Stelios Haji-Ioannou Biography

Founder and CEO of 'EasyJet' and Chairman of the EasyGroup

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."
- Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Full name: Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
Famous for: Founder and CEO of 'EasyJet' and Chairman of the EasyGroup
Stelios details: Born - February 14, 1967 Live - Monaco

Stelios Haji-Ioannou is a Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur and is the 2nd of 3 children of Loucas and Nedi Haji-Ioannou.. He is the owner of easyGroup, which part-owns easyJet Airline Company PLC, the operator of easyJet airline.

Stelios was educated in Athens at the Doukas High School and in 1984 continued his education at the London School of Economics. He also graduated from the Cass Business School at City University with an MSc in Shipping, Trade and Finance. Stelios has also been awarded a total of three honorary doctorates from Liverpool John Moores University, Cass Business School City University, Newcastle Business School and the Cranfield University.

A serial entrepreneur, Stelios 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. Stelios floated Stelmar Shipping on the NYSE in 2001 and in 2005 it was sold to the OSG Shipping Group for approximately $1.3 Billion.

The Easy Empire

With the success of the company, Stelios began looking at starting a budget airline. After a visit to the USA, Stelios was given inspiration by Southwest and Virgin Atlantic. In 1995 easyJet was born.

The airline was an enormous success, easyJet being one of the major leaders in the European cheap flights boom of the 1990s.

The travel related businesses also include:

• easyCar: offering low cost car rental in 2,000 locations globally;
• easyCruise: claims to introduce a younger age group to cruising in various parts of the world;
• easyBus: offers low cost bus transportation between airports and city centres;
• easyHotel: offering low cost accommodation in city centres.

In 1998, Stelios expanded his interests with the formation of the easyGroup.

Through easyGroup he owns or part-owns a range of companies, covering a range of activities such as internet Internet cafés, online price comparison, personal finance, cinema, male toiletries, online recruitment, pizza delivery, music downloads, mobile telephony, offices and wrist watches.

According to an article on This is Money, Stelios had made plans to launch easyDeath, providing cheap funerals. Stelios had said that the idea had reached the planning stage before it was dropped.

In August 2005 the easyGroup opened the first (and only) of their low-cost budget hotels in London. All follow the "easy" approach of few "frills" and following yield management principles.

For a time he received unfavourable publicity for a policy of attempting to claim all company names/web URL's containing the word "easy" for his group of companies, even when then name was already in use.

In 2000, easyJet floated on the London Stock Exchange, and Stelmar floated on the New York Stock Exchange the following year. His personal fortune is estimated at £727 million. He was ranked 80th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006.

Giving Back

On the "giving something back" side, Stelios is interested in education for under-privileged students and sustainable development. In 1992 he founded CYMEPA, the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association. This is a non-profit making association of ship owners and Cyprus-based business people who believe in sustainable development. Stelios recently endowed this association with a further gift worth more than $600,000. In 2005 he made a pledge to both his alma mater, the London School of Economics and the City of London Cass Business School , worth £3m for the funding of 100 scholarships over 10 years in each establishment. The students will be known as the Stelios Scholars. In 2006 he established the Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year Award with the disability charity Leonard Cheshire, with £50,000 going to the winner. Also in 2006 he sold his private art collection, which once filled the walls of the now sold Stelmar Shipping, for a total of 730,000 euros, the proceeds of which went to a Greek children's charity

Criticism

Despite being a prominent figure in UK business, Stelios has chosen to avoid paying tax in the country by residing in Monaco. 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.