Stelios Haji-Ioannou

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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Stelios launches easyOffice, 2007
Born February 14, 1967 (1967-02-14) (age 41)
Athens, Greece
Occupation entrepreneur
Net worth GBP £1.29 billion[1]
Spouse none
Children none
Website
www.stelios.com

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou KBE (Greek: Στέλιος Χατζηιωάννου), born 14 February 1967 in Cyprus, is a Greek Cypriot-born British entrepreneur best known for setting up easyJet, a low-cost airline.

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[edit] Early days

Haji-Ioannou, who prefers to be called by his first name, Stelios, is the second of three children of Loucas and Nedi Haji-Ioannou. His father's side has its roots in Pedoulas village (a village on the mountains of Cyprus), and his mother is from the Potsos family with roots in Lania village (just outside the city of Limassol). He was educated in Athens at the Doukas High School and in 1984 continued his education at the London School of Economics, graduating with a BSc Econ in 1987. He also graduated from the Cass Business School at City University with an MSc in Shipping, Trade and Finance. Haji-Ioannou has also been awarded a total of three honorary doctorates from Liverpool John Moores University, Cass Business School City University,[2] Newcastle Business School[3] and the Cranfield University.[4]

A serial entrepreneur, Haji-Ioannou started his professional career in 1988 working for his father's shipping company, the Troodos Shipping Co Ltd. Aged 25, he negotiated a $30 million payout from his father and used the funds to set up his own shipping company, Stelmar shipping.[5] Haji-Ioannou floated Stelmar Shipping on the NYSE in 2001 and in 2005 it was sold to the OSG Shipping Group for approximately $1.3 Billion.

[edit] Controversy

In April 1991 Haji-Ioannou was involved in an oil tanker disaster whilst working for the Troodos shipping company killing six Cypriot people and disgorging up to 50,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea - arguably the Mediterranean's worst-ever ecological disaster.[6] Stelios (and his father) faced manslaughter charges for the explosion on the tanker M/T Haven in 1991.[7] The Haven was an elderly tanker, formerly the Amoco Haven, sister ship of the ill-starred Amoco Cadiz that foundered in 1978. Haji-Ioannou was accused and charged in Italy of poor maintenance, manslaughter, extortion and intimidating and attempting to bribe witnesses. He was warned he faced a lengthy jail sentence and liability for hundreds of millions of pounds compensation. Haji-Ioannou blamed an error by one of the surviving crew. He was acquitted but the case has dragged on ever since with subsequent appeals and demands for compensation thrown out by the Italian courts.[8]

[edit] The easy Empire

Haji-Ioannou started easyJet PLC when he was 28. In 2000 easyJet PLC was partially floated on the London Stock Exchange however Stelios remains the largest single shareholder.

Nowadays, acting through his private investment vehicle, the easyGroup, which owns the easy brand and licenses it to the various easy branded ventures, including the airline. He continues to extend the brand, with mixed success, by creating new 'easy' branded ventures in the areas of travel, leisure, telecoms and personal finance.

easyJet PLC which is Europe's largest low cost airline by revenues with a fleet of 122 jets and growing, carried 33 million passengers in 2006. The travel related businesses also include:

"It's the least desirable aspect, but I don't think people are too worried about windows."
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, easyGroup head, defending the windowless chambers in his London easyHotel, where rooms rent for $36 a night[9]
  • easyCar, which offers low cost car rental in 2,000 locations globally;[10]
  • easyCruise, which claims to introduce a younger age group to cruising in various parts of the world;[11][12]
  • easyBus, which offers low cost bus transportation between airports and city centres;[13]
  • easyHotel, which offers low cost accommodation in city centres.[14]

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[15] and wrist watches.

In November 2006 Haji-Ioannou received a Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for services to entrepreneurship.

