Stelios Haji-Ioannou - Sir

    (£30,000 - £35,000)

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Biography

Born in Athens on February 14th 1967, Stelios is the second son of Loucas Haji-Ioannou, a Greek shipowner. In 1987 he graduated from the London School of Economics and a year later took a masters degree at the City University Business School.

At the age of 21 he joined his father’s shipping company and at the age of 25 established his own shipping company, Stelmar Tankers, which has offices in Athens and London.

By October 1995, at the age of 28, he launched easyJet Airline Company Ltd., a low-cost, point to point, short-haul, no-frills airline (styled after the successful US operator Southwest Airlines).  easyJet, based at London Luton Airport, flew to four domestic destinations in Scotland, and also to Amsterdam, Nice and Barcelona.

Stelios started easyJet with the slogan that their prices would be as affordable as a pair of jeans.  A lot of people laughed and said that it was just an advertising slogan, but it was real and Stelios and his customers laughed all the way to the bank!

In addition to the above companies, Stelios has a keen interest in computerisation and information technology systems in general. Both Stelmar and easyJet are paperless companies which enable him to run them from anywhere in the world through his laptop computer.

A major coup for Parliament Communications was the acceptance by Stelios to address 2000 travel agents at a major conference in Barcelona.  This was all the more remarkable since easyJet is the only airline in the world that has never paid a commission to a travel agent.

Flying in the face of convention – Stelios risked being shot down by an audience of travel agents, however, the conference black box revealed details of how he skilfully landed his message amongst the previously hostile delegates.

The pioneering business concepts that have made Stelios a major player in the travel industry are equally appropriate to other businesses and industries.