Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou , born 14 February 1967) is a
BritishThe British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
entrepreneur of Greek Cypriot origin, currently a resident of
MonacoMonaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
. He is the scion of a wealthy, shipowning family, but is best known for setting up
easyJetEasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. It carries more passengers than any other United Kingdom-based airline, operating domestic and international scheduled services on 500 routes between 118 European, North African, and West Asian airports...
, a highly successful and profitable
low-cost airlineA low-cost carrier or low-cost airline is an airline that generally has lower fares and fewer comforts...
, with start-up funds provided by his father, the beginning of a series of ventures under the Easy brand.
Family and education
Haji-Ioannou, who prefers to be called and is usually addressed by his given name, Stelios, is the second of the three children of Loucas and Nedi Haji-Ioannou. He was born in
AthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. His father's side originates from the
PedoulasPedoulas is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, located 4 km south of Moutoullas. The town has a famous St. Michael church....
village in the mountains of
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, while his mother is from the Potsos family of Laneia village, outside the city of
LimassolLimassol is the second-largest city in Cyprus, with a population of 228,000 . It is the largest city in geographical size, and the biggest municipality on the island. The city is located on Akrotiri Bay, on the island's southern coast and it is the capital of Limassol District.Limassol is the...
. After his secondary education in Athens, he studied Economics at the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, graduating with a BSc in 1987. He went on to obtain an
MSc- Computers:* Mario Strikers Charged* Microsoft Common Console Document, file for the Microsoft Management Console* Microelectronics Support Centre* Microsoft Corporation* MIDI Show Control* Message Sequence Chart...
in Shipping, Trade & Finance from Cass Business School.
Haji-Ioannou has subsequently been awarded four honorary doctorates from
Liverpool John Moores UniversityLiverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
, Cass Business School, Newcastle Business School and
Cranfield UniversityCranfield University is a British postgraduate university based on two campuses, with a research-oriented focus. The main campus is at Cranfield, Bedfordshire and the second is the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom based at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. The main campus is unique in the United...
.
Early career
A self-labelled "serial entrepreneur", Haji-Ioannou started working in 1988 for his father's already successful shipping business, Troodos Shipping Co Ltd. When Stelios was 25, his father gave him 30 million pounds that he used to set up his own shipping company, Stelmar Shipping. Haji-Ioannou floated the company on the NYSE in 2001. In 2005, Stelmar Shipping was sold to the
OSG GroupOverseas Shipholding Group, Inc. is one of the largest oil tanker operating companies in the world. It is based in New York City....
for approximately $1.3 billion.
Shipping disaster
In April 1991, the Troodos-owned M/T Haven was involved in an oil tanker disaster that resulted the death of five Europeans and the disgorging up to 50,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea - arguably the Mediterranean's worst-ever ecological disaster. Stelios and his father faced manslaughter charges for the explosion on the M/T Haven. The tanker was an elderly vessel, formerly named Amoco Haven, sister ship of the ill-starred
Amoco CadizAmoco Cadiz was a very large crude carrier , owned by Amoco, that ran aground on Portsall Rocks, from the coast of Brittany, France, on 16 March 1978, and ultimately split in three and sank, all together resulting in the largest oil spill of its kind in history to that date.-Oil spill:Amoco Cadiz...
that had foundered in 1978. Stelios was accused of poor maintenance and charged, in Italy, with manslaughter and also intimidating and attempting to bribe witnesses. Stelios blamed the accident on an error by one of the surviving crew members.
The jury acquitted Stelios and the case was appealed. Subsequent demands against Stelios for compensation were dismissed by the courts.
The Easy companies
Haji-Ioannou started
EasyJetEasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. It carries more passengers than any other United Kingdom-based airline, operating domestic and international scheduled services on 500 routes between 118 European, North African, and West Asian airports...
in 1995 when he was 28. In 2000, EasyJet PLC was partially floated on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
. He remains its largest single shareholder.