[edit] Legal action

In 2005, easyGroup threatened legal action against a Welsh business which had been trading as easymobile since 2003 despite being established some two years before the launch of Haji-Ioannou's business easyMobile.com.[16] And In 2006 Karl Kahn a London businessman branding Haji-Ioannou as a "rich bully" obtained a court order against Haji-Ioannou to prevent him from interfering with his pizza business.[17] Karl Kahn was informed in 2004 that his EasyPizza.co.uk domain was infringing the rights of EasyGroup. Following an acrimonious build-up to the court date, Haji-Ioannou then pulled out at the last minute, serving a Notice of Discontinuance and Mr Kahn and succeeded in getting EasyGroup to sign a consent order covering his costs, estimated at £135,000, and agreeing not to interfere with his business or bring any further court action without the approval of the court. To date, EasyGroup has yet to pay the costs. But this has not prevented dozens of companies being threatened by Haji-Ioannou because the huge costs associated with defending a claim in the High Court have been extremely effective in forcing people to hand over their domains. EasyGroup claims that the owners of easy domains are "passing off" on its name. However, that legal argument is based on a selective reading of the law which would require the companies to also copy EasyGroup's well-known orange livery and lower-case/upper-case typography, and to make out they are in some way associated with EasyGroup. That is not the case with the majority of easy domain name owners.

[edit] Criticism

Despite being a prominent figure in UK business, Haji-Ioannou has chosen to avoid paying tax in the country by residing in Monaco.[18] Whilst some may see this as the prerogative of a successful and wealthy businessman, others have questioned the morals behind this decision saying it is motivated by greed and is a mean-spirited display of making money from the people of Britain whilst refusing to contribute. His recent knighthood was met with controversy as he is a tax exile and therefore usually only entitled to an honorary knighthood.[19]

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Haji-Ioannou rarely talks about his social or private life, although he does moan occasionally about how difficult it is to lose weight when life is all work and no exercise.[20]

His younger sister Clelia is forever in the Greek equivalent of Hello! or OK! and his older brother, Polys, who also stayed in Athens, is something of a society figure.[21]

Haji-Ioannou is also a known philanthropist, donating scholarships for ten undergraduate students each year over the course of ten years to study at his alma mater, The London School of Economics and Political Science, and ten postgraduate students at his other alma mater, City University, London.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sunday Times Rich List 2007", Sunday Times Rich List, The Times Newspaper, 2007-04-29. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  2. ^ "FT Innovate Speakers and bios", Financial Times, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-05. 
  3. ^ Top Honour for Stelios. Newcastle Business School. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
  4. ^ Cranfield University 2006 - Honorary Graduates. University of Cranfield. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
  5. ^ Morais, Richard. "Proving Papa Wrong", Forbes, 06.19.01. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  6. ^ "Making it all look easy", Guardian Unlimited, 04.21.02. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 
  7. ^ "BBC Radio 4's On The Ropes", BBC, 07.07.02. Retrieved on 2007-06-25. 
  8. ^ "Making it all look easy", Guardian Unlimited, 04.21.02. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 
  9. ^ "Bizwatch", Time Magazine, Sunday, August 7, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  10. ^ McAllister, J.F.O.. "Easy All Over Europe", Time Magazine, Monday, July 23, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  11. ^ Carassava, Anthee. "Stelios Hadji-Ioannou", Time Magazine, Friday, May 11, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  12. ^ Carassava, Anthee. "Easy Does It on The High Seas", Time Magazine, Sunday, April 17, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  13. ^ Smith, Adam. "Livin' On Easy Street", Time Magazine, Sunday, May 8, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  14. ^ Grose, Thomas. "A Room with No View", Time Magazine, Wednesday, April 11, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  15. ^ "Stelios launches easyOffice.co.uk", Immo News, 1 May 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  16. ^ "Posh Richemont latest to sue Stelios", The Register, 18 November 2005. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 
  17. ^ "Hard cheese for Stelios in EasyPizza case", The Register, 20 June 2006. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 
  18. ^ "The tax haven that today's super rich City commuters call home", 10 July 2006. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 
  19. ^ "Hajiioannou, Stelios", Hellenism. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 
  20. ^ "Making it all look easy", Guardian Unlimited, 04.21.02. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 
  21. ^ "Making it all look easy", Guardian Unlimited, 04.21.02. Retrieved on 2007-06-28. 

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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