British businessman Steve Ridgway was the Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic Airways for 13 years. But his early career included various roles such as sales manager, teacher and a boat builder in Miami. It was his love of fast cars and boats that drew him to work on the Virgin Atlantic Challenger, becoming the boat’s Chief Pilot and re-capturing the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic in 1986. After working closely with Sir Richard Branson Ridgway officially joined his company as the Managing Director of Virgin Freeway. His career with the Virgin Group progressed quickly as he become the Managing Director of Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1998 and CEO in 2001. He was awarded his CBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List.

Since leaving Virgin in 2013 Ridgway has worked with his brother on building a hotel and hospitality complex in Cornwall, joined a brand agency and became the Chairman of Scandlines Ferries, a large Baltic ferry operator between Germany and Denmark. A keen promotor of British business and tourism Ridgway became the Chairman of Visit Britain and Visit England in 2017, after sitting on their board since 2013, to provide strategic leadership and work on creating a new era for Britain’s visitor economy by strengthening the marketing of Britain as a tourist destination overseas. Ridgway was behind the recent successful Tourism Sector Deal, confirmed and announced by the Prime Minister in 2019. This is a first for the UK as the government committed to working with the tourist industry to ensure Britain can compete globally.