Wealthiest 2011 Greeks

As the Ancient Greeks said, “Τα πάντα ρεί” or “Everything flows.”In updating our list of 50 of the most financially successful GreekAmericans this year, that proved to be true – but not always – becausemost of them earned their fortunes.

Most of our top 10 have been at the top of rankings such as Forbesmagazine’s for many years. But in updating their stories, there is al-ways something new. Greeks’ roots to the land are evidenced in thenumber of people on our list involved with construction, real estateand/or the environment. On the West coast are Angelos Tsakopoulos,Alex G. Spanos, George M. Marcus, to name a few. In the East, Mer-courios (Mike) Angeliades, George Andreas and Efstathios (Steve)Valiotis are a few notable figures. This year, we’ve added George Sakel-laris, the head of the Massachusetts company Ameresco. His companyprovides energy efficient systems to cities, schools, and public/privatecompanies throughout North America. Often, the rich get richer. Inthe past year, the Massachusetts-based Demoulas family’s Market Bas-ket has rapidly increased profits. Also in the field of food, Chris andHarris Pappas (see feature) are continuing to expand their restaurantinterests, adding the chain Fuddruckers to their corporate activities.Two more Texas brothers are making big waves in a different industry:the ultra low-key Kosta and Tom Kartsotis’ Fossil, maker of handbagsand watches, had a terrific year in revenues and stock gains.

In the technology world, figures such as Ted Leonsis and MichaelCapellas continue to make cyberwaves. Among Leonsis’ new pet pro-

jects is the company Groupon, an Internet-based discount sensation.And Capellas, after years as CEO at First Data, has moved into cloud-based computing with a new startup called VCE. Another man whobuilt a huge New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listed business, MistrasGroup, based on science, is Sotirios Vahaviolos, who is featured.

New to our list this year is a very familiar face: Arianna Stassinopou-los Huffington, whose recent sale of The Huffington Post for $315 mil-lion to AOL was the business media story of the year. Other additionsinclude Sophocles N. Zoullas of Eagle Shipping and the new, privatelyowned Dolphin Shipping LLC.

As a newspaper, we are proud of our ability to bring out anotherside to many of these figures, as they share stories about their familyand Hellenic origins. This is true in an exclusive interview with Balti-more Orioles owner Peter Angelos, a lawyer, who explains why thelegal profession is more important than ever. Our exclusive interviewsalso include a look at John G. Rangos’ great support for the Congres-sional Medal of Honor recipients, P. Roy Vagelos’ current research andcharity and a Q-and-A with Red Apple Group’s John Catsimatidis. Thisyear, for the first time, you can also find videos related to some ofthese stories at our website: www.thenationalherald.com. This issuewill be located there too in PDF form. Things may change, but The Na-tional Herald’s popular 50 Wealthiest issue once again puts its fingeron the financial pulse of our community’s most prominent businessfigures.

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FEBRUARY 19, 2011www.thenationalherald.com

50 WEALTHIEST GREEKS IN AMERICA2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 19, 2011

By Angelike ContisTNH Staff Writer

He may have decades ofcourt cases under hisbelt– including land-mark asbestos, lead

paint and tobacco rulings – butBaltimore attorney and Oriolesbaseball team owner Peter G.Angelos has a lot of respect foryoung lawyers. “I think theyounger generation is doingfine,” says Mr. Angelos, in aphone interview from his officesin Maryland, his deep, com-manding voice making a strongcase. “I think they are going tobe very capable and very effec-tive as lawyers, those who areenrolling at the University ofBaltimore Law School as well aslaw schools across the country.”

BUILDING TRIBUTE TO PARENTS

Nonetheless, he’s giving thenext generation of legal eaglesa helping hand, as the majorbenefactor of his alma materUniversity of Baltimore’s newJohn and Frances Angelos LawCenter. The building, which isnamed after his parents, is nowunder construction, replacing abuilding of the same name builtin 1991 with a previous dona-tion by him. Due to be com-pleted by 2012, the new struc-ture will feature green designand lots of facilities.

“I wanted to do somethingthat showed my appreciation,my debt,” says Mr. Angelos. Hecontinues: “To appreciate thesacrifices and the effort my par-ents made to put me in a posi-tion where I could get a goodeducation, become a lawyer andthrough hard work and muchgood fortune, to be successful.”

To say he’s “prominent” is anunderstatement. The Pittsburgh-born Baltimorean is an ex-tremely influential figure intown – whether through theLaw Offices of Peter Angelos,with its 80 plus lawyers, whoregularly have won millions forclients, his extensive supportand lobbying efforts for the De-mocratic party, or his ownershipof the city’s struggling Oriolesbaseball team (since 1993).

But when the hard-nosedlawyer and businessman speaksof his parents, another sidecomes through. He sprinkles in

some Greek words when tellinga little of their story. “They werefrom the Dodekanisa (Dode-canese) and they came here asimmigrants in the late 20s. Mydad had come earlier, typically,you know. The husband wouldcome first and then bring thefamily.” He adds that his parentswere “apo tin Karpatho, Karpa-toioi” (from Karpathos,Karpathians).

The family started out inPennsylvania as his fatherworked in heavy industry beforeopening a restaurant “like everyother aspiring Greek immi-grant.” Things went well and hedecided to seek his fortune inMaryland, where he had manyfriends.

WHY WE NEED LAWYERSThe years have not dimin-

ished a passion for social justicefor the lawyer who opened his

office in 1961, and made aname for himself representinglabor unions, before winningmillions in a string of asbestoscases (including a 8,500-plain-tiff case in 1982) and billionsfor the State of Marylandagainst tobacco companies in acase filed in 1996. His firm wasalso among the first to bring theproblem of lead paint to light.

Legal victories aside, Mr. An-gelos doesn’t think the struggleis over. He says: “I think thereare forces at work to diminishthe legal rights of American cit-izens, who have historically hadvery strong rights, and he adds:“I think we need to be watchfuland on guard so those libertiesand guarantees will continue asthey have in the past.” Asbestoslitigation, personal injury, med-ical malpractice, product liabil-ity, environmental litigation,workers’ compensation, securi-

ties litigation, pharmaceuti-cal/medical device liability – allare the types of cases coveredtoday by his law office.

Mr. Angelos explains that hisprofession is vital in providing“a well-functioning society.” Andit goes beyond safeguardingcivil rights.

He believes: “Everybody hasan economic right to have agood job, to be well-paid, andmedical coverage and othersuch protection so they can leadgood constructive and enjoyablelives.”

POLITICAL BACKINGThis view of the world clearly

inspires his politics. Mr. Angelosmay have supported Republicanfriend Bob Ehrlich in the guber-natorial race in Maryland in2006, but he’s adamant abouthis Democrat affiliation. “I’m al-ways very active in National De-mocratic politics...My contribu-tions always go to theDemocratic party, which isn’tperfect, but by and large hasworked very hard for all Ameri-cans.” Mr. Angelos not only hasput his money where his mouthis for years, supporting candi-dates from the local to the na-tional, but he’s also been rigor-ously involved in lobbyingefforts and funding. Criticssometimes question his powerto get the politicians he supportsto draft legislation that’s wordedthe way he likes it.

Mr. Angelos doesn’t mincewords for the opposition, not-ing: “The Republican party is aparty that openly and notori-ously represents the wealthy. Itdoes not represent the averageAmerican and that’s its clearchoice...That throws down thegauntlet to the Democrats tostand up, make better efforts tomake the American people un-derstand that most of the pro-grams that the Republican partyadvocates are not consistentwith the well-being of the Amer-ican people.”

BIG CASES, QUIET BATTLESWhen it comes to the seminal

case in which he was selectedto represent the State of Mary-land against Philip Morris, hesays the state declined to pay,as the original agreement dic-tated, 25% of the recovery whenthe recovery turned out to be awhopping $4.5 billion. He said,

“We were honored to be se-lected from other lawyers torepresent the state of Mary-land.” But he was “dismayed,”he says, that the state “didn’thonor their obligation.” Pointingto the massive court victory hesays: “It certainly wasn’t be-cause we didn’t do a good job.They certainly acknowledgedthat we performed exceptionallywell. “Sometimes people don’twant to pay their bills.”

Mr. Angelos does not think –apart from perhaps cases involv-ing the pharmaceutical indus-try- that there are many morelegal battles of that scale to bewaged soon: “It’s unlikely thatthere is going to be another law-

suit by the various states againsta single company of the magni-tude that was pursued againstthe tobacco manufacturers.”

He does, however, point tothe many, often overlooked con-sumer product cases beingwaged daily. “There are manyof these cases that are filed andlitigated successfully against aparticular manufacturer orgroup of manufacturers, whichdon’t make a lot of news...Butthat’s a needed ongoing effortto protect the public from prod-ucts that are harmful.” One re-cent example of this, he says, isthe “Toyota Revelations” cases,involving defects in the manu-facturer’s vehicles.

ON GREECEHe visits Athens and the

Greek islands as often as he can.“Just like everybody else ofGreek descent, we always comeback.” He notes that when hedoes, his early Greek schooltraining kicks in. “After I’m theretwo weeks, I begin talking likeI’m a local.” The attorney witha great love for thoroughbredhorses (he breeds them), aMaryland tradition, says he’s

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Peter Angelos on Fighting the Good Fight andPlaying a Good Game

Continued on page 18

Peter G. Angelos, a lawyer who has made history in many classaction lawsuits, predicts a good year for his Baltimore Orioles.

“The team has beensubstantially improved.We’re looking forward toa very successful season.You never know what canhappen, like in all sports,luck plays a big role.”

50 WEALTHIEST GREEKS IN AMERICATHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 19, 2011 3

TRUSTTHE PROFESSIONALS

FOR ALLYOUR REAL ESTATE NEEDS

SIX ALPHA CORP.


