Sir Richard Branson, founder and president of the Virgin Group, has been booked to speak to attendees at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in July.

It's not yet clear what the subject of his talk to partners will be. The announcement released today said:

"One of the world's most recognised and respected brands, Virgin has expanded into air and rail travel, hospitality and leisure, telecommunications, health and wellness, and clean energy through more than 300 companies in 30 countries. A leader in product innovation and customer service, [Branson] was knighted in 1999 for his 'services to entrepreneurship'.  "Sir Richard has been involved in a number of world record-breaking attempts since 1985. In 1986 his boat, Virgin Atlantic Challenger II, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time. This was followed a year later by a hot air balloon crossing of the same ocean in Virgin Atlantic Flyer. In 2004, Richard launched Virgin Unite to tackle tough challenges facing the world. In 2007, he joined Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu to form The Elders, a group of independent leaders that seeks sustainable solutions to global humanitarian issues. and this year he launched the Carbon War Room to mobilize capital, innovation, expertise and entrepreneurs to advance climate change efforts."

Partners attending the Los Angeles conference will have opportunities for in-depth looks at Windows Azure, Office 365, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Dynamics CRM Online. There will also be talks from senior Microsoft people including Steve Ballmer and the new channel chief Jon Roskil.

Registration information is here.