Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Sir Stelios Haji- Ioannou (Greek Στέλιος Χατζηιωάννου - Stelios Chatziioannou ) ( born February 14, 1967 in Athens, Greece ) is a British entrepreneur, who is based in London.

He grew up the son of a very wealthy Greek Cypriot shipowning family. After he finished his studies at the London School of Economics and Cass Business School in London, he began to start their own. He became known primarily through the establishment of Europe's second low-cost airline, Easyjet, in 1995. Easyjet is still the core of Haji- Ioannous fast growing company empire. With the brand Easy Haji -Ioannou is now trying to do everything possible "cheap" - flights, hotel rooms, cruises, loans. Today Haji- Ioannou lives in Monaco. His fortune is estimated at 1.072 billion euros (727 million pounds )

On June 17, 2006 Haji- Ioannou was beaten as part of The Queen's 80th birthday honors list of Queen Elizabeth II knighted.

Haji- Ioannou resigned in May 2010, with immediate effect, from the board of Easyjet back. The reason he stated that he did not agree with the expansion strategy of the company and wanted to concentrate on the shareholder role.

Criticism

International criticism came Haji- Ioannou, as a shipping company operated from its oil tankers VLCC, the M / T Haven, 1991 exploded in front of Genoa and three days later sank. In the accident six members of the crew and 50,000 tons of crude oil ran into the sea died, and thus caused the largest oil spill in the Mediterranean. He and his father Lucas Haji -Ioannou was accused of bribery, extortion, and intimidation of witnesses in court negligence regarding the poor condition of the ship and in the course of the trial. Of all the accusations he was acquitted and his father in 2002, despite sharp criticism from the Italian Ministry for the Environment, the WWF and the ITF in the third instance.