1.HASEOTESFAMILY$3.1 BILLION DAIRY, CONVENIENCESTORES,PETROLEUM PRODUCTS

Vasilios and AphroditeHaseotes immigrated fromGreece’s Macedonia and Epirusregions to the US, buying a one-cow dairy farm in Cumberland,Rhode Island for $84 in 1938.Cumberland Farms (incorpo-rated in 1957) eventually grewto become the largest dairy farmoperation in Massachusetts. In1956, the company opened ajug-milk store in Bellingham,Massachusetts. Few conveniencefood stores offering dawn-to-midnight service every day ofthe week existed in the North inthe 1950’s.

But by 1967, there weresome 8,000. With some 400stores, Cumberland Farms wasamong the industry leaders. Bythe early 1990’s, CumberlandFarms ranked third among thecountry’s convenience storechains, and was also a leader inboth the retail and wholesaledistribution of petroleum prod-ucts.

A closely held family-ownedcompany since its inception,Cumberland Farms has sincegrown to become a multi-billion-dollar corporation. Lily(Haseotes) Bentas, daughter ofVasilios and Aphrodite Haseotes,is chairman of the board of di-rectors and her nephew, AriHaseotes, is the president.

Company headquarters are in

Framingham, Massachusetts.Cumberland Farms owns andoperates convenience stores andgas stations throughout NewEngland, New York, the Mid-At-lantic States and Florida underthe Cumberland Farms and Gulfnames. Its Gulf Oil arm sellsgasoline to franchised servicestations. The company firstadded a gas station to one of itsstores in 1971 and expandedgreatly in the wake of the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo. By 1975Cumberland Farms opened its1000th store. The followingyear, it opened a 560,000-square-foot bakery and ware-house in Westborough, Massa-chusetts, and purchased morethan 500 Gulf and Chevron ser-vice stations and related assetsin 11 Northeastern states. Thetransaction included contracts tosupply gasoline to about 1,700Gulf dealers and 2,000 stations,making Cumberland Farms thelargest independent seller ofgasoline in America.

At one point, CumberlandFarms had 1,200 stores, abouthalf of which were selling gas.Now a company of over 1,000retail stores and stations, Forbesranked Cumberland Farms the44th largest privately held com-pany in the U.S. in 2010. Thecompany reportedly has 61stores up for sale.

Cumberland Farms’ philan-thropy includes its Believe andAchieve Scholarship program.Ari Haseotes and his wife Ashleyfounded the One Mission(www.onemission.org) child-hood cancer foundation aftertheir son Nicholas, who hassince recovered, was diagnosedwith leukemia as an infant.

2.GEORGE PMITCHELL$2 BILLIONENERGY, REAL ESTATE

Ranked 182nd among Forbes’“400 Richest Americans” and437th among Forbes’ “World'sBillionaires”, with an estimatednet worth of $2 billion, Mr.Mitchell is chairman of GPMInc., and is now 91 years of age.

The son of a Greek immigrantgoatherd, he grew up in Galve-ston, Texas – in the same build-ing where his father’s dry clean-ing shop was located. A 1940graduate of Texas A&M Univer-sity with a degree in petroleumengineering, he served in theU.S. Army Corps of Engineersduring World War II before

founding Roxoil Drilling, whicheventually became Mitchell En-ergy & Development Corp, withhis brother Johnny in 1946.

He made his fortune by wild-catting (i.e., searching for, andfinding, reserves) in North Texasand Southern Louisiana oil andgas fields, and then selling mostof his company’s interests to De-von Energy for $3.5 billion in2001. He invested the proceedsof the sale in real estate: e.g.,Bald Head Island, North Car-olina. He also owns more than20 hotels and private buildings.He resides in The Woodlands,an environmentally friendly re-gion he founded in 1974, withhis wife, Cynthia. They have tenchildren and 28 grandchildren.

The Mitchells are one ofA&M’s largest private benefac-tors. Their gifts in support of theUniversity’s Physics departmentinclude $35 million for two newfacilities, which opened in 2009.The couple has an active interestin historic preservation, and hastaken a leading role in rejuve-nating Galveston’s historicStrand District and helped revi-talize the city’s mid-winter MardiGras celebration.

Mr. Mitchell still goes to hisoffice almost every day, and stilltravels regularly for businesspurposes. He is a major bene-factor of the Houston-Galvestonarea’s hospitals. He is also a na-ture enthusiast, and a believerin environmental and energyconservation. He is opposed tooil drilling in the Alaska wildliferefuge, and has funded a $10million National Academiesstudy on sustainable develop-ment and population growth.

2.PETER G.PETERSON$2 BILLIONALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS

Ranked 182nd among theForbes 400 and 488th at theWorld's Billionaires, Mr. Peter-son, 84, is co-founder and for-mer chairman of the BlackstoneGroup, one of the world’s largestprivate investment firms with 19offices around the world.

Mr. Peterson co-foundedBlackstone with StephenSchwarzman in 1985 with$400,000; the firm’s private eq-uity funds own or have interestsin 54 companies. The companywent public in June 2007 at $31a share. After a dip in share val-ues with a crisis in the privateequity industry, the shares dou-bled in value in 2009 – and havereached $17 in February 2011.Mr. Peterson retired from thecompany, now valued at $17 bil-lion, in late 2008, receiving$1.85 billion in cash upon exit-ing, before taxes and meetingseveral trust and charitableobligations. As of last December,Blackstone was managing $104billion. The company’s recent ac-quisitions include the Anheuser-Busch InBev’s U.S. theme parks($2.7 billion in 2009) and HiltonHotels ($26 billion in 2007).

The son of Greek immigrants,Mr. Peterson grew up in Ne-braska. He studied at Northwest-ern University, where he gradu-ated summa cum laude, andearned his MBA from the Uni-versity of Chicago. He was CEOof Bell and Howell from 1963 to1971. He served as Secretary ofCommerce under PresidentNixon, and became chairman ofLehman Brothers in 1973. Healso chaired the Federal Reserve

Bank of New York from 2000 to2004. He is the author of severalbooks (including 2010 memoirThe Education of an AmericanDreamer), and lectures andspeaks on television frequentlyabout issues of fiscal responsi-bility. When Blackstone wentpublic, he committed $1 billionof his own money (in stages) toestablish the Peter G. PetersonFoundation, which educates theAmerican public about doingsomething about the country’slong term fiscal challenges. “Inthe 1990s, given the significantrise in price earnings ratios, youdidn’t have to be a physics ge-nius to do well in the private eq-uity business,” he recently toldForbes. “Thereafter, stocks, andin particular, price earnings ra-tios, went down considerablyand the way you made moneythen is principally to improveoperating earnings, which re-quires you to be not in the fi-nancial engineering business,but in the operations improve-ment business, making the busi-nesses more productive and thatrequires a very different set ofskills than deciding how to struc-ture a balance sheet.” He’samong the U.S. billionaires whodecided to take the GivingPledge in 2010 to give much oftheir wealth to charity. The Giv-ing Pledge was initiated by War-ren Buffett and Bill Gates Jr.

Mr. Peterson now resides inNew York. He is married to JoanGanz Cooney, founder and for-mer chairman of Children’s Tele-vision Workshop (“SesameStreet”), and is the father of five.

4.MICHAELJAHARIS$1.9 BILLIONPHARMACEUTICALS

Ranked 205th among theForbes Richest 400 Americans,with an estimated net worth of$1.9 billion Michael Jaharis, 82,founded Kos Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Jaharis, the son of Greekimmigrants, is a native ofChicago; he earned his bache-lor’s degree from Carroll Univer-sity in Wisconsin. He served inthe U.S. Army Medical Corpsduring the Korean War and laterattended night school at DePaulUniversity to earn his law degreewhile working as a sales repre-sentative for Miles Laboratories.In 1972, Mr. Jaharis and partnerPhillip Frost acquired Key Phar-maceuticals and transformed thetiny producer of cough and coldremedies into a powerhousecompany with newly developedtop-selling asthma and cardio-vascular drugs. Under his lead-ership, Key’s sales increased 100-fold before the company’s $836million merger with Schering-Plough in 1986. Two years later,Mr. Jaharis launched Kos Phar-

maceuticals, which pioneeredthe HDL cholesterol market withits good cholesterol-raising drugNiaspan, before being sold toAbbott Laboratories in 2006 for$4.2 billion. Today, Mr. Jaharisis founder and director of Aris-aph Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pri-vately held drug discovery andbio-tech company, and a founderof Vatera Healthcare PartnersLLC, a venture capital firm fo-cusing on the healthcare indus-try.

Proud supporters of Hel-lenism, he and his wife Mary aremajor benefactors of the NewYork Metropolitan Museum ofArt and also support many cul-tural, religious, higher educa-tion, and healthcare institutionsthough the Jaharis Family Foun-dation, Inc. Most recently, in Oc-tober 2010, the Mary JaharisCenter for Byzantine Art andCulture was inaugurated at Hel-lenic College – Holy Cross GreekOrthodox Theological Seminarywhich will serve as a premier in-ternational research center. Mr.Jaharis also serves as TrusteeEmeritus of Tufts University inBoston, Chairman of the Boardof Overseers for the School ofMedicine, Tufts University, Mem-ber of the Columbia UniversityMedical Center Board of Visitors,and Member of the Board ofOverseers of the Weill CornellMedical College and GraduateSchool of Medical Sciences.

He is the Vice Chairman ofthe Greek Orthodox Archdioceseof America and is one of the

Original Founders of Leadership100 and FAITH: An Endowmentfor Hellenism and Orthodoxy.

