Stavros Spyros Niarchos was an Athenian billionaire shipping magnate who dedicated his life to competing with his rival Aristotle Onassis for dominance in the world of maritime transportation. He was born on July 3, 1909.
Stavros was born in Greece’s capital city to a wealthy family, the son of Spyros Niarchos and his wife, Eugenie Koumantaros, a rich heiress. His great-great-grandfather, Philippos Niarchos, a Greek shipping agent in Valetta, had married a daughter from a noble family in Malta, whose younger offspring had moved to Greece to base themselves in a merchant business from Malta.
Niarchos was a naval officer in WWII when part of the trade fleet he had developed with his uncle was destroyed. He used about two million dollars in insurance settlement to build a new fleet. His most famous asset was the yacht 'Atlantis', currently known as 'Issham Al Baher' after gifting it to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
He then founded Niarchos Ltd, an international shipping company that at one time operated more than 80 tankers worldwide. He and Aristotle Onassis were great shipping rivals. In 1952 high, capacity oil supertankers were built for the competing Niarchos and Onassis fleets, who were, at the time, both claiming to own the largest tanker in the world.
So although he was known as a mystery man, there was little mystery in how Stavros S. Niarchos built a personal fortune.
Niarchos, whose name means “master of ships,” was quite simply a master at seizing the moment and turning it to his advantage, especially if it involved the complex world of shipping and what others perceived as a disaster, he recognised as an opportunity. In 1956 the Suez Canal Crisis considerably increased the demand for the type of large tonnage ships that Niarchos owned. Business flourished, and he became a billionaire.
The secret of his shipping success was very simple: buy cheap and buy big.
Niarchos
Niarchos was married five times and had two daughters and three sons. He passed away in 1996 in Zurich, aged 87.
At the time of his death, his fortune was estimated to be worth in excess of $22 billion. When Niarchos died, he left half his fortune to a charitable trust to be established in his name and the other half to his three sons and daughter Maria by his marriage to Greek shipping heiress Eugenia Livanos, a nephew and a great-nephew.
Money from his trust has been given to many charities around Greece, including millions of dollars that went towards The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, which is an amazing complex in the bay of Faliro in Athens, featuring new facilities for the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera, as well as the 210,000 m² Stavros Niarchos Park.
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center celebrates its fifth anniversary with a beautiful video
