Stephen Attenborough
Former Chief Customer Officer at Virgin Galactic, Strategic Advisor and European Lead at SpacePerspective, Speaks on Innovation, Leadership and Future.
why book stephen?
- Stephen Attenborough has lived the journey: as Virgin Galactic’s first employee, he witnessed every stage of building a spaceline—from inception to NYSE listing and beyond.
- He combines visionary thinking with hard-earned lessons in leadership, culture, and customer trust under extreme conditions
- Stephen inspires audiences by showing how ambition becomes impact through purpose, perseverance, and building something from scratch.
“Pleasure to work with! We all felt very heartened and inspired.”
HBX
Biography
Stephen Attenborough’s name is synonymous with opening space to private individuals. At Sir Richard Branson’s personal invitation, he joined Virgin Galactic as employee number one in 2004, charged with laying the commercial foundations of the world’s first spaceline. Over an astonishing 18-year tenure, he rose to become Chief Customer Officer, responsible for initiating and guiding the customer journey to the transformative experience of spaceflight.
Under his leadership, Virgin Galactic crafted its identity, defined its values, navigated uncharted technical and regulatory skies—and through it all remained intensely focussed on customer experience, brand purpose, and innovation. His time there culminated in Richard Branson’s history-making trip to space and the company’s milestone $3 billion NYSE listing, making it the first human spaceflight company to go public.
Today, Stephen remains part of the Virgin family as a Board Member of Virgin Unite, the Group’s foundation, continuing his mission to ensure space serves humankind. He brings rare insight into what it takes to build a purposeful, resilient organisation from scratch—and the leadership, culture, and strategy needed to make the impossible possible.
Topics
Opening access to space for the benefit of humankind: lessons from the Virgin Galactic journey
Making the impossible possible: forging a brand new industry and building purpose-driven innovation
Customer loyalty in extreme environments: keeping wealthy customers by your side
Building entrepreneurial culture that survives high stakes and uncertainty
Leadership under pressure: lessons from space, regulation, risk & reward
Stephen Attenborough
Masterclasses
You may want to go deeper with your audience. Masterclasses can be tailored and developed to suit your audience needs, be it a 90-minute Masterclass, a half-day or full-day workshop or a full online or face-to-face programme. Please contact one of our expert team to discuss.
testimonials
“Pleasure to work with! We all felt very heartened and inspired.”
HBX
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Former Chief Customer Officer at Virgin Galactic, Strategic Advisor and European Lead at SpacePerspective, Speaks on Innovation, Leadership and Future.
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