Parties, power, racing: meet Ovo’s Stephen Fitzpatrick, the man who would be Richard Branson

theguardian.com:

P ink flamingos once strolled around a rooftop garden set high above the traffic of Kensington High Street in west London, where stars including Madonna and George Harrison rubbed shoulders with the business elite.

The exclusive party venue was owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin for 37 years before closing in 2018 after struggling to make a profit.

Now, an unlikely figure is trying to resurrect Kensington Roof Gardens with a plan to reopen it as a private members’ club. Stephen Fitzpatrick, the boss of Britain’s fourth-biggest gas and electricity supplier, Ovo Energy, has chosen an awkward time to reopen the luxury venue, just as millions of households struggle amid an energy crisis that has stretched their finances to the limit with soaring utility bills.

But Fitzpatrick loves the high life: the serial entrepreneur has taken much inspiration from the bearded billionaire and his Virgin Group. He has dabbled in everything from energy and software to premium rum. His most eyecatching venture – rescuing the Manor Racing Formula One team in 2015 and reportedly pumping in £30m – ended with the business falling into administration in 2017, having secured a solitary point. Branson had spearheaded the same team, then branded Virgin Racing, eight years earlier.

Fitzpatrick also shares Branson’s love of aviation and bold new ventures, and has even modelled the structure of his group on the one used by Britain’s best-known entrepreneur. “We have followed the Virgin story very closely,” he said in 2016.

From a cluster of gleaming propertiesa short walk from the roof gardens, he runs the ventures that have amassed him a fortune estimated at £2.2bn. Ovo is now even reportedly considering another blockbuster acquisition, of struggling Shell