Marios Iliopoulos (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Μάριος Ηλιόπουλος) is a Greek shipowner and businessman. He is the co-founder and owner of Greek

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

company

Seajets Seajets is a Greek/ Cypriot ferry company founded in 1989 by Marios Iliopoulos and his father Panagiotis. Seajets operates a fleet of passenger, freight ferry and cruiseferry services in the Aegean Sea. Seajets is one of Greece's leading ferry co ...

, owner of Greek football team

AEK Athens F.C. A.E.K. Football Club (), known simply as A.E.K. (; ) in Greece and AEK Athens internationally, is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, Greece. Established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the ...

and a minority shareholder in Italian football club

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

Early life

Marios Iliopoulos was born on 18 September 1969, son of Panagiotis and Despoina. He was one of three boys in the family, his two brothers were Yiannis (who passed away in 2017) and Antonis. Iliopoulos grew up in

Psychiko Psychiko ( ) is a town and a suburb in the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Filothei-Psychiko, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal ...

a suburb of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, and attended

Athens College Athens College (; formally Hellenic-American Educational Foundation (HAEF), Ελληνο-Αμερικανικό Εκπαιδευτικό Ίδρυμα) is a co-educational private preparatory school in Psychiko, Greece, a suburb of Athens, par ...

. His father Panagiotis had been involved in gold trading, where he emerged as one of the leaders in his field. From 1988 he was involved in passenger shipping and in 1989, together with his son, Mario, co-founded Seajets.

Business career

Seajets

In 1989 Marios Iliopoulos alongside his father Panagiotis co-founded Greek ferry company Seajets. Seajets is now one of Greece's leading high speed ferry companies. As of 2024, his company Seajets fleet consists 30 highspeed ferries, 6 conventional ferries and 4 cruise ships.

AEK Athens F.C.

On 10 June 2024, Iliopoulos bought Greek football team

. The fee of the take over is estimated to be in the range of €90 million. Iliopoulos is the majority shareholder with a 85,03% stake of the club. At the press conference Iliopoulos stated, “I will give my soul, my mind… my whole being to conquer titles”. Since Iliopoulos took over the club, Iliopoulos has brought marquee players to the club such as

Anthony Martial Anthony Jordan Martial (; born 5 December 1995) is a French professional footballer who plays for Super League Greece club AEK Athens. After playing youth football for Les Ulis, Martial began his professional career at Lyon, before transferri ...

Erik Lamela Erik Manuel Lamela Cordero (born 4 March 1992) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or right winger for Super League Greece club AEK Athens. Lamela began his career at River Plate, and in 2011 transfer ...

and

Roberto Pereyra Roberto Maximiliano Pereyra (; born 7 January 1991) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for Greek Super League club AEK Athens. A versatile player, he is capable of playing a variety of positions such as on the wing, in central midf ...

, breaking club record contract fees.

Juventus

On October 12th 2024, Iliopoulos became a minority shareholder in Italian football club

owning a 3.5% stake of the club. Iliopoulos reportedly paid around €32-€34 million to acquire his shares.

Insurance fraud

On 6 July 2011, the tanker ship Brillante Virtuoso was damaged beyond repair in what the High Court of London ruled was insurance fraud orchestrated and instigated by Marios Iliopoulos, disguised as a pirate attack. An investigator into the matter, David Mockett, was killed by a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

in what has been described as a targeted assassination after he had made clear that he disagreed with Iliopoulos' insurance claim. It was also found that another tanker owned by Iliopoulos, Elli, was similarly written off after a fire two years prior with the same salvage companies and chief engineer in charge of that recovery operation as were in charge of the Brillant Virtuoso.

References

{{reflist 1969 births Living people Athens College alumni Greek businesspeople Greek businesspeople in shipping Greek football chairmen and investors Businesspeople from Athens 21st-century Greek businesspeople 20th-century Greek businesspeople