He states, “It is particularlyimportant to Mary and me togive back to institutions whichhave truly inspired us and mayhelp open doors for young peo-ple and the community. We be-lieve that our Hellenic cultureand Orthodox faith provided thefoundation for our values andidentity. Therefore, we feel animmense sense of gratitude thatinspires us to support organiza-tions such as the Church and itseducational ministries as well asother cultural institutions andhigher education related to pro-moting Hellenism and Ortho-doxy -- for the enlightenment,education, and enjoyment of fu-ture generations.”

He and Mrs. Jaharis reside inNew York. They have two chil-dren and five grandchildren.

5.JIM DAVIS &FAMILY $1.8 BILLIONAPPAREL

Ranked 221st in the Forbes400 Richest Americans, Mr.Davis, 67, made his fortune withthe purchase of New Balance onMarathon Monday in 1972. Mr.Davis transformed the companyfounded in 1906 into a $1.65billion in sales empire by reject-ing celebrity endorsements forhard-core runners. The companytook third place in the sneakermarket in 2003 with 11 percent,behind Reebok and Nike by run-ning solo, proclaiming that it is

"endorsed by no one."New Balance is one of several

shoe companies that makessome of their products in theUnited States (25% of its shoessold in North America), owningfive factories: two in Massachu-setts (Boston and Lawrence),and three in Maine (Norridge-wock, Skowhegan, and Nor-way). The company’s productionfacility in the United Kingdomhas been at Flimby, Cumbria inNorth West England since 1982.The company claims its newTrue Balance toning shoes helpincrease muscle stimulation andburn more calories. Mr. Davisearned his bachelor’s degree inbiochemistry at Middlebury Col-lege in 1966. He co-owns MajorLeague Lacrosse, with six teamsthis year. He’s extended hisproduct line to include lacrosse,hockey and soccer gear, havingacquired Vital Apparel Group inDecember 2007. In that sameyear, Mr. Davis resigned as chiefexecutive officer of the ac-tivewear firm to make way for anew leader, Robert T. DeMartini.

Mr. Davis is married to wifeAnne with whom he has twochildren and resides in Newton,Massachusetts. Mr. Davis alsocollects cars on his free time.

6.JOHN A.CATSIMATIDIS$1.7 BILLIONOIL, REAL ESTATESUPERMARKETS

Ranked 238th among theForbes 400, Mr. Catsimatidis, 62,is chairman & CEO of the RedApple Group. Ranked 78th (upfrom 100th this past November)among the country’s largest pri-vately held companies by Forbes,with 7,600 employees and esti-mated annual revenues of $4.02billion, Red Apple has holdingsin oil refining, retail petroleumproducts, convenience stores, su-permarkets and real estate. In2009, Mr. Catsimatidis toldForbes that energy is “our mainbusiness”. Mr. Catsimatidis’ for-tune accelerated with rising oilprices in 2007-08.

His parents came to Americafrom the island of Nisyros whilehe was a child. He grew up inNew York City on Manhattan’swest side. He attended New YorkUniversity, but dropped out be-fore completing his degree re-quirements because of businessdemands. He opened his firstgrocery store in 1969, andowned ten stores by the age of24, making $25 million a yearin revenue. He plowed $5 mil-lion into Manhattan real estatein 1977; that property wasworth $100 million just fiveyears later.

Today, Red Apple reportedlyowns $500 million worth ofproperty and the Gristedes su-permarket chain. He stumbledupon the Chapter 11 proceed-ings of United Refining in War-

ren, Pennsylvania and purchasedthe oil refiner’s stock for $7.5million. Today, the firm owns375 gas outlets and conveniencestores, primarily in westernPennsylvania and western NewYork.

Mr. Catsmatidis is a licensedpilot, though eye surgery hasgrounded him over the past fewyears. He has helped raise mil-lions for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’sand Juvenile Diabetes research.He served as co-chairman andfounder of the Brooklyn TechEndowment Foundation. The$10 million fund is the largestgift to a secondary school in theUnited States. Since 1988 he hasfunded scholarships at the NYUSchool of Business. He is alsothe publisher of the “HellenicTimes”. He is married and thefather of two children. His wifeMargo runs his company’s in-house advertising agency. To-gether, they help run the Hel-lenic Times Scholarship Fund,which has awarded hundreds ofthousands in scholarships toGreek American students overthe past 17 years. Mr. Catsima-tidis publicly considered runningfor mayor of New York City in2009, but decided against it.

7.GEORGE L.ARGYROS$1.6 BILLIONREAL ESTATE

Ranked 252nd in the Forbes400 with an estimated net worthof $1.6 billion this past Septem-ber, Mr. Argyros, 73, made hisfortune in grocery stores andthen real estate.

He earned his bachelor’s de-gree at Chapman University. Asecond-generation American ofGreek descent, he was born inDetroit and raised in Pasadena.He went into real estate in 1962,selling land at busy intersectionsto oil companies to set up gasstations. Today, his privatelyheld Arnel & Affiliates owns andmanages 5,500 apartments and2 million square feet of commer-cial space. Mr. Argyros foundedthe private equity firm WestarCapital in 1987; the company’sportfolio includes pet products(Petmate) healthcare (LifeCareSolutions) and lighting (CandleLamp).

Former President George W.Bush appointed him U.S. ambas-sador to Spain in 2001, afterleading GOP fundraising effortsin California in 2000. He hosteda $25,000-per-couple dinner forU.S. Senator and then-presiden-tial hopeful John McCain (R-Ari-zona) at his home in 2008. Mr.Argyros also served on the Fed-eral Home Loan Mortgage Cor-poration under the PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush.

He lives in a $4.5 million es-tate on Harbor Island in New-port Bay, California. He is a rec-ognized business leader andphilanthropist. He was the 1993recipient of the Horatio AlgerAward of Distinguished Ameri-

cans, and a 2001 recipient of theEllis Island Medal of Honor. Hehas served on the board oftrustees for several communityorganizations, including the Cal-ifornia Institute of Technology;the Beckman Foundation; theHoratio Alger Association; andChapman University. He ownedbaseball’s Seattle Mariners be-tween 1980 and 1989. He is anArchon of the Patriarchate’s Or-der of St. Andrew the Apostle.

Mr. Argyros is married withthree children, and enjoys sail-ing, skiing and hunting.

7.ARTHUR S.DEMOULAS$1.6 BILLION SUPERMARKETS

Demoulas Market Basket is achain of 60 supermarkets ineastern New England. Ranked114th in 2010 by Forbes amongthe country’s largest privatelyheld companies, (up from 159thlast year) with 18,500 employ-ees and $3.2 billion in revenuesin 2009, Market Basket hasstores from central New Hamp-shire to Bristol County, Massa-chusetts with headquarters inTewksbury, Massachusetts. Su-permarket News ranked MarketBasket #43 in its “Top 75 Re-tailers for 2010”.

The grocery retailer alsomanages real estate interests.Market Basket supermarkets aretypically located in shoppingcenters with other retail outlets,including properties owned bythe company through its real es-tate arm, Retail Management &Development (RMD Inc.).

Greek immigrants Athanasios(Arthur) and Efrosini Demoulasopened a grocery store in Low-ell, Massachusetts in 1917, spe-cializing in fresh lamb. In 1954,they sold their store to two oftheir six children, Telemachus(Mike) and George Demoulas.Within 15 years, the two broth-ers had transformed their par-ents’ mom-and-pop grocery storeinto a more modern supermar-ket chain of 15 stores.

Demoulas Markets became avirtual category killer in the Mer-rimack Valley area, often leadingother supermarkets in the areato close. George Demoulas diedof a heart attack in 1971 whilevacationing in Greece, makingMike the sole head of the De-moulas chain. Although Mikehad promised to provide for hisbrother’s family in the event ofhis death, a lawsuit filed in 1990by George Demoulas’ heirs al-leged that Mike had defraudedthem out of all but 8 percent ofcompany stock by moving assetsinto shell companies and claim-ing those were separate compa-nies from DeMoulas itself. Thelengthy ensuing legal casethreatened to require the sale ofthe chain. In 1994, Judge MariaLopez ruled that Mike Demoulashad defrauded George’s familyout of nearly $500 million,transferring 51 percent of De-moulas’ stock to George’s family.Mike Demoulas passed away in2003.

In March 2006, “Boston Mag-azine” ranked Arthur S. De-moulas (son of George) 8thamong the Boston area’s 50wealthiest, ascribing to him anet worth of $1.6 billion.

9.C. DEANMETROPOULOS$1.2 BILLION MANAGEMENT,ACQUISITIONS

Mr. Metropoulos, 64, is verywell known in the private equity,investment banking and finan-cial community, having spent thepast two decades acquiring, re-structuring and growing numer-ous businesses in the U.S., Mex-ico and Europe. Many of thesewere subsequently taken publicor sold to strategic corporations.He was chairman & CEO of Pin-nacle Foods, the parent companyof iconic brands such as DuncanHines, Vlasic and Mrs. Paul’s.Pinnacle was purchased by theBlackstone Group for more than$2.26 billion in 2007.

Mr. Metropoulos is Chairman& CEO of C. Dean Metropoulos& Co., a boutique buyout andmanagement firm. The firm fo-cuses on the acquisition and op-eration of companies with con-sumer brand products, and hasbeen involved in more than 68acquisitions involving over $12billion in invested capital since1993. Mr. Metropoulos says: “Ilove finding opportunities, ne-gotiating the deals, and reposi-tioning the companies into vi-brant, growing businesses.... Ifwe’re proud of anything, it’s thatwe have never lost money withany of our acquisitions in whichwe have averaged 44% returns

The 50 Wealthiest Greeks in America List

Continued on page 6

The last use of the name De-Moulas on a facade was onthis since closed and demol-ished temporary store inSalem, NH.

