Stelios Haji-Ioannou

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Topics:

• Business
• Entrepreneurs
• International
• Leadership

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou – who prefers to be known as Stelios, a serial entrepreneur - is best known for creating easyJet in 1995.  He is known throughout the world and, as such, is a much sought-after international keynote speaker.

easyJet

Stelios created easyJet at the age of 28. Five years later, he floated - on the London Stock Exchange - the low-cost airline that revolutionised European air travel. Nowadays, the company has grown into one of Europe’s leading airlines with some 170 aircraft flying over 400 routes between 103 airports in 26 countries. Approximately 45 million people a year fly with easyJet enjoying more value for less! 

Greek Origins

Stelios is the son of a very successful Greek shipowner, the late Loucas Haji-Ioannou, who provided the seed capital for Stelios’ independent business career, which started when he created a shipping company - Stelmar - at the age of 25. Subsequently, Stelios floated Stelmar on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001; the company was successfully sold to a rival in 2005, creating significant shareholder value.

easyGroup

Today, Stelios remains the biggest single shareholder of easyJet PLC and a non-executive director. In parallel, before the IPO in 2000 - and true to his beliefs in serial entrepreneurship - he consolidated the ownership of the easy brand into his private company, easyGroup, and launched several easy-branded businesses. The group currently includes easyCar (car rental), easyHotel (budget hotels), easyBus (airport transfers), easyOffice (low-cost, serviced office rental for small businesses), easyPizza and easyCruise - all dedicated to offering more value for less to millions of consumers.

Knighted for Services to Entpreneurship

In 2006, at the age of 39, Stelios received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for services to entrepreneurship. Since then, Sir Stelios has expanded his dedication to making a difference to society by launching a number of philanthropic initiatives supporting entrepreneurship, higher education and environmental sustainability.

Supporting Youth & the Disadvantaged

Stelios has pledged 200 scholarships over 10 years to the London School of Economics and Cass Business School in London - his almae mater - supporting young, exceptional scholars who want to make a difference in their chosen fields. Similarly - in partnership with Leonard Cheshire Disability in the UK - Stelios created the Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year Award given to exceptional entrepreneurs who have overcome significant physical and perceptual limitations in starting their businesses.

Preserving the Environment

In Cyprus, the birthplace of his parents, Stelios co-founded CYMEPA in 1992 an association dedicated to preserving the marine environment. In his own birthplace, Greece, he continues his commitment to environmental protection by supporting the Pendeli Reforestation project.

Building on his many years of support for the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), Stelios has recently been appointed to the Council of
Ambassadors of the WWF-UK.

Entrepreneur Awards

Additionally, in Greece, Stelios strives to further inspire entrepreneurship through the Kouros award, a 50,000EU prize given to the outstanding business start-up of the year

International Keynote Speaker

Stelios is called upon to speak around the world for a range of events and topics including International Travel and Transport Conferences, Climate Change conferences and Entrepreneurial Symposiums and is an inspiring international keynote speaker.

For further information or to book Stelios, call us at Speakers Corner on +44 (0) 20 8365 3200 or email info@speakerscorner.co.uk