Having suffered a debilitating stroke in 2008, Penni Pike, Sir Richard Branson’s Executive PA of 31 years, was told she would never walk or talk again. Three years later, although she still uses a wheelchair, and her speech is still slightly slurred, she has certainly proven them wrong - but more of this later.

Penni began working for Sir Richard in the early 1970s, when he started Virgin Records. “I had a day job, but in the evenings I’d pack the records for mail order. That’s how he paid me, too – in records.” Then Branson asked her to work for his finance director but the role wasn’t for her. “Under my desk there were notes reminding me how many noughts there were in 100,000...” So, when Branson’s PA left, he offered the position to Penni. “I said ‘I’d love to, but can you wait a week?’” The year was 1975 and Penni was getting married. Not many people since have asked Richard Branson to wait...

Back from her honeymoon, her first day could have ended in a media disaster. When Branson told her one of his fledgling bands needed a new guitarist for a TV performance that night, Penni first panicked but then passed the test. Her boss thumped the table and said: “We’ll call her the fixer!”

Like a Virgin
When Branson was building the Virgin brand, he was always surrounded by fun, young, like-minded people, says Penni, undeterred by the often insanely long hours. “When he was doing deals we’d work on the houseboat from 6am until 2am,” Penni recalls Branson’s home and office moored in Little Venice, Maida Vale. “My desk was in this little hovel with no windows, my typewriter right next to the washing machine. There were no computers in those days!” Branson hardly ever left the boat, not wanting to miss an important phone call (no Virgin Mobile in those days, either...) “His cook would prepare lunch and there were times when we worked in our bikinis.”

By the time Branson started the Virgin Atlantic airline in the mid 80s, the boat got a bit cramped so he moved Penni and his other three assistants to his new home and office in Holland Park. When asked about a ‘typical’ day, Penni laughs. “It might have started ‘normal’, but then everything would go crazy. You had all these chairmen of the other record companies on the phone, all at the same time. Then, when it got to 10 o’clock at night and you’d really had enough, he’d come in to say good-night, thanked us and you’d go ‘That’s all right’. He was just so... well, nice.” Penni’s marriage broke down under the pressure of work but she remains philosophical about it. “If you work for someone like Richard, the work comes first.”

Flights of fancy
Business ventures aside, Penni also supported Branson during his famous personal challenges, like the world-record breaking, ocean-crossing hot-air balloon attempts. “At the end of one trip, when the balloon came down and the pilots jumped out, Richard was left behind, not really knowing what to do, and the balloon took off again,” she says. The boss suspended over the Pacific’s shark-infested waters and no word from him for hours on end? That was just another day in the office.

To read the full interview with Richard Branson's PA Penni Pike, subscribe to Executive PA Magazine.