BUSINESSPEOPLE from Greece

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Greek Businesspeople of all time. This list of famous Greek Businesspeople is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Isaac Carasso (1874 - 1939)

With an HPI of 58.01, Isaac Carasso is the most famous Greek Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages on wikipedia.

Isaac Carasso (1874 – 19 April 1939) was a member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso (Karasu) family of Ottoman Salonica (modern Thessaloniki, Greece). After emigrating to Barcelona, he started a yogurt factory which later became Groupe Danone.

2. Stavros Niarchos (1909 - 1996)

With an HPI of 57.07, Stavros Niarchos is the 2nd most famous Greek Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Stavros Spyrou Niarchos (Greek: Σταύρος Σπύρου Νιάρχος, pronounced [ˈstavros ˈspiru 'ɲarxos]; 3 July 1909 – 15 April 1996) was a Greek billionaire shipping tycoon. Starting in 1952, he had the world's biggest supertankers built for his fleet. Propelled by both the Suez Crisis and increasing demand for oil, he and rival Aristotle Onassis became giants in global petroleum shipping. Niarchos was also a noted thoroughbred horse breeder and racer, several times the leading owner and number one on the French breed list.

3. George Averoff (1815 - 1899)

With an HPI of 53.25, George Averoff is the 3rd most famous Greek Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

George M. Averoff (15 August 1815 – 15 July 1899), alternately Jorgos Averof or Georgios Averof (in Greek: Γεώργιος Αβέρωφ), was a Greek businessman and philanthropist. He is one of the great national benefactors of Greece. Born in the town of Metsovo (Epirus, Greece, then Ottoman Empire), Averoff moved to Alexandria while still young. He was known through most of his life for founding numerous schools in both Egypt and Greece.

4. Sam Panopoulos (1934 - 2017)

With an HPI of 46.96, Sam Panopoulos is the 4th most famous Greek Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Sotirios "Sam" Panopoulos (Greek: Σωτήριος Πανόπουλος; 20 August 1934 – 8 June 2017) was a Greek-born Canadian cook and businessman, credited as the inventor of Hawaiian pizza.

5. Arianna Huffington (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 46.69, Arianna Huffington is the 5th most famous Greek Businessperson.  Her biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou; Greek: Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου, pronounced [ariˈaðni ˈana stasinoˈpulu]; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of The Huffington Post, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, and the author of fifteen books. She has been named to Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Huffington serves on numerous boards, including Onex, and Global Citizen. She is the author of fifteen books, although two have been dogged by allegations of plagiarism, one of which she paid another author, an out of court settlement. Her last two books, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder and The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time, both became international bestsellers. Huffington, the former wife of Republican congressman Michael Huffington, co-founded The Huffington Post, which is now owned by BuzzFeed. She was a popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, after which, in the late 1990s, she offered liberal points of view in public, while remaining involved in business endeavors. In 2003, she ran as an independent candidate for governor in the California recall election and lost. In 2009, Huffington was No. 12 in Forbes first-ever list of the Most Influential Women In Media. She has also moved up to No. 42 in The Guardian's Top 100 in Media List. As of 2014, she was listed by Forbes as the 52nd Most Powerful Woman in the World. She had moved to 77nd as of 2018 and dropped off the list as of 2019. In 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million and made Huffington the president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which included The Huffington Post and then-existing AOL properties including AOL Music, Engadget, Patch Media, and StyleList. She stepped down from her role at The Huffington Post in August 2016 to focus on a new startup, Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company with the mission of improving productivity and health outcomes.