Personas like Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, the seventh richest person in the United Kingdom with a net worth of $4.9 billion, do not visit Ukraine often. But when they do, they cause a stir.
And that’s what happened on April 30, during the Forum One Ukraine business conference where Branson was the headliner. Despite ticket prices ranging from $150 to $5,000, more than 3,500 people turned out.
Beforehand, Branson showed up at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute to give a 20-minute pep talk to students free of charge. Branson talked a lot about new opportunities for Ukraine in crisis. As always, he stressed the human element.
“The future of Ukraine is in people who will come up with ideas that will make lives of other people better,” Branson said. “They can do that through creating business on the Internet, creating scientific breakthroughs, medical breakthroughs. Ukraine needs this more than ever right now.”
Assuming that peace will come to eastern Ukraine soon, Branson said, Ukraine is positioned to make progress with its great educational institutions and smart people. Branson wants to see many new profitable Ukrainian startups within the next few years.
“You are hungry to prove yourselves and achieve things,” Branson said.
Students asked about the willingness of Virgin Group, with more than 400 companies in its portfolio, to invest in emerging Ukrainian startups. Branson said he would send some of his team members from Virgin Group to Ukrainian universities. “Maybe we could come to universities and spend some time there to see if there are any ideas which we could work on in the future,” Branson replied.
On the stage of the Forum One event, Branson continued talking up the advantages of the Ukrainian business environment. He said the success of the Ukrainian economy depends on the IT industry in many ways. “IT is very exciting and it will transform people’s lives in many different ways,” Branson said.
He also mentioned the importance of new businesses to cut energy consumption, noting that most money in the Ukrainian budget is spent on energy.
“There should be a clean energy revolution in Ukraine. Your president or your business people should say that ‘10 years from now we are not going to let a single penny go out of this country for energy. We are going to create own clean energy.’” Branson said. He said solar power and electrically powered transport can help.
Branson expressed hope that the war will not flare-up after the May holidays.
“As an international community we need to do everything possible to help you. It’s not right, if thousands of young people are being lost over a few fields,” Branson said.
In August 2014, Branson called for a peaceful resolution in an open letter signed by a group of high-profile international businessmen, including the founders of PayPal and WhatsApp.
“I really hope that the problems in the east of Ukraine get resolved soon, so that Ukraine can become a really great independent country, hopefully, closely affiliated with Europe,” Branson told the Forum One crowd.
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
