The wedding of the year will be held this Saturday, June 17 in Kastellorizo for Greek-Australian Antonis Liveris, son of Greek-Australian billionaire Andreas Liveris, and the island will be visited by dozens of financial players from all over the world.
Andrew Liveris is also the President of the Organising Committee of the Brisbane Olympic Games in 2032.
Shipments have already started to arrive at the island containing the wedding materials, with the various passengers from Australia and USA coming by ferry also expected in the coming days.
In addition to Antonis, Mr Liveris has two other children (Nikolas and Alexandra) and he often visits the island of his origin in the summer with his wife, Paola.
The Greek-Australian billionaire was born in Australia, his grandfather having immigrated in 1910 where he spent his first difficult years in Darwin.
Andreas’ father, a carpenter by trade, died suddenly of a tropical illness when Andreas was nine years old, with his mother moving their family (him and his two sisters) to Brisbane to be closer with her siblings and relatives.
Andreas worked from a young age to support his family and he later became the director and owner of the company in which he was first hired as a student.
He completed his studies of chemical engineering with a government scholarship at the University of Queensland.
Following in his upward trajectory, he soon became chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, which recorded annual sales of more than $58 billion in 2014, and later merged it with DuPont to create DowDuPont, a $130 billion business which he serves as CEO.
In addition to his business roles, he currently sits on the board of directors of IBM, is Vice President of the U.S. Business Roundtable and a member of the U.S. President’s Export Council.
In 2012, he co-founded ‘The Hellenic Initiative’ to mobilise the international Greek and Philhellenic community, with the goal of strengthening Greece in the economic crisis and providing aid.
He has been given many honours, including the Entrepreneurship Award of the International Foundation for Greece, the Capital Link Leadership Award, the Aristeio Award in Business of the American Hellenic Council and the Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Award of Excellence.
He even wrote a book titled ‘Make it in America’ where he presents and analyses a comprehensive series of practical policy and business strategy solutions for successful businesses.
He also has a great influence on the economic and political events of the USA.
He was appointed by then-President of the USA, Donald Trump, to a council for the revitalisation of the construction sector and economic development, having previously served on a related committee of the administration of Barack Obama.
In Greece, he was honoured as a personality together with the legendary composer, Vangelis Papathanasiou, Biology professor Aristidis Patrinos, 20th Century Fox CEO Dimitris N. Giannopoulos, journalist Nikos Aliagas, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
The successful businessman has previously stated about his origin:
“I am a proud Greek. Although I was not born on the shores of the Aegean or of the Mediterranean, I do come from a country that enjoys beaches, Australia. There are millions of Greeks like me all over the world, who were born overseas but love and are connected to their homeland. We grew up listening to stories from our parents and grandparents about Greek history. So it doesn’t matter what accent we have or where we live now as we still feel a special bond with Greece.”
Mr Liveris’ investments have started to expand into Asia. He is considered one of the most influential entrepreneurs and has been named the “No. 1 Player” in the global chemical markets three times (2010, 2012, 2013) by ICIS Chemical Business magazine.
