Nik Powell is one of the co-founders of the Virgin Group alongside Richard Branson. Having run a small music shop together in London, they set up Virgin Records in 1972 and became one of the UK's major recording labels until they sold to EMI in 1992. Powell married 60s singer Sandie Shaw in the early 80s and helped relaunch her career during that decade. They have two children together, Amie and Jack, and divorced in the early 1990s.
In 1983, Nik, alongside Stephen Woolley, founded Palace Productions - which went on to produce The Company of Wolves (1984), Mona Lisa (1986) and The Crying Game (1992). After presiding over the collapse of Palace Pictures in 1992, Nik Powell controversially re-established himself in the film industry with Scala Productions in the early 1990s and has since produced Fever Pitch, TwentyFourSeven, Last Orders and Ladies In Lavender.
He is currently director of the National Film & Television School in England, although he remains chairman of Scala Productions.