Note: All names markedwith an asterisk (*) arenewcomers to the TNH 50Wealthiest list.


By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald

There are heroes in thiscountry, soldiers whoreceive the highest hon-ors and accolades for

their bravery and valor on thebattlefield. They often make theultimate sacrifice, risking andgiving their own lives under ex-tremely dangerous, life-threat-ening circumstances to makesure their comrades escape orsurvive.

These soldiers are widelyconsidered true patriots. Theydefend our country out of gen-uine and selfless interest in pre-serving our national securityand freedom. They are real-lifeheroes, many of whom gave uptheir own tomorrows so that wecould have today.

Staff Sergeant Salvatore A.Giunta (U.S. Army) is one suchhero. He recently received theMedal of Honor from PresidentObama for risking his own lifeto save another wounded sol-dier from being captured inAfghanistan.

Congress passed an act es-tablishing the Medal of Honor

on December 21, 1861. The endof this calendar year will markits 150th anniversary. TheMedal of Honor is the highestmilitary decoration awarded bythe U.S. Government. It is be-stowed by the President of theUnited States on members ofthe armed forces who distin-guish themselves “conspicuouslyby gallantry and intrepidity atthe risk of his or her life aboveand beyond the call of dutywhile engaged in an actionagainst an enemy of the UnitedStates.” It is often awardedposthumously – more than halfof the 3,471 Medals of Honorhave been awarded since 1941for conflicts dating back to theCivil War.

There are only 86 livingMedal of Honor recipients left.Sgt. Giunta is the first living re-cipient since the Vietnam War(ten others were awardedposthumously for their conductand actions in the U.S.S. LibertyIncident, the Battle of Mo-gadishu and the Wars in Iraqand Afghanistan).

But how many of us stop tothink that even heroes like Sgt.Giunta have heroes? How manyof us stop to consider patriotismof another order? If Medal ofHonor recipients recognize pa-triotism in others, shouldn’t wedo the same?

The Congressional Medal ofHonor Society recently honoredone of the Greek American com-munity’s most prominent mem-bers for his unique sense of pa-triotism and contributions tothis country: John G. Rangos Sr.

Chartered by Congress in1958, the CMOH Society, whichconsists exclusively of livingMedal of Honor recipients, un-derstands this basic concept,and honors distinguished andaccomplished individuals withits National Patriot Award eachyear.

The members of the CMOHSociety designed and presentedtheir first Patriot Award in 1968.Since then, it has been pre-sented regularly during theirnow-annual (formerly bi-an-nual) reunions to “distinguishedAmericans who exemplify theideals that make our countrystrong… These Americans’ ded-ication to freedom, love for theirfellow man, and their allegianceto our flag with a full under-

standing of its demands are ac-cepted without reservation(www.homeofheroes.com).”

PRESTIGIOUS ROSTERThe Patriot Award itself is a

gold medallion bearing the sealof the CMOH Society on its face,with an inscription on the re-verse side bearing the name ofthe recipient and brief detailsabout the award. Its past recip-ients include heavyweights likeWill Rogers (1979); PresidentsRonald Reagan (1983) andGeorge H.W. Bush (1995); Gen-eral William C. Westmoreland(1986); Lee Iacocca (1989);Ross Perot (1993); Helen Rob-son Walton (1997); Bob andElizabeth Dole (1998); Gen. H.Norman Schwarzkopf (2002);and Senator John McCain(2005). Mr. Rangos is also onthat prestigious roster, havingreceived his Patriot Award backin 1991, and having been theAward’s presenter for Mr. Perotin 1993.

During a special appreciationdinner in Dallas last October 25,the CMOH Society also pre-sented Mr. Rangos with a specialtoken of gratitude for all his sup-port and contributions to theCMOH Society’s foundation

over the years, the night beforethe 2010 National Patriot AwardGala, which honored billionairefinancier T. Boone Pickens.

While both Mr. Perot, whoran for President as an Indepen-dent back in 1992, and Mr. Pick-ens have been key contributorsto the CMOH Foundation in re-cent years, the Rangos FamilyFoundation was the CMOHFoundation’s main source offunding during the first threeyears of its inception in 1999,providing hundreds of thou-sands to help it get off theground.

In recognition of this singularlifeline of funding in the CMOHFoundation’s early years, as wellas his ongoing support sincethen, the CMOH Society gaveMr. Rangos a special coin boxcontaining challenge coins fromall Medal of Honor recipients(living and deceased) since theystarted having their individualchallenge coins struck.

Mr. Rangos, who made a for-tune in the environmental man-agement industry, is well knownfor his philanthropy, havinggiven millions to hospitals andvarious institutions of higherlearning to help finance and ad-

vance healthcare and education.He also founded InternationalOrthodox Christian Charities in1992, and remains a drivingforce behind IOCC, which hassince become a successful andwell-respected humanitarianagency that works with othermajor charitable organizationson a regular basis all over theworld.

“Even heroes have heroes,and Medal of Honor recipientsare no different from the rest ofus when it comes to admiringthe patriotism, courage and no-ble actions of others,” accordingto General Nick Kehoe (U.S. AirForce, retired), president of theCMOH Foundation, which Mr.Rangos founded to support theactivities of the CMOH Societythrough outreach and collabo-rative efforts.

“John Rangos deserves thehonor because of everythinghe’s done for the Medal ofHonor Society through theMedal of Honor Foundation.Years ago, he met a Medal ofHonor recipient who was trav-eling to speak somewhere on hisown dime, and John Rangoslearned that many recipientswere doing that without gettingreimbursed. They do so becausethey think it’s important, andthey’re in the limelight becauseof what they achieved in combatto receive this very prestigiousMedal. And John Rangosthought, ‘Medal of Honor Recip-ients shouldn’t have to dig intotheir own pockets for that. Weought to help them do that.’ Sohe started the Medal of HonorFoundation,” Gen. Kehoe toldThe National Herald.

The coin box the CMOH So-ciety presented to Mr. Rangosat the end of last October wasalso “very prestigious and verypersonal,” Gen. Kehoe pointedout.

“The Appreciation Dinnerwas a little out of the ordinary.Typically, the Society hosts theannual Patriot Award Gala, butthey decided to also honor JohnRangos the night before givingBoone Pickens the Patriot Awardlast fall. They issued a coin boxspecifically in John Rangos’honor the night before the 2010Patriot Award dinner. There arenow more than 100 individual

John G. Rangos Sr Keeps Medal of Honor,Heroism and History Alive


“Freedom is not free. Itcomes at a great cost,and the blood of ourheroes has paid for it onevery continent. Wemust preserve ourhistorical records forsucceeding generations.People need to knowwhy these peoplereceived the Medal ofHonor, and what theircontributions andsacrifices were. Acountry’s greatness ismeasured by how muchit honors, respects andcherishes its heroes. Ifwe fail to honor ourheroes properly – if wedon’t keep a properarchive about theiractions andachievements – thisimportant part ofAmerican history couldbe lost to futuregenerations.”

– John G. Rangos Sr.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society honored Greek American magnate John G. Rangosin Dallas this past October with a special coin box collection containing the challenge coins ofevery Medal of Honor recipient, living and deceased, who has ever had a challenge coin struck.(L-R) Joe Foran, Alex Rangos, Mr. Rangos and Mike Thornton, a Medal of Honor recipient.

Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta ofHiawatha, Iowa is the first liv-ing Medal of Honor recipientsince the Vietnam War. TheMedal of Honor is the highestmilitary decoration awardedby the US Government.

AP/CHARLES DHARAPAK

«Αγαθά κόποις κτώνται»Αριστοτέλης

Drs. Spiro & Amalia Spireasand

Sigmapharm Laboratories

Sigmapharm Laboratories, LLC3375 Progress Drive, Bensalem - PA 19020Tel.: (215) 352-6655 - Fax: (215) 352-6644

www.sigmapharm.com


over a twenty year period.”In early 2000, Mr. Metropou-

los acquired International HomeFoods, a subsidiary of Wyeth,which included Chef Boyardee,PAM cooking spray, Bumble Beetuna, Jiffy Pop popcorn andGulden’s mustard. Forty percentof the business first went public,and subsequently 100% wassold to ConAgra in 2000 for $2.9billion.

Born in Greece, his familymoved to America when he wasnine years of age. In Watertown,Massachusetts, his father JimmyMetropoulos worked at the StarMarket and later owned arestaurant in Newton calledCabot.

Mr. Metropoulos went to col-lege on a scholarship, and aftergraduate school at Babson Col-lege and a year and a half to-wards his doctorate at Colum-bia, he went to work for the GTECorporation, which is now Veri-zon. After graduate school Mr.Metropoulos joined GTE Inter-national and became itsyoungest senior vice presidentresponsible for their interna-tional business in 62 countries.

Other well known businessesin which C. Dean Metropoulos& Company were investors andoperators included Mumm andPerrier Jouet Champagnes ofFrance, Stella Foods, the Morn-ingstar Group, GhirardelliChocolate Company, Del MonteMexico and National Water-works.

In 2010, he made waves withthe purchase of Pabst BrewingCo. for $250 million and in early2011, Mr. Metropoulos and agroup were among those bid-ding for the purchase of $11.5billion food giant Sara Lee.

Mr. Metropoulos attributessome of the most successfulideas of turning around andreinventing the many well-known brands to the out-of-the-box thinking and execution ofhis two sons, Evan and Daren.Mr. Metropoulos and his wifeMarianne live in Greenwich,Connecticut, and Evan andDaren are bicoastal betweenNew York and Los Angeles.

