Vardis Vardinogiannis

Vardis Vardinogiannis
Βαρδής Βαρδινογιάννης
Born(1933-12-04)4 December 1933
Episkopi, Rethymno, Crete, Greece
Died12 November 2024(2024-11-12) (aged 90)
Athens, Greece
Resting placeFirst Cemetery of Athens
Alma materHellenic Naval Academy
Occupation(s)Oil and shipping businessman
Years active1959–2024
Known forChairman, Motor Oil Hellas
Chairman, Vegas Oil and Gas[1][2]
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1961; died 2023)​
Children5, including Giannis Vardinogiannis[3]
Parents
  • Giannis Vardinogiannis[4]
  • Xrisi Theodoroulakis[4]
RelativesYiorgos Vardinogiannis (brother)

Vardis Vardinogiannis (Greek: Βαρδής Βαρδινογιάννης; 4 December 1933 – 12 November 2024) was a Greek billionaire oil and shipping businessman.[5] He was the chairman and controlling shareholder of Motor Oil Hellas[6] and Vegas Oil and Gas and involved in numerous other shipping and business interests.[7] Vardinogiannis was included in Lloyd's List's Most Influential People in Shipping, and Forbes's The World's Billionaires with an estimated fortune of US$2.3 billion at the time of his death.[5]

Early life

Vardinogiannis was born on 4 December 1933[8] in Episkopi, Rethymno, Crete,[9][10] the son of a farmer family from Agios Ioannis, Sfakia who had moved to Episkopi in the early 20th century.[11] Vardinogiannis was in elementary school during the Second World War when Crete was occupied by the Germans. In the postwar years he moved to Athens, where he entered the Hellenic Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1955 as an officer of the Greek Navy. He was forcibly retired and exiled on a remote island for opposing the Greek junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974.[12]

Business interests

Vardinogiannis joined his family's enterprise in the 1970s and helped it expand. The firm's growth was strengthened by his entering into a partnership with Aramco in the 1990s.[12] Vardinogiannis and his relatives spread their net worldwide and control numerous successful companies in a variety of sectors. The interests include petroleum, shipping, banking, media, real estate, hotels, publishing and charity work. As of 2015, the Vardinogiannis family had stakes in 98 companies in total in Greece and abroad.[13]

The Vardinogiannis brothers owned the merchant ship Ioanna V which, in 1966, broke the United Nations-imposed and British-enforced embargo on Rhodesia by bringing in oil to the Portuguese Mozambique port of Beira, which was connected with landlocked Rhodesia by a pipeline. This move yielded huge profits to the Group.[14]

In subsequent years the four brothers continued to extend the group, staying away from publicity. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the group expanded in the new independent states of the Eastern Bloc, obtaining contracts for the opening of new highways in Ukraine and Georgia.

Personal life and death

In 1961, Vardinogiannis married Marianna Bournaki and had five children,[12] including Giannis Vardinogiannis. He was also the brother of shipping tycoon Yiorgos Vardinogiannis, known for being president of Panathinaikos F.C.

On 20 November 1990, the Revolutionary Organization 17 November attempted to murder Vardinogiannis.[15] He was saved while inside his highly armored car.[16]

Vardis Vardinogiannis and his wife Marianna were among the founders of the Robert Kennedy leadership council, along with Bill Clinton and other world leaders. The wedding of Rory Kennedy and Mark Bailey was celebrated in Vardinogiannis's Greek mansion in upscale Ekali Athens.[17] The 1993 wedding of Rory's older sister, Courtney Kennedy to Irishman Paul Hill was celebrated on the luxury yacht Varmar owned by Vardinogiannis.[18]

Vardinogiannis died in Athens on 12 November 2024, at the age of 90.[19]

References

  1. ^ "Motor Oil". www.moh.gr. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  2. ^ "From Chairman of Motor Oil Hellas and Vegas Oil and Gas Vardis Vardinoyannis and his spouse Marianna Vardinoyannis". azertag.az. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  3. ^ "Forbes profile: Vardis Vardinoyannis". Forbes. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Οικογένεια Βαρδινογιάννη: Δύο αιώνες ιστορία και ο ρόλος της στην ελληνική πραγματικότητα". e-daily.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Vardis Vardinoyannis & his family". Forbes. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  6. ^ "Vardis Vardinoyannis, Motor Oil Hellas Corinth Refineries SA: Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  7. ^ "Vardis J. Vardinoyannis: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg.
  8. ^ Risen, Clay (13 November 2024). "Vardis Vardinoyannis, Greek Tycoon With Ties to the Kennedys, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  9. ^ "Oil and shipping magnate Vardis Vardinogiannis dies". eKathimerini.com. Kathimerini. 12 November 2024. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  10. ^ "Ποια είναι η Βίκυ Σάφρα, η πλουσιότερη Ελληνίδα της λίστας Forbes". Capital. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  11. ^ Συντακτική Ομάδα. "Τα Σφακιά τίμησαν τον οπλαρχηγό Ιωάννη Βαρδή Βαρδινογιάννη". Star.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  12. ^ a b c "Vardis Vardinoyannis, Greek business magnate and Kennedy family friend, dies at 90". Associated Press. 11 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  13. ^ "Greek family businesses – five notable ones". famcap.com. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  14. ^ "Εφοπλιστές / Ναυτιλιακό κεφάλαιο με σημαία ευκαιρίας". avgi. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  15. ^ George Kassimeris (2001). Europe's Last Red Terrorists: The Revolutionary Organization 17 November. New York University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-8147-4756-8. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  16. ^ "Απόπειρα δολοφονίας του Β. Βαρδινογιάννη από τη 17Ν". Kathimerini. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  17. ^ Hoffmann, Bill (3 August 1999). "Bliss Banishes The Tears – Rory Kennedy Ties Knot In Greece Two Weeks After John's Tragic Loss". New York Post.
  18. ^ "Public Lives". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  19. ^ "Έφυγε ο Βαρδής Βαρδινογιάννης". Zougla (in Greek). 12 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.