Nowadays, acting through his private investment vehicle, the
EasyGroupEasyGroup , founded in 1998, is a conglomerate & the holding company controlling the "easy" ventures; it is privately owned by Stelios Haji-Ioannou....
, which owns the 'Easy' brand and licenses it to the various 'Easy'-branded ventures, including the airline, Haji-Ioannou continues to extend the brand, with mixed success, in the areas of travel, leisure, telecoms and personal finance.
EasyJet PLC, which is one of Europe's largest low cost airlines by revenues with a fleet of 175 (+64 orders) Jets and growing, carried 33 million passengers in 2006. The travel-related businesses also include:
- EasyCar, which offers low cost car rental in 2,000 locations globally
- EasyCruise
EasyCruise is an enterprise of Greek ferry operator Hellenic Seaways, sold to them in August 2009 for £9 million by founder and Cypriot/British business man, Stelios Haji-Ioannou. EasyCruise launched their first cruise ship EasyCruiseOne in 2005...
, which attracts younger age groups to go cruising to various parts of the world
- EasyBus
EasyBus provides UK express coach services to and from London and its main airports. It was founded by entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 2003, and is part of the EasyGroup...
, which offers low cost bus transportation between airports and city centres
- EasyHotel, which offers low cost accommodation in city centres
The businesses outside the travel industry include internet cafés, online price comparison, personal finance, cinema, male toiletries, online recruitment, pizza delivery, music downloads, mobile telephony, offices and wrist watches.
In
June 2006The Birthday Honours 2006 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 17 June 2006, to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2006.The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged firstly by the country whose ministers advised the Queen on the...
, Haji-Ioannou received a
KnighthoodThe rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to entrepreneurship".
Fastjet
In September 2011 it was reported that Haji-Ioannou is planning to set up a new airline called Fastjet.
Libel case
In 2009, Stelios brought proceedings in London's High Court over
RyanairRyanair is an Irish low-cost airline. Its head office is at Dublin Airport and its primary operational bases at Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airport....
adverts which appeared in
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, the
Daily Telegraph and on Ryanair's website in January and February. The adverts featured a picture of Stelios in the style of
PinocchioThe Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...
and referred to him as "easyJet's Mr Late Again". The case was eventually settled out of court, with Stelios receiving an official apology from the airline and the sum of £50,100, which Stelios announced he'd donate to his philanthropic foundation.
Tax exile
Stelios resides in Monaco for tax reasons, as do some wealthy Britons, a situation that is being met with some criticism in the United Kingdom.
Politics and public life
Haji-Ioannou is a member of the New Enterprise Council, a group set up to advise the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
on business policy. He stated at the time that this appointment did not reflect his political affiliations, adding "I agreed to be included in the group of entrepreneurs because I was assured it will be non-partisan. [There is] not much difference between Left and Right any more."
On 1 April 2010, in a letter to the
Daily Telegraph, Haji-Ioannou joined with twenty three other UK business leaders, including
Marks & SpencerMarks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...
's
Stuart RoseSir Stuart Alan Ransom Rose is a British businessman, who was the executive chairman of the British retailer Marks & Spencer. For this role he was paid an annual salary of £1,130,000...
and Next's
Simon WolfsonSimon Wolfson, Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise is a British businessman and currently chief executive of the clothing retailer Next and a Conservative life peer...
, criticising the Labour government's plans to raise
National InsuranceNational Insurance in the United Kingdom was initially a contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment, and later also provided retirement pensions and other benefits...
contribution rates.
The character of Omar Baba in the BBC TV comedy
Come Fly With Me was based on Stelios.
Charity
Haji-Ioannou's foundation, The Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, supports education, entrepreneurial initiatives and environmental initiatives through providing funding and advice in the UK, Monaco, Greece and Cyprus.
The foundation donates each year scholarships for ten undergraduate students to study for a period of up to of three years at his
alma materAlma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, the
London School of Economics and Political ScienceThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, and for ten postgraduate students at his other alma mater, the
City University, LondonCity University London , is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute and became a university in 1966, when it adopted its present name....
.
Further reading
External links