10ALEX G. SPANOS& FAMILY

$1.1 BILLIONREAL ESTATEPROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

Mr. Spanos, 87, owns the Na-tional Football League’s SanDiego Chargers. His family isranked 808th among the world’sbillionaires by Forbes. His for-tune increased since 2004, andthen dropped some with the re-cent plunge in the real estatemarket. The rising value of theChargers – now worth $907 mil-lion (purchased for $70 millionin 1984) - has offset the real es-tate losses. In 2008, Forbes listedA.G. Spanos Companies as the403rd largest privately held firmin the country, with estimatedrevenues of $1.13 billion.

The son of Greek immigrants,Mr. Spanos received his bache-lor’s degree at Pacific LutheranUniversity. He began his careeras a baker, but when his businessnearly went bankrupt, he optedfor a change in direction. In1951, he used an $800 loan topurchase a small trucking com-pany, which he turned into a suc-cessful enterprise. He then usedhis profits to invest in real estate,and by 1960, he had an incor-porated business. Today, his firmis one of America’s largest hous-

ing developers, and is the largestfamily-owned construction andproperty management companyin the United States. It has builtmore than 100,000 units in 19states.

Mr. Spanos was inducted intothe California Building IndustryHall of Fame in 2005. He bought60 percent of the Chargers fromthen-majority owner EugeneKlein in 1984. Over the next tenyears, he bought out the sharesof several small co-owners,bringing his control of the teamto 97 percent. His son Dean nowmanages the team. Mr. Spanos,one of the largest single privatecontributors to the RepublicanNational Party during Presiden-tial election years, helped raiseover $2 million for Senator JohnMcCain’s 2008 Presidential bid.President Bush appointed Mr.Spanos to the Kennedy Centerboard in 2004. Mr. Spanos hasalso contributed millions toschools, hospitals and charity.

Though Mr. Spanos now suf-fers from a fading memory, heremains in good health. He isstill an early riser (up by 5:30AM almost every morning); stillhits the gym; and still goes tothe office each morning. But helets his kids run the businessthese days, and said he likes toplay cards with his friends.“What the heck. I’m 85 yearsold, and my kids are doing agood job. It’s their turn now,” hetold the National Herald in2009. In 2002, Mr. Spanos pub-lished his autobiography entitled“Sharing the Wealth: My Story”.He and his wife Faye have fourchildren, 15 grandchildren andone great-grandson.

11JOHN P.CALAMOS, SR.

1 BILLION MUTUAL FUNDS

Mr. Calamos, 70, earned bothhis bachelor’s degree in econom-ics and his MBA from the IllinoisInstitute of Technology. A son ofGreek immigrants, he is a prod-uct of Chicago public schools,and grew up above his family’sgrocery store on Chicago’s westside. He developed his passionfor the stock market as ateenager after investing his par-ents’ $5,000 nest egg.

After earning his MBA, he be-came an early authority on con-vertible securities, and launchedan investment outfit that even-tually became Calamos AssetManagement in 1977. Hismoney management firm servesinstitutional clients and managesmutual funds. The company pro-vides money management ser-vices to major corporations, in-stitutions, pension funds,insurance companies and indi-viduals. The company went pub-lic in 2004. A much-lauded mon-eyman over the last few years,Mr. Calamos was worth $2.7 bil-lion just four years ago, accord-ing to Forbes, which profiled himon its Forbes 400 list. Thoughthe 2008 financial crisis struck

his industry a blow, he is recov-ering nicely with over $35 billionunder management at the endof 2010. Mr. Calamos also has aprivate real estate arm, CalamosReal Estate LLC, which includesHotel Arista, CityGate Centreand other entities that surroundthe investment company’s head-quarters in Naperville, Illinois.

Mr. Calamos was the firstmember in his family to gradu-ate from college. He served inthe U.S. Air Force, flying the B-52 Bomber, as a combat pilot inVietnam and as a Forward AirController. He later spent tenyears in the USAF Reserves fly-ing the A-37 jet fighter and earn-ing the rank of Major. He keepshis aviation skills honed by fly-ing his Marchetti SF260 War-bird. Mr. Calamos is chairman,CEO and Co-CIO of Calamos In-vestments, which he runs alongwith his nephew Nick and hisson John.

He is a trustee of the IllinoisInstitute of Technology and is onthe board of directors ofChicago’s new National HellenicMuseum, of which he is a majorbenefactor. “We have embarkedon a grand mission,” he said.“We are building a national in-stitution to honor our parentsand grandparents: to honor ourrich Hellenic history. The onlyinstitution of its kind, we are

building so that we, as Greeksin America, as well as those whosupport Greek arts, history andeducation, can showcase andcelebrate Greek heritage andcontributions for generations ofAmericans of all backgrounds.”

12GEORGEANDREAS

$950 MILLIONART, REAL ESTATE,INVESTMENTS

A painter and investor in realestate among other businesses,Mr. Andreas (Andreopoulos)was born in Athens in 1938. Be-fore studying at the Greek Mili-tary Academy, he was an appren-tice to Greek portrait andlandscape artist ConstantineArtemis. His four-year appren-ticeship began in 1952, at age14, grinding pigments and mix-ing paints, learning about tech-nique and studying composition.While studying with Mr.Artemis, Mr. Andreas also dis-covered and was inspired by thepaintings of ConstantineParthenes, a progressive artistwho spurned tradition. In 1967,a tyrannical regime led by Col.George Papadopoulos seizedpower in Greece, and Mr. An-dreas, by now a distinguishedmilitary officer, moved to NewYork.

Since then, he has divided histime between his studios in Vir-ginia, Florida and New York City.Over 40 years, he has made over140 oil works and 1,000 workson paper, yet Mr. Andreas hasestablished several policies forhimself regarding his art and hisdealings with the art world: Hehas intentionally not sold anoriginal piece since 1993. HisMonographia, a collection of 18lithographs, is available for pur-chase. Mr. Andreas is workingon several significant new pro-jects, to include one calledSmash the System, consisting ofat least twelve paintings andvideo. This body of work will bea reflection of a social criticismof the Anarchist movement overtime.

Art is not the only componentof his fortune. Among severalother business ventures, he hassubstantial real estate assets. Hehas also owned and operated avery successful car dealership,employing hundreds, one ofwhich was ranked the secondmost profitable dealership in thecountry. Mr. Andreas’ wife Ur-sula assists him in all of his en-deavors. He has one son,Christopher, a daughter-in-law,Andrita, and two grandchildren.

12GEORGE D.BEHRAKIS

$925 MILLIONPHARMACEUTICALS

Mr. Behrakis, 76, is founderchairman and chairman ofMythos, LLC, a Lexington, Mass-achusetts-based private invest-ment company. He is also chair-man of GainesboroughInvestments, launched in 1998.A 1957 graduate of Northeast-ern University, Mr. Behrakis alsostudied at Boston University, andis a recognized leader in thepharmaceutical industry. He be-came best known, perhaps, forhis talent in solubilizing previ-ously insoluble chemicals andmaking them stable for medicaluse.

After completing his militaryservice, Mr. Behrakis began hiscareer at McNeil Laboratories (adivision of Johnson & Johnson).In 1968, he founded DoonerLaboratories which developedand manufactured a leadingasthma medication, Slo-phyllinand Slo-bid. He sold the com-pany to Rhone-Poulenc Rorer(now Aventis) and purchasedophthalmic firm Muro Pharma-ceuticals in 1978. Mr. Behrakissold his eye care products toBausch and Lomb and searchedfor new products, includingpharmaceuticals for asthma andallergies. Mr. Behrakis sold thefirm to Asta-Medica AG, a divi-sion of German conglomerateDegussa, retiring as president &CEO in 1998.

Mr. Behrakis is the son ofGreek immigrants. He and hiswife Margo have establishedchairs and scholarships at vari-

ous universities and medicalcenters. In 2003 NortheasternUniversity and Medical Centeropened the Behrakis Health Sci-ence Building and also createdthe Center for Drug Discovery.

A recipient of many awardsfor his contributions to business,science, the arts and the GreekOrthodox Church, he sits on theboard of The Boston SymphonyOrchestra and is emeritus chair-man of Northeastern University.He has served on many boardsof both public and private com-panies. He is on the advisoryboard of the Harvard School ofPublic Health.

Perhaps no institution has re-ceived as much from Mr.Behrakis as the Boston Museumof Fine Arts. His relationshipwith the museum dates back tohis high school days, when hisuncle, John Zaroulis, took himto see the galleries. Later, Mr.Behrakis would host parties atthe Museum. He became a mem-ber in 1989, a patron in 1996,and an overseer in 1998. Then,one day in 2001, Mr. Behrakisshowed up for lunch with MFADirector Malcolm Rogers andhanded him a sealed envelope.Inside was a check for $2 millionto endow Christine Kondoleon’sposition as curator of Greek &Roman Art. He has given $25million to the museum since2006 and the museum now hasthe new George D. and MargoBehrakis Wing, which housesGreek, Roman and Egyptian Gal-leries.

In 2010, Mr. Behrakis gave a$1.8 million grant to a HarvardUniversity School of PublicHealth study on smoking inGreece. This past November, the50-year-member of AHEPA washonored with the organization’sArchbishop Iakovos Humanitar-ian Award in Orange, Connecti-cut.

Mr. Behrakis, a former presi-dent of the Holy Trinity GreekOrthodox Church in Lowell,M.A., is a member of the Arch-diocesan Council’s ExecutiveCommittee, and an Archon ofthe Ecumenical Patriarchate. Heis Chairman Emeritus of Lead-ership 100. Behrakis also pub-lishes the Hellenic Voice. He andhis wife Margo have been mar-ried for 49 years and have fourchildren and nine grandchildren.

