On the morning of Wednesday, April 9, publisher Kostas Kavvathas passed away at the age of 86.
Kostas Kavvathas was born in Athens in 1939 and graduated from the 2nd Boys’ Gymnasium.
From a very young age, he showed an interest in aviation activities, and in 1957, he trained at the Tripoli Aerobatic Center, where he obtained a glider pilot’s license.
Who Was Kostas Kavvathas?
His journalistic career began in 1959 at the magazine Tachytis (Speed), was interrupted for his military service, and resumed in 1963 at the newspaper Mesimvrini, where he maintained the car column for three years.
Shortly afterward, he made his first attempt to publish his own magazine, Trochoi & Dromoi (Wheels & Roads), together with Giannis Bardopoulos. However, this effort was halted just before it reached the printing press. After a brief stint at Neo Aftokinito (New Car), he joined the team of Auto Express magazine, which was first published in the summer of 1967.
Kostas Kavvathas served as a member of the European “Car of the Year” (COTY) committee from 1984 to 2004, and he had also been a municipal councilor for the Municipality of Athens under the candidacy of Antonis Tritsis.
He was also the mastermind behind the 1st European Conference on Clean Cars and the 1st Eco-Rally at the University Campus of Athens, in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens (1997), as well as the Phaethon 2004 initiative.
In 1994, he established the second private internet hub in Greece, Techlink, and in 2000, he founded the first Road Safety Center in Greece, Safetrack, which operated at the Megara racetrack.