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Greek businessman (born 1967)
Evangelos "Vangelis" Marinakis is a Greek businessman and investor, the principal shareholder of a number of companies operating in the shipping, media and football sectors. Marinakis is the owner of football clubs Olympiacos, Nottingham Forest and Rio Ave. He is the son of shipowner and politician Miltiadis Marinakis from Crete. He entered the Greek shipping industry in 2005 by founding "Capital Maritime & Trading Corp". In 2010, he acquired a majority stake in the Greek football team Olympiacos and became its president.
He has a role as a philanthropist, both privately and as president of Olympiacos F.C. In July 2014, he pledged €80,000 annually for an initial ten-year period to support Nikos Kazantzakis museum in Crete; this has become a permanent sponsorship, which has continued uninterrupted for more than a decade and has been credited with covering operating costs, enabling staffing and expanding outreach. In September 2014, he privately financed commemorative celebrations for the 200 years since the foundation of the Filiki Etairia and the creation of a bust of Alexander Ypsilantis in Athens. He has also privately supported throughout the years various Greek children charities, including Argo, and 'Together for Children', a union of ten Greek NGOs. During his presidency, Olympiacos has funded the daily meals of a thousand people weekly, through the benevolent fund of "Genesios Theotokos" parish in the Athens suburb of Nikaia and the Syros Holy Church. In 2010, Olympiacos hosted a UNDP Match Against Poverty which raised over US$500,000 for earthquake stricken Haiti and Pakistan. Approximately a thousand food portions and clothing items were distributed daily to refugees stranded at the Port of Piraeus. In February 2014, he donated €500,000 for school repairs in the Greek island of Cephalonia, which was hit by destructive earthquakes. In October 2013, Olympiacos and UNICEF launched a partnership to immunize children in developing countries, featuring UNICEF’s logo on the players’ jerseys, with the target to raise €2 million in two years. In August 2017, the club announced that the partnership would be renewed with a focus on a new multi-year campaign. In June 2012, Marinakis repurchased Greek national debt, with a face value of €1,364,000 by offering the amount of €168,590 on behalf of each of Olympiacos' 55 Greek players and employees, to Peter Nomikos’ NGO ‘Greece Debt Free’ (GDF). In the past, Olympiacos has supported the Japan earthquake relief fund, and acted in support to the non-profit environmental organization Arcturos, the pediatric clinics of St Sofia hospital in Athens and the General Hospital in Limassol, various blood collection campaigns, Greek and international children's charities, including Elpida, the Steven Gerrard Foundation, the Hatzikyriakos Foundation. Marinakis is also in the process of creating the Olympiacos charity foundation. In September 2017, Marinakis sponsored a special conference in Athens in partnership with Harvard University, to focus on football's social responsibility, with specific reference to refugees. At the event, Marinakis said: "football can cross borders, overcome ancient enmity and bring millions of people around the world together". In November 2017, Marinakis led an aid effort, through Olympiacos, to bring relief to the victims of massive flooding that hit the town of Mandra in the Attica region of Greece. The effort, included a large quantity of food, bottled water, and other daily necessities sent to those s
Evangelos Marinakis was born in Piraeus, Greece, on 30 July 1967. He is the only son of Miltiadis Marinakis and Irini Marinaki (née Karakatsani). His father, Miltiadis Marinakis, was born in Crete. He was a shipowner, a Member of the Greek Parliament and, at times, a financial supporter of Piraeus football club, Olympiacos. Marinakis holds a B.A. in 'International Business Administration' and an M.Sc. in 'International Relations'. He has been married for many years to Athanasia Marinakis, and they have four children, three girls and a boy. His son Miltiades Marinakis, a London resident, has set up his own company, "Shopflix". The family's permanent residence in Athens is in Paleo Psychiko. Marinakis and New Democracy politician Dora Bakoyannis are personally connected, as Marinakis was best man when Bakoyanni married Isidoros Kouvelos in 1998, and Bakoyannis became the godmother of his son, Miltiadis.
Biographical detail compiled from Wikipedia and Wikidata, which are edited openly and may be incomplete or out of date. Fleet data is our own. Source →