14EFSTATHIOS(STEVE)

VALIOTIS$800 MILLION REAL ESTATE

Mr. Valiotis, 64, is presidentand founder of the Astoria-basedAlma Realty Corporation, one ofthe largest real estate firms inthe New York metropolitan area.He was born in Vordonia, Greecenear Sparta, and immigrated tothe United States in 1972. Heworked in the food industry and,within two years, purchased anewsstand and a food mart fol-lowed by a pizzeria. His nextventure was establishing a cus-tom-made furniture business,Knossos Inc., in Astoria in 1976.Within two years, the businessexpanded to include two retaildisplay stores on Manhattan’sPark Avenue and Sixth Avenueand a furniture-manufacturingfactory in Queens. Mr. Valiotisowned and actively managedKnossos until 1994.

In 1978 he began his highlysuccessful career investing inreal estate. Since then, Mr. Vali-otis’ expertise in acquisition anddevelopment has included thepurchase, sale, construction andmanagement of both residentialand commercial properties. In1983, Mr. Valiotis founded hisown firm, known as Alma RealtyCorporation. Alma serves as thevessel through which Mr. Valiotisdevelops, builds, manages andacquires real estate. He has builta diverse portfolio over the lastthree decades including multi-family residential buildings,commercial buildings, ground-up construction of residentialand commercial buildings and aretail shopping center. Alma Re-alty also owns and manages over10,000 apartments of marketand affordable housing proper-ties in New York and New Jerseyas well as over 5 million squarefeet of commercial property. Heis committed to investing andimproving communities by pro-viding safe and well-maintained

residential and commercial de-velopments. Mr. Valiotis estab-lished his construction company,Vordonia Construction Corpora-tion, in 1988, which serves asthe general contractor for themajority of his projects. Vordo-nia Contracting and SuppliesCorp. is another subsidiary ofALMA.

In 1989, Mr. Valiotis, alongwith several other investors,formed Marathon NationalBank. He served as chairman ofthe bank’s board of directors andas a member for ten years.Marathon was acquired by Pi-raeus National Bank of Greecein 1999. In 2007, he formedAlma Bank, in which he is a ma-jority shareholder. He serves asChairman of the Advisory Board.The bank, created with the high-est capital investment in a NYState commercial bank, israpidly expanding, with tenbranches and several morebranches to come. The bank’scapital has grown from $50 mil-lion to $500 million in just threeyears.

Mr. Valiotis earned his degreein Theology from the Universityof Athens. His extensive chari-table contributions include ma-jor support of the St. DemetriosCathedral in Astoria, NY, and theHoly Cross Greek OrthodoxChurch of Whitestone, NY, itsschool, which is named the Efs-tathios and Stamatiki ValiotisGreek American School, and itscommunity center. Mr. Valiotisfinanced and built a T.E.I. (tech-nical college) in his hometownof Sparta, Greece, which alsobears his name and currently en-rolls 2,000 students. A firm be-liever in education, he supportsvarious educational institutions.

He is married to StamatikiKousoulas and they have threechildren, Sophia, Katerina andGeorge.

15JOHNPAPPAJOHN

$700 MILLION VENTURE CAPITALISM

Mr. Pappajohn, 82, is presi-dent of Equity Dynamics andPappajohn Capital Resources, ofwhich he is also sole proprietor.Equity Dynamics is a financialconsulting entity; PappajohnCapital Resources is a venturecapital firm.

Mr. Pappajohn first camefrom Greece to the United Stateswhen he was just 9 months old.His father died when he was 16years of age, and he had to workto pay his way through college.He graduated from the Univer-sity of Iowa’s College of BusinessAdministration in 1952.Throughout his career as a ven-ture capitalist, he has been anearly investor in over 100 invest-ment firms dedicated to advanc-ing the biomedical and biotech-nology industries.

He and his wife Mary, withwhom he has one daughter,have partnered in philanthropicendeavors,which have providedmillions for scholarships, busi-ness opportunities and commu-nity enhancements. His charita-ble donations include the John& Mary Pappajohn Clinical Can-cer Center, and Pappajohn En-trepreneurial Centers at fiveIowa universities and colleges.To date, over 99,625 college stu-dents have taken part in the lat-ter, which have sparked 3,680new businesses. In 2009, thePappajohn Scholarship Founda-tion distributed $247,750 ingrants to support ethnic, disad-vantaged and/or minority stu-dents; over the previous 10

years, the figure is at over $3.14million. In September 2009, theDes Moines Pappajohn SculpturePark opened, featuring $40 mil-lion of the avid collector couple’sartwork. In December 2010 thePappajohns pledged $26.4 mil-lion towards a new University ofIowa biomedical research build-ing. The couple gifted over $70million in 2009.

Mr. Pappajohn is the recipientof many prestigious awards, toinclude the Horatio Alger Award(1995), the Ellis Island Medal ofHonor (2000) and the WoodrowWilson International CenterAward for Corporate Citizenship(2007). He is the first Iowan andthe second Greek American(Pete Peterson was the first) toreceive the Woodrow WilsonAward. Mr. Pappajohn is the re-cipient of several honorary doc-torates.

16JOHNPAYIAVLAS

$650 MILLION FOOD INDUSTRY

Mr. Payiavlas is chairman ofAVI Foodsystems, the country’slargest independent, family-owned and-operated contractfood service company, providingvending, institutional dining andcoffee service operations.

Founded in 1960, AVI cur-rently employs thousands, servesmillions of consumers daily, andserves some of the most presti-gious institutions in America, in-cluding industry, corporateheadquarters complexes, univer-sities, school systems and health-care facilities throughout theMidwestern and Eastern UnitedStates. Their clients includeCarnegie Mellon University,Eastman Kodak, Good Year,Honda of America Manufactur-ing, Kmart, Kraft Foods, OhioState University, Phillips, ToyotaMotor Manufacturing, Univer-sity of Pittsburgh Medical Cen-ter, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service,Toyota Motor Manufacturing,Verizon and Xerox. Intensely pri-vate, Mr. Payiavlas runs the com-pany along with his son Anthonyand his daughter Patrice. Basedin Warren, Ohio, AVI has morethan 50 branch offices in theMidwestern and Eastern UnitedStates, and makes $2 billion insales annually.

Mr. Payiavlas and his wifeMarissa were honored duringCleveland’s annual 1921 Society

Dinner, held on September 14,2006 at Severance Hall. The din-ner, attended by more than 300people, honored friends whohave given $1 million or moreto support the Cleveland Clinic’smission. During the event, theClinic conferred its highest phil-anthropic honor, the Distin-guished Fellow Award, upon Mr.& Mrs. Payiavlas. Mr. Payiavlastraces his origins to the islandof Chios. He loves the Church,having served as chairman of theArchbishop Iakovos Leadership100 Endowment Fund, and is anArchon of the Ecumenical Patri-archate.

17GEORGESAKELLARIS *

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT$600 MILLION

Born in Vassara in Laconia,Greece, George Sakellaris, 64,heads one of the largest energysolutions companies in the U.Sand Canada. His companyAmeresco, which is based inFramingham, MA, specializes inproviding energy efficiency andrenewable energy solutions forfacilities throughout NorthAmerica. Sakellaris founded thecompany in 2000. Today it has55 offices in 29 states and fourCanadian provinces. “Green.Clean. Sustainable” is the mottoof the company that increasesenergy efficiency for schools,hospitals, government buildingsas well as businesses. Amerescoimproves infrastructures and in-troduces renewable energy sys-tems, including wind, solar andhydro power, and even landfillgas-to-energy

Just a very few of its recentcontracts include a new biogasrecovery plant for Dallas WaterUtilities, that will save the city$1.5 million a year, an energysaving scheme for the city of Re-vere, MA that includes a solar

The 50 Wealthiest Greeks in America List

Continued on page 7

Continued from page 4



Problems of an ultrasonic,acoustic and radi-ographic nature are partof Dr. Sotirios Vahavio-

los’s daily work. His companyMistras Group is hired by com-panies and governments aroundthe world to test the structuralintegrity of their assets- be itbridges, oil rigs/platforms, nu-clear power plant structures –or even trees.

In an example of its work,Mistras is working for Excelon,the country’s largest nuclearpower owner/operator. Theirwork involves inspecting hard-to-reach underground plant pip-ing. Dr. Vahaviolos explains:“We send waves underneath thesoil in the pipes and we try tosee and assess if there has beencorrosion of those.”

Like much of Mistras’ work,such projects are built solidly onthe science of non-destructivetesting, where structures aretested using audio emissions re-leased by materials under stress.This process employs state-of-the-art hardware, software andspecialized teams – not to men-tion satellites and the Internet.Says Dr. Vahaviolos of the typeof Internet-based monitoring,where a bridge in England or aplatform in the North Sea canbe monitored from Princeton,“It’s basically like having yourdoctor working remotely. Andwhat the doctor will do is fore-cast impending diseases.”

It is the forecasting and thepredictions of his team of over35 PhDs and 200 engineers thatmakes the difference. At hisPrinceton, New Jersey head-quarters, Founder, President andCEO Vahaviolos explains thecompany’s edge, using the ex-ample of Mistras’ nuclear powerplant work. “Our job is how canwe extend the life of an aginginfrastructure. In order to dothat you need to do a lot of in-spection and what we call pre-dictive maintenance.” He says“Mistras shines” in its scientificteam’s predictive abilities. Thecompany has 2,500 employeesworldwide, with locations incountries like Japan, Sweden,Germany and Brazil.

BUSINESSBREAKTHROUGHS

Today Mistras Group, namedafter Dr. Vahaviolos’ majesticPeloponnesian hometown in

Greece, is a leader in the U.S.in its field. It’s also a profitableenterprise, reflected by the ris-ing trend of its stocks since thecompany went public in October2009. Dr. Vahaviolos, who wastrained at Fairleigh DickinsonUniversity and Columbia Uni-versity, and started out workingat Bell Laboratories in the1970s, explains that success did-n’t happen overnight.

