Loucas Haji-Ioannou ( gr, Λουκάς Χατζηιωάννου; 15 September 1927 – 17 December 2008) was a

Greek-Cypriot Greek Cypriots or Cypriot Greeks ( el, Ελληνοκύπριοι, Ellinokýprioi, tr, Kıbrıs Rumları) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2011 census, 659,115 r ...

shipping entrepreneur. He was one of the handful of Greek ship owners whose fleets dominated the global shipping industry for most of the 20th century. He was the father of the founder of the

EasyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...

airline,

Stelios Haji-Ioannou Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou ( el, Στέλιος Χατζηιωάννου, translit=Stelios Hatziioannou; born 14 February 1967) is a Greek Cypriot entrepreneur. Born into a wealthy ship-owning family, he is best known for founding the low-cost ai ...

. He was married to mrs Nedi lived in Old Psiqhico area in Athens, his recovery physiotherapy kinesiologies was Mister Serafim Voukelatos, a former boxer medal winner an entrepreneur who was training Paul’s son Stelio’s.

Family

Born into a poor Greek Cypriot farming family at the village of

Pedoulas Pedoulas ( gr, Πεδουλάς) is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, located at an altitude of in the Troodos Mountains, 4 km south of Moutoullas. It lies in Marathasa Valley. The name is derived from the words ''pediada'' (va ...

on September 15, 1927, Haji-Ioannou was the eldest of 12 children.

Early career

Haji-Ioannou left the village school when he was 17 and he worked as a salesman until 1950. His uncle, a trader, hired him as an accountant before appointing him as manager of his office in Saudi Arabia. When his uncle died, Haji-Ioannou started his own import-export business in Saudi Arabia. At the time it was hard to be allowed to trade within the kingdom without a local partner and he became one of the few foreign businessmen to achieve that. Later, during the construction boom of the late 1950s, he became the only importer of

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...

and Titan cement. In 1959, Haji-Ioannou moved to London and he entered the shipping industry by buying a 10,500-ton dry cargo ship which he named Nedi, after his wife. While living in London, until 1965, he built a fleet of more than 20 cargo vessels and became an important client of British shipbrokers, especially

Clarkson plc Clarkson PLC, often referred to simply as Clarksons, is a provider of shipping services, and is headquartered in London. In 2011, Lloyd's List described the company's shipbroking service as the "undisputed heavyweight of the shipbroking market". ...

. Later he moved to Athens and he realised that the future of shipping was in international oil trade. He bought his first tanker in 1969 and became a big force in the market, within 10 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hajji-Ioannou, Loucas 1927 births 2008 deaths Greek businesspeople in shipping Loucas People from Nicosia District