The entrepreneur who helped revolutionise the air travel industry and introduced millions of people to low cost travel is to be awarded an honorary degree by Northumbria University today.
Stelios graduating from Northumbra University
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, known to millions as Stelios, the founder of easyJet and creator of the easy brand, will be presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law alongside graduates from Newcastle Business School.
Describing himself as a serial entrepreneur, Stelios set up his first venture after leaving the family shipping company in 1992. The business was called Stelmar Shipping, which Stelios set up at the age of just 25 - and having floated it on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001, the business was sold two years ago for a staggering $1.3 billion.
In 1995, when Stelios was 28, he launched easyJet, with just one plane flying between Luton and Glasgow. The company quickly opened a host of international routes and this year about 38 million passengers are expected to travel with easyJet. Stelios floated the airline on the London Stock Exchange in 2000, but remains its largest shareholder and a member of the Board of Directors.
By that time, Stelios had already established the easyGroup, which acts as a private investment vehicle. It licences the easy brand to a range of business ventures in travel, leisure and personal finance. In 1999 easyGroup launched the first easyInternetcafe and went on to launch easyCar.com, easyMoney.com and easyHotel.com among others, before going back to his shipping roots with the launch of easyCruise.com.
Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest ever chairman when he started easyJet at the age of 28, Stelios says:
"Having developed the easy brand, which now boasts 17 different companies, I now devote more of my time to managing the brand, rather than one individual business.
It is an honour for me to be receiving the Doctorate of Civil Law from Northumbria today and I hope my passion for entrepreneurship will help inspire the graduates from Newcastle Business School as they embark on a career in business or even better to launch their own business a few years after graduating like I did."
Stelios' services to entrepreneurship were officially recognised last year, when he was awarded a knighthood.
However, despite being an astute businessman, Stelios is also keen to give something back and he has a keen interest in education for under-privileged students and sustainable development.
He founded the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association, a non-profit making organisation, which brings together Cyprus-based ship owners and business people. The Association is dedicated to sustainable development and the protection of the environment, reflecting his early days when he worked in his father's shipping business.
Born in Greece and educated in Athens, before graduating from the London School of Economics and the City University Business School, Stelios has recently worked with the Leonard Cheshire charity to set up an award for entrepreneurs with disabilities, with a £50,000 prize. He has also pledged £3m to fund 100 scholarships over 10 years for the 'Stelios Scholars' and donated 730,000 euros to a Greek children's charity following the sale of his private art collection, which once adorned the walls of his former shipping company.
Professor Kel Fidler, Vice-Chancellor of Northumbria University says:
"As our business graduates embark on their careers, they are set to be the new industrial leaders of the future. In Stelios they have a role model who has shown that with a fresh approach to business, anything is possible."
Date posted: 15.07.2007