight so that they could have a relatively normal childhood.

Although, being the child of a man who owns 400 companies worldwide is probably far from normal:

Here’s a fascinating little snippet of life for young Holly:

In Natalie Pinkham’s “In the Pink” podcast, the daughter of the Virgin mogul revealed that she spent much of her childhood identifying as male.

“I, at the age of 4, decided I was a boy. It wasn’t that I wanted to be a boy; it was that I was a boy,” she explained, as reported by Metro.

She continued, “I absolutely believed I was a boy — I stood up to pee, I dressed like a boy, I even gave myself different male names. This wasn’t just a quick thing that stopped after a few months or years; it lasted until I was nearly 11.

 

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In Holly’s later years, she started developing a knack for helping people, graduating and becoming a junior National Health Services (NHS) doctor from the University College London.

Working for the family business came later and wasn’t actually part of the plan:

Holly shared, “I qualified as a doctor. I worked in the U.K. for a bit. And then, in the U.K., you get randomly allocated your jobs when you’re a junior doctor. The first year, I got a great job that I was really passionate about. And then the second year, I got allocated predominately surgery. And I knew I didn’t want to be a surgeon. I’m just not that into cutting people open.

So I went to Mom and Dad. He said, “Why don’t you take a year off and go work at Virgin?” I never ever thought I’d be working in the family business, but it was a great opportunity. So I thought, “OK, I’ll do that for the year, and then I’ll go back to medicine.”

Now she’s been at the heart of Virgin for 10 years.

She found a Holly-shaped spot at Virgin Management, which focuses on philanthropy and the growth of the Virgin brand:

“For the last ten years, we’ve been really making sure it’s (work-life balance) embedded in the business. We tried to bring unlimited leave in the U.K., but it took us 18 months to do it legally, just trying to give people more holiday.

Now we do it, and people don’t run out the door. They feel valued and trusted. Holly also “We’re trying to design the maternity and paternity policies the right way so that men feel they can take time off, too.”

Holly also has her own family to raise, living in London with her husband, Freddie Andrewes, and their three children, Etta, Artie, and Lola:

 

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Family is important to Holly, so of course, as busy as he is, grandfather Richard is ever-present:

 

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The father and daughter duo are quite unlike each other, but they do share an interest in wild adrenaline chasing. Together, they enjoy kitesurfing, mountain-climbing, and running marathons.

That’s the Bransons for ya.

[source:luxurylaunches]