Forbes has released its World’s Billionaires List, noting that there are now more billionaires than ever.
Around 2,781 in fact, which is 141 more than last year and 26 more than the record set in 2021.
They are also richer than ever and worth $14.2 trillion in aggregate.
As expected most come from the US, 813 of them, with China (including Hong Kong) and India following in second and third.
The richest person in the world is Bernard Arnault and family, who oversees the LVMH empire that includes 75 brands like Louis Vuitton and Sephora for $233b.
Unsurprisingly he is followed by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Australia’s highest ranked billionaire is Gina Rinehart at 56 with $30.8b.
There are of course many Greeks making up the list both in Greece and Cyprus and around the world in the diaspora.
Here is a round up of some of the names Neos Kosmos could find.
Note that there are names not included and some who may have been missed due to them being of distant Greek heritage, not obvious by name.
Greece
In Greece there are 10 billionaires and families named on the Forbes list.
A staggering eight of them see their wealth come from the shipping industry.
The highest-ranking Greek billionaire at 432 is Maria Angelicoussis with a net worth of $6.4 billion. She is the CEO and owner of shipping company Angelicoussis Group.
Second at 991 is Aristotelis Mistakidis with a net worth of $3.3b. He is the former director of Glencore’s copper business.
Philip Niarchos, $2.8b, is the oldest son of the late shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos and inherited much of his father’s art collection.
The rest of the top ten are billionaires’ combined wealth with their families.
George Prokopiou and family come in at third with $2.6b. Prokopiou owns Greek shipping firms Dynacom, Dynagas Holding and Sea Traders, plus a 42 per cent stake in publicly traded Dynagas LNG Partners.
Constantinos Martinos, Spiro Latsis and Vardis Vardinoyannis are all worth over $2b.
Vardinoyannis cofounded Motor Oil Hellas with his late brother in 1970.
Marianna Latisis ($1.8b) is the sister of Spiro, and inherited the fortune of their late father, Greek shipping tycoon John S. Latsis.
Son and father duo Andreas Martinos ($1.8b) and Anthanasios Martinos ($1.5b) own shipping firms Minerva Marine and Eastern Mediterranean Maritime respectively.
Cyprus
Cyprus also has 10 billionaires but a majority of them are expats.
The highest ranked at 88 is Indian Vinod Adani with $23b as part of the Adani Group.
Norwegian John Fredriksen, ranked 108 with $16.9b and Cypriot-Israeli Yakir Gabay, 809 with $3.9b round out the top three.
A majority of the Cypriot billionaires are Russians with a big Russian population in the country.
Polys, Stelios and Clelia Haji-Ioanno are the children of late Cypriot shipping magnate Loucas Haji-Ioannou, who once owned the world’s largest private tanker fleet.
Stelios founded the budget airline easyJet in 1995 after leaving his father’s company.
He has also founded the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation,
who supports a range of charities.
The three are all worth $1.3b, $1.2b and $1.1b respectively.
UK
Maritsa Lazari and family ($2.8b).
Maritsa is the widow of late billionaire Christos Lazari, who died in 2015, a few months shy of their 50th wedding anniversary.
Both were Cypriots born in the village of Dora and emigrated to London.
Christos eventually created a successful fashion line called Drendie Girl. The couple used the profits from that business to buy up property.
John Christodoulou ($1.1b) is the founder and owner of the Yianis Group, a London-based real estate firm with properties in the U.K. and Europe.
US
As said earlier, the US has over 800 billionaires, and plenty of them are of Greek heritage.
However, there are too many to profile, so here are some who made the top 750.
Tom Gores – rank 270 $9.1b, oversees more than 40 companies through his LA based private equity firm Platinum Equity. His father was Greek and his brother Alec also makes the list.
Jim Davis – rank 498 $5.9b, son of Greek immigrants who bought a small Boston shoemaker in 1972 and turned it into New Balance.
John Catsimatidis – rank 734 $4.3b, is best known as the owner of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes.