As he explains, MistrasGroup really took off as a busi-ness just before 2000, when hehad a big revelation. “The turn-ing point for me was when I re-alized that the venture capital-ists...knew nothing more thanjust giving me money. I was thecompany.”

Dr. Vahaviolos continues:“Once I became a devout pro-ponent of my business plan, andthe fact that I am the companyand not the financial people iswhen I turned everythingaround.”

Putting an emphasis on ser-vices also made a difference.“We really saw that in Americain the late 90s people startedbuying services as needed. Re-fineries had fewer engineers.Nuclear power plants had peo-

ple who retired. The companiesdid not replace them. Theystarted buying services whenneeded. Well, we filled thatvoid, not only with instruments,but with services. We kind ofrevolutionized the whole inspec-tion industry and that’s why webecame in the next 10 years, webecame Number One in Amer-ica.” He adds, “There are peoplein the industry, especially finan-cial people, who prefer prod-ucts. There are people who pre-fer services. It was ideal in ourbusiness that we provide thecustomer with products but thenshow them how to do it.”

“I’m a typical engineer, Idon’t believe in luck. You makeyour own luck,” explains Dr. Va-haviolos. A good business plan,hard work, the support of fam-ily, a good education, a can-doattitude and a good team all arekey.” He adds that creating ateam of “people that supporteach other” was also vital.

Tapping into professionalgroups also is important, he un-derlines. “I’ve always been in-volved with associations,” saysthe former president of both theAmerican Society of Nondestruc-tive testing and its international

counterpart. It also proved a bighelp in helping Mistras over-come barriers to entering somecountry’s markets that place re-strictions on foreign business.Expanding further into Europe,South America and the MiddleEast are the next step. Dr. Va-haviolos cautiously predicts: “Itwill take me a lot more years tobecome as dominant in Europeas we are in the United States.”

JOBS, NOT BONDS FOR GREECE

The proponent of the Greeklanguage and Greek educationin the U.S. is pained to say thatin the current climate, vis a visGreece’s debt problems, sayingyou are Greek doesn’t impressWall Street investors. “It’s reallythe low point for Greek Ameri-cans,” says Dr. Vahaviolos. Mis-tras’ CEO is disappointed thatin Greece, professors oftenwasted European Union fundson flashy automobiles, while inthe U.S. government funds builtindustries.

Because no one has beenheld accountable for theirwrongdoing in Greece, Dr. Va-haviolos scoffs at the idea ofGreek Americans buying bondsto finance Greece’s debt. “How

can I tell my family, we need tobuy some bonds to help theGreek government and to helpGreece? It’s very difficult for us.”

He has a different solution.“The way you help Greece isnot...by saying you will dothings (but by) creating jobs -Create a company.” Dr. Vahavi-olos is particularly proud of the“25 quality jobs for educatedGreeks” he’s helped create,through his collaboration withdaughter Athanasia Vahaviolosand her Mistras-Envirocousticscompany, which is based inGreece. If bureaucratic hurdlescould be removed, Dr. Vahavio-los believes more of that U.S.-Greece synergy could take place.He points out that, at the mo-ment, their Greek technical peo-ple were in the country of Geor-gia, working on a BritishPetroleum project.

LISTENING TO NATURECultivating olive oil and wine

in his native Mistras, the ver-dant place in the Peloponneseonce favored by Byzantinerulers is a joyful pasttime for Dr.Vahaviolos and his family.

More generally, his work hasan environmental dimension –as Mistras’ work can prevent dis-asters – and it feeds off nature.

One of his most interestingprojects, involved the detectionof dryness in trees. He explains:“If there is no water, the trunkof the tree starts shaking. Youdon’t see it, but it starts shaking.By using our technology,acoustic emission, we can reachinto the tree, forecast xylenecavitation [drying out] and wa-ter the plant.” He admits, “Thatis one of the most exotic thingsthat I have ever done.”

He also recalls how, whileworking at Bell Laboratories, hefigured out a way to repel mos-quitoes by generating a buzzingsound, but dropped the idea.When, a decade later, his wifecame home with an anti-mos-quito device based on the samescience, he learned a key lessonfor entrepreneurial scientists: “Ifyou have a good concept, youhave to implement it and notdepend on anybody else. So thesecond time around, when myopportunity came to...start withacoustical emissions, I had nodoubts about, I just moved on.”Mistras’ success says the rest.

View the video interview atwww.thenationalherald.com/video/1815

Mistras’ Science Makes Waves

Dr. Sotirios Vahaviolos believes a good business plan, a can-do attitude and a great team arethe keys to his success with Mistras Group. The engineer’s company puts science to workaround the world.

energy component and will savethe city $13 million over 15years, and a new steam plantproject for North Carolina StateUniversity that is expected tosave the school $6.5 million ayear.

Mr. Sakellaris has this to sayabout his green business: “Thereis tremendous market need forenergy efficiency and renewableenergy. From a business perspec-tive, being independent andfully integrated while offeringcomprehensive energy solutions,we are in the best position to of-fer our clients the most optimumsolutions.” He continues, “Beingin the service business 'you areas good as your people.' We al-ways strive to hire and retain thebest in our field.”

After graduating from highschool in Greece, Mr. Sakellarisarrived in Bangor, Maine, as anexchange student in 1965 to goto college. He spoke little Eng-lish when he first enrolled at theUniversity of Maine-Orono, butworked his way through collegeand earned a B.S.E.E. degree,driven by a love of mathematicsand sciences – as well as a pas-sion for creating, building andthe environment. His parents ar-rived in the U.S. in 1969 and thefamily settled in Boston. He thenworked at local utility New Eng-land Electrical Systems (NEES),earning an M.B.A. and M.S.E.E.from Northeastern Universityalong the way. Then, Mr. Sakel-laris explains: “In 1979, whileworking for New England Elec-tric, they wanted to establish acompany to promote energy ef-ficiency and thereby avoid theneed to build new generationplants. I took on that initiativeand the rest is history.” The sub-sidiary he launched, NEES En-

Continued on page 8


ergy, eventually was spun offand became energy conservationcompany NORESCO. In 1997,the company was taken over byEquitable Resources (EQT), aFortune 500 company. Mr. Sakel-laris continued as president ofNORESCO and became seniorvice president of Equitable Re-sources.

He is a member of the Gov-erning Board of Northeastern,which also gave him an Out-standing Alumni award. He is aDistinguished Member Inducteeof the Frances Crowe Society atthe University of Maine, whichgave him the Edward T. BryandDistinguished Engineer Awardin 2007.

Mr. Sakellaris served as afounding member of the Na-tional Association of Energy Ser-vice Companies (NAESCO). Heis a former President of NAESCOand still an active member. In2005, he was invited to join theClinton Climate Initiative,launched by former PresidentBill Clinton. He is also a regis-tered Professional Engineer inMassachussetts. A committedoutdoorsman, he has run in fiveBoston Marathons; Mr. Sakel-laris also competes in sailing,with his Mini-Max boat Shock-wave, placing second in the KeyWest 2011 sailing regatta. Helives in Milton, MA, with hiswife, Cathy, and children,Christina and Peter.

18TED J. LEONSIS

$560 MILLION COMPUTERS, MARKETING,PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

Mr. Leonsis, 54, is vice chair-man emeritus of America On-line. Mr. Leonsis is also thefounder, chairman and majorityowner of Monumental Sportsand Entertainment, formed inJune 2010, as he merged his Lin-coln Holdings LLC (made up ofholdings including the NationalHockey League’s WashingtonCapitals, worth an estimated$197 million, and WNBA’sWashington Mystics) and Wash-ington Sports & EntertainmentLimited Partnership. The newcompany was created whenLeonsis purchased the remaining56% of Washington Sports & En-tertainment that he didn’t own,giving him full ownership overthe National Basketball Associa-tion’s Washington Wizards, theVerizon Center and the Balti-more-Washington Ticketmasterfranchise. After surviving an air-plane crash landing in 1983, hedrafted a list of 101 things to doin life, and has completed manyof the tasks, to include owninga sports franchise. (They are on-line on his site:www.tedstake.com.)

Few people have roots asdeep in the computer industry,or as much knowledge and ex-perience of its history and po-tential. A pioneer of the Internet

and new media, Mr. Leonsis par-ticipated in launches of the Ap-ple MacIntosh, the IBM PC andthe Wang office automation. Hehas led four businesses that havegrown at record rates: He builtWang WP (the first word proces-sor) from a $200 million to a $1billion company with the largestfemale management team in thecountry. He was founder & CEOof Redgate CommunicationsCorporation, considered the firstnew-media marketing company.He built AOL into the first $1billion interactive services com-pany and the world’s biggest me-dia company, helping to increaseits membership from fewer than800,000 to more than 8 millionin a four-year span (1994-97).He has also boosted the Capitals’attendance and revenues.

Mr. Leonsis was born to afamily of modest means inBrooklyn, and spent his earlyyears there. His family movedback to his mother’s hometownof Lowell, Massachusetts. Hegraduated from Lowell HighSchool in 1973 and attendedGeorgetown University. Aftergraduating in 1977, he movedback to his parents’ home inLowell and began working forWang Laboratories. In 1980, Mr.Leonsis started his own com-pany, which grew quickly, andsold it to International Thomp-

son for $60 million in 1981. Hethen started Redgate, which hesold to AOL in 1993, commenc-ing his relationship with once-pervasive AOL, completing histenure as the audience group’spresident and vice chairman be-fore stepping down in 2006.

