Vardis Vardinogiannis ( el, Βαρδής Βαρδινογιάννης) is a Greek

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

oil and shipping businessman. He is the chairman and controlling shareholder of

Motor Oil Hellas Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries S.A. ( el, Μότορ Όιλ (Ελλάς) Διυλιστήρια Κορίνθου Α.Ε.) is a petroleum industry based in Greece focusing on oil refining and trading. It is a leading force in its sector in S ...

, Vegas Oil and Gas and involved in numerous other shipping and business interests. Vardinogiannis was included in

Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...

's ''Most Influential People in Shipping'' and is also included in Forbes List with estimated fortune 1.6 billion dollars.

Early life

Vardis Vardinogiannis was born in Episkopi, Rethymno,

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

, the son of poor farmers who originated in Agios Ioannis, Sfakia but moved to Episkopi in the early 20th century. They had eight children: six boys and two girls. Everyone helped in the fields from an early age. Vardinoyannis took elementary school during the Second World War, when Crete was occupied by the Germans. In the postwar years he moved to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, where he entered the

Hellenic Naval Academy The Hellenic Naval Cadets Academy ( el, Σχολή Ναυτικών Δοκίμων, abbr. ΣΝΔ, lit. "School of Naval Cadets") is a military university and has the responsibility to educate and suitably train competent Naval Officers for the He ...

, from which he graduated in 1955 as an officer of the Greek Navy.

Business interests

Unlike the other more or less patriarchal Greek dynasties, the

Vardinogiannis Vardinogiannis ( gr, Βαρδινογιάννης) is a Greek surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Giannis Vardinogiannis (born 1962), Greek entrepreneur *Vardis Vardinogiannis (born 1931), Greek oil and shipping tycoon *Yiorgos Vard ...

clan has spread its net worldwide and operates as a tight-knit group of relatives controlling numerous successful companies in a variety of sectors. Today their interests range from petroleum and shipping, to banking and media, to real estate and hotels, to publishing and charity work. As of 2015, the Vardinogiannis family have stakes in 98 companies in total in Greece and abroad.

Personal life

He married Marianna Mpournaki, and they have five children, including

Giannis Vardinogiannis Giannis Vardinogiannis ( el, Γιάννης Βαρδινογιάννης, born 7 April 1962) is a Greek billionaire shipping magnate, the eldest son of petroleum tycoon Vardis Vardinogiannis. He is included in the Lloyd's List ''Most influential ...

. He is also the brother of shipping tycoon

Yiorgos Vardinogiannis Yiorgos Vardinogiannis ( el, Γιώργος Βαρδινογιάννης) is a Greek businessman and a shipping magnate, former owner and president of the Panathinaikos football club. He was born in Episkopi, Rethymno in 1936. He is the brothe ...

, known for being many years president of

Panathinaikos F.C. Panathinaikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Παναθηναϊκός Α.Ο. ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', "All-Athenian ...

Shipping, embargo in Rhodesia

In subsequent years the four brothers continued to extend the group, staying away from publicity. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the group expanded in the new independent states of the former communist bloc, obtaining contracts for the opening of new highways in Ukraine and Georgia. The Vardinoyannis brothers owned the merchant ship ''Ioanna V'' which, in 1966, broke the UN-imposed and British-enforced embargo on the Rhodesia regime and brought in oil to the Portuguese Mozambique

port of Beira The Port of Beira is a Mozambican port located in the city of Beira, capital of the Sofala Province. It is located in Sofala Bay, which forms a huge complex with the mouth of the Pungoe River, known as the Beira estuary, facing the Mozambique Ch ...

, which was connected with landlocked Rhodesia by a pipeline. This move yielded huge profits to the Group.

17 November

On 20 November 1990, the Greek terrorist group

Revolutionary Organization 17 November Revolutionary Organization 17 November ( el, Επαναστατική Οργάνωση 17 Νοέμβρη, ''Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri''), also known as 17N or the 17 November Group, was a Greek far-left Marxist–Leninist urban g ...

attempted to murder him. He was saved thanks to his highly armored Mercedes.

Friendship with the Kennedy family

Vardis Vardinogiannis and his wife Marianna are among the founders of the Robert Kennedy leadership council along with

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

and other world leaders. The wedding of

Rory Kennedy Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy (born December 12, 1968) is an American documentary filmmaker who is the eleventh and youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social is ...

, daughter of Robert and

Ethel Kennedy Ethel Kennedy (' Skakel; born April 11, 1928) is an American human rights advocate. She is the widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, and the sixth child of George Skakel and Ann Brannack. Shortly a ...

with Mark Bailey was celebrated in Vardinogiannis's Greek mansion in upscale Ekali Athens. Even the wedding of her older sister Rory, Courtney Kennedy with the Irishman Paul Hill in 1993 was celebrated on the luxury yacht ''Varmar'' owned by Vardinoyannis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vardinogiannis, Vardis People from Lappa, Rethymno Greek businesspeople Greek billionaires Hellenic Navy officers 1933 births Living people People in the petroleum industry People named in the Paradise Papers