Six Greek Australian business men and women have been honoured as part of the annual ball of the Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HACCI) on Monday night.

Nights like tonight give us an opportunity to come together and celebrate but also to recognise people who deserve distinction for excellence in their chosen field.

The ball, held at Melbourne’s Park Hyatt, marked the first major event since HACCI merged with the Hellenic Business Forum earlier in the year, HACCI President Nick Mylonas said in his speech.

“Organisations like HACCI have a critical role to play
and are very relevant to our future as Hellenic Australia,” he said, adding, “nights like tonight give us an opportunity to come together and celebrate but also to recognise people who deserve distinction for excellence in their chosen field.”

Helen Kontouris of Helen Kontouris Design took out the title for the Chris Saristavros Young Achievers Award, while the Victorian Multi-cultural Commission Community Service Award was awarded to Nicholas Katris.

The Bank of Cyprus Professional Excellence award was given to Jim Vassiliadis, who pioneered the McCafe concept for McDonalds in Melbourne, which was subsequently taken around Australia and is now a marketing concept which has gone throughout McDonalds worldwide.

Mr Vassiliadis also developed and launched the first McDonalds mobile location concept at the Melbourne Grand Prix and over a number of years, he launched 24 McDonalds locations in Mainland Greece and introduced McCafe into Greece.

Dr Greg Stamboulidis and Nick Athanasopoulos, co-directors of Stambo’s Group of Companies, won the Laiki Bank Business Excellence awarded.

The companies, which have been in operation since 1985, import, process, manufacture and distribute food with Joint Ventures in South America and South Africa.

The final award of the night was the Spiros Stamoulis Lifetime Achievement Award, which went to Nikos Andrianakos.

Mr Andrianakos started his business with one garage in Melbourne’s Sydney Road, Coburg in 1976, and today has built a thriving fuel-convenience business, Milemaker Petroleum, throughout Victoria.

Milemaker Petroleum, which includes fuel-convenience sites, highway truck sites, car washes and fast food operations, is Caltex Australia’s largest independent fuel re-seller in Australia and has maintained a joint business venture with Caltex Australia for over 25 years.

Mr Andrianakos runs his business with his two sons Paul and Theo.
His philanthropic contributions to the Greek community were also highlighted, as he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to charitable groups and organizations such as the Hellenic Museum, Progress Business Forum, sporting clubs and various community groups.

Most recently Nikos donated $300,000 to the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne, for Alphington Grammar School.