In 2009, Mr. Leonsis joinedthe board of language-learningsoftware company RosettaStone. Once the mayor of Or-chid, Florida, Mr. Leonsis sits onthe boards of Georgetown Uni-versity and several charities.Among his favorite charities arethe See Forever Foundation andYouthAIDS. He also sponsors hisown philanthropic foundation,the Leonsis Foundation, whichis dedicated to creating “oppor-tunities for children that enablethem to reach their highest po-tential”.

Mr. Leonsis has gotten in-volved in documentary filmmak-ing through producing films in-cluding “Nanking” (2007). Herefers to his filmmaking endeav-ors as “filmanthropy,” whichuses the medium of documen-tary films as a matrix for socialchange. Among the 19 invest-ments listed on his site is Snag-Films, a video distribution plat-form that was recently backedto the tune of $10 million byComcast and venture capitalfirm New Enterprise Associates(NEA). NEA’s managing director,Peter Barris, a fellow GreekAmerican, was also a foundingventure capital investor in an-other Leonsis investment,Groupon; both sit on the boardof that uber-successful 2008company that offers daily dealson local businesses. Forbes hascalled it “the fastest growingcompany ever.” He lives inMcLean, Virginia, and VeroBeach, Florida with his wifeLynn and two children. As wewent to press, he was movinginto the historic Marwood Estatemansion in Potomac, Maryland.

19. ANGELO K.TSAKOPOULOS

$540 MILLION REAL ESTATE

Mr. Tsakopoulos, 74, wasborn to a farming family in thevillage of Rizes, in Arcadia,Greece. His father, a butcher,struggled to feed five children.

He first came to the UnitedStates in August 1951, sailingpast the Statue of Liberty on his15th birthday. As a college stu-dent at Sacramento State Uni-versity, he waited tables at nightin the Tony Del Prado restaurantand sold real estate on week-ends. He would eventually leaveSac State a few credits shy ofgraduation to work full time. At21 years of age, he had alreadystockpiled experiences likely un-fathomable to many of his fellowundergraduates: war, depriva-tion, emigration and stints asboth a shoeshine boy in Chicagoand a farmhand in Lodi. And hehad begun laying the ground-work for his future, arguably be-coming the most significantforce to shape Sacramento sinceJohn Sutter. He boxed in college.His former boxing teammatessay the elements of his larger-than-life persona were presenteven in the days when he wasstudying business, philosophyand history under the American-ized surname of Chicos, a namehe later dropped to reclaim hisfamily name.

Mr. Tsakopoulos has sinceclimbed to prominence throughuncommon business acumenand sheer tenacity. He turns onthe charm with politicians, playshardball with environmentalregulators, and promotes bigideas for the region. In recentyears, he’s offered to donatefarmland he controls in PlacerCounty for a private university,and to help fund its constructionby developing adjacent acreage.He has proposed that the regionopen thousands of acres ofranchland he controls along theSacramento-El Dorado Countyline for development, usingsome of those proceeds to funda new arena for the NBA’s Sacra-mento Kings. He also growswine grapes in Borden Ranchand walnuts at an orchard out-side Wheatland.

In late 2010, the family pur-chased Conaway Ranch, a17,244 property of farming andranching land as well as wet-lands and water resources westof Sacramento. The SacramentoBee reported the family alreadyheld 18,000 acres of farmlandand vineyards and 40,000 acresof cattle grazing land in North-ern California.

Mr. Tsakopoulos’ olderbrother George, who passedaway in 2009, followed him toSacramento, and also went intoreal estate. George’s family con-trols thousands of acres in theregion. Angelo is founder of AKTDevelopment Corporation, nowheaded by his son, Kyriakos,which controls about 40,000acres of land in the region andneighboring San JoaquinCounty.

He has also carved out aniche for himself as a majorplayer in and fundraiser for the

Democratic Party, and as a stan-dard bearer for Greek politicaland cultural interests in Amer-ica. The developer and his chil-dren have raised and con-tributed millions on national,state and local campaigns andissues over the past decade. De-mocratic Presidential candidatesaside, a few of the major recipi-ents include former GovernorGray Davis, U.S. Senator DianneFeinstein and House SpeakerNancy Pelosi. Mr. Tsakopoulos isalso dedicated to advancing thecareers of Greek American politi-cians, including former Califor-nia state treasurer and once-gu-bernatorial candidate PhilAngelides. Mr. Tsakopoulos andhis family have established Hel-lenic Studies chairs at severalmajor American universitiesacross the country, Georgetown,Stanford and Columbia amongthem.

20. P. ROYVAGELOS, M.D.

$535 MILLION PHARMACEUTICALS,HEALTHCARE

Dr. Vagelos, 81, served asCEO of Merck & Co., the phar-maceuticals giant, from 1985 to1994. He joined the worldwidehealth products firm in 1975 assenior vice president of research,and became president of its re-search division in 1976; startingin 1982, he served as senior vicepresident of strategic planning.He continued to hold both posi-tions until 1984, when he waselected executive vice president.

Before assuming broader re-sponsibilities of business leader-ship, Dr. Vagelos had won sci-entific recognition as anauthority on lipids and enzymes,and as a research manager. Thisfollowed a decision early in hiscareer to put his principal ener-gies into research, rather thanthe practice of medicine. Dr.Vagelos, whose parents wereborn in Asia Minor and immi-grated to the US in the 1920s,earned his bachelor’s degreewith honors in 1950 from theUniversity of Pennsylvania. Hereceived his M.D. from ColumbiaUniversity in 1954. After an in-ternship and residency at Mass-achusetts General Hospital inBoston (1954-56), he joined theNational Institutes of Health inBethesda, Maryland. At NIH(1956-66), he served in the Na-tional Heart Institute, holdingpositions in cellular physiologyand biochemistry – first as Se-nior Surgeon, and then as headof section of Comparative Bio-chemistry. In 1966, Dr. Vagelosjoined the Washington Univer-sity in St. Louis School of Medi-cine as chairman of its BiologicalChemistry Department.

The author of several booksand more than 100 scientific pa-pers, he was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts &Sciences and the National Acad-emy of Sciences in 1972, and tothe American Philosophical So-ciety in 1993. After retiring fromMerck, Dr. Vagelos was chair-man of the University of Penn-sylvania’s Board of Trustees from1994 to 1999, having served asa trustee since 1988. He wasalso president & CEO of theAmerican School of ClassicalStudies in Athens from 1999 to2001, and served on the Na-tional Research Council Commit-tee on Science & Technology forCountering Terrorism in 2002.Much of his wealth came fromstock options at Merck, whichwas very profitable under hisleadership. During his tenure

there, Merck developed the cho-lesterol-lowering statins, meva-cor and zocor.

Dr. Vagelos is sometimescalled the father of pharmaco-philanthropy for freely providingthe drug mectizan to cure mil-lions of Africans of river blind-ness. His charity work at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in-cludes sponsoring five scholar-ship/study programs as well asthe $15 million Roy and DianaVagelos Laboratories. He alsosupports an incentive programfor students at his old highschool in Rahway, New Jersey.The Diana Student Center, re-named after Mrs. Vagelos, at heralma mater, Barnard College,opened in 2010. Mr. Vagelos iscurrently chairman of biotechcompany Regeneron Pharma-ceuticals. He is also chairman ofColumbia University MedicalCenter’s Board of Visitors, andis chairing the center’s capitalcampaign, which has alreadymet its target of $1 billion by2011. In 2010 the couple gave$50 million for the ColumbiaMedical School Center for a newmedical and graduate educationbuilding. Dr. Vagelos is marriedto the former Diana Touliatos.They live in New Jersey, andhave four children and sevengrandchildren.

21. PETER G.ANGELOS

$450 MILLIONLAW, MAJORLEAGUE BASEBALL

Mr. Angelos, 81, is an Amer-ican trial lawyer and the currentchairman & CEO of MajorLeague Baseball’s Baltimore Ori-oles. He became owner of theOrioles in August 1993, leadinga group of investors, includingprominent Marylanders like nov-elist Tom Clancy, in purchasingthe team for $173 million, arecord price at the time.

According to Forbes, the Ori-oles were worth $376 million inApril 2010 (down from $400million the previous year). TheOrioles enjoyed some successearly under Mr. Angelos’ own-ership, making the postseasonas a wild card team in 1996 andwinning the American LeagueEast Division title in 1997. Butmanager Davey Johnson re-signed after the 1997 season,and 13 straight losing seasonsensued. In 2005, the Mid-At-lantic Sports Network, co-ownedby the Orioles and the Washing-ton Nationals, took off. It has 6million subscribers.

Mr. Angelos was born in Pitts-burgh on July 4, 1929. He cameto Baltimore at 11 years of age.He is a graduate of Eastern Col-lege and the University of Balti-more School of Law, where hewas class valedictorian, andwent onto a lucrative career intrial law, specializing in cases in-volving harmful products, pro-fessional malpractice, and per-sonal injury.

His firm, the Law Offices of

Peter G. Angelos, has attorneysand locations in Maryland,Delaware and Pennsylvania. Mr.Angelos began working as acriminal defense lawyer follow-ing graduation. For most of hislegal career, he was a successfulattorney representing Baltimorelabor unions and their membersthrough his own private prac-tice, which he founded in 1961.Beginning in the 1980’s, he re-fashioned his firm’s focus fromcriminal law to civil class actionsuits. His law firm and wealthexpanded exponentially in 1982,when he represented 8,500plaintiffs – the largest numberof plaintiffs ever - in asbestos lit-igation and won. He reportedlymade over $100 million on thisone case. Mr. Angelos was alsoenormously successful in suingWyeth, the makers of the dietpill fen-phen, and representingthe state of Maryland as lead at-torney in a lawsuit against to-bacco company Philip Morris.The agreement had stipulatedthat he would receive 25% ofthe recovery, but when it was$4.5 billion, Maryland refusedto pay; Angelos’ team settