Pericles Panagopoulos (29 December 1935 – 5 February 2019) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ex ...

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

. He is considered to have been an institutor of the modern shipping industry, and the most successful Greek shipping magnate since

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was ...

. He gained acclaim for having created three shipping business entities, in his lifetime. In 1989, he sold Royal Cruise Lines to Kloster for a reported US$300 million (US$607 million as converted in 2019). In 2007, he sold his Athens-based

Attica Group Attica Holdings S.A. is an operator of international ferry services in Europe. The Group's operations include its subsidiaries Superfast Ferries, which began in 1995 with the launch of its first ships, Superfast I & Superfast II, and Blue Star Fe ...

for about US$404 million to Marfin Investment Group (MIG). He also owns Magna Marine Inc., a modern shipping company that owns and runs modern bulk carriers. His death was announced by his wife, on facebook on February 5, 2019.

Early life

Panagopoulos was born in a nursing home in

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

. His father built hotel Veto in Athens. The hotel was taken over by Nazi officers in WWII, during the Axis occupation of Greece. After five months of hospitalization, his father died, following a violent attack by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

occupiers. Leaving the young Pericles and his two half-brothers to be brought up by his widowed mother from

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

Career

In 1972 in partnership with

Barney A. Ebsworth Barney A. Ebsworth (July 14, 1934 – April 9, 2018) was an American corporate executive and art collector. He was one of the initial investors in the Build-A-Bear Workshop and was a pioneer in the travel industry. Ebsworth died on April 9, 2018. ...

, he formed

Royal Cruise Line Royal Cruise Line was a Greek cruise line that operated from 1974 to 1996 and founded by Pericles Panagopulos. The line catered mainly to American passengers looking for an upscale cruise experience and sailed mainly worldwide routes. History ...

. The m/s Golden Odyssey was the company's first cruise ship. Built in Helsingor Shipyard and delivered in 1974, she was designed to carry 450 passengers as this was the capacity of the 747 Jumbo Jet airplane. The company grew with the addition of the 850-passenger Royal Odyssey in 1982 and the 1000-passenger Crown Odyssey in 1988 before getting acquired by Kloster Cruises in 1989. In 1993, Pericles Panagopoulos co-founded with his son

Alexander Panagopoulos Alexander Panagopoulos is a Greek environmentalist and shipping entrepreneur. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Arista Maritime Inc. He was previously elected as chairman of High Level Ferry Group of ECSA. He is founder of Forward ...

Superfast Ferries Superfast Ferries is a Greece-based ferry company founded in 1993 by Pericles Panagopulos and Alexander Panagopulos. Superfast Ferries is a member of Attica Group and operates 3 car-passenger ferries, offering daily connections between Anc ...

, as part of the

, an Athens-listed holding corporation. In 2009 he was kidnapped by armed men in

. The kidnapping was orchestrated from prison by Greek crime boss Panagiotis Vlastos, who later made a failed attempt to escape prison, with a helicopter armed with

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...

s and

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms des ...

s. His family paid a

ransom Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or the sum of money involved in such a practice. When ransom means "payment", the word comes via Old French ''rançon'' from Latin ''re ...

of €30 million (approximately $39 million) to secure Panagopoulos's release. The ransom was reported by Greek police to be the highest ever paid.

References

1935 births 2019 deaths 2000s missing person cases 20th-century Greek businesspeople 21st-century Greek businesspeople Businesspeople from Athens Formerly missing people Greek businesspeople in shipping Greek chief executives Kidnapped businesspeople Missing person cases in Greece Place of birth missing {{Greece-bio-stub

Early life

Career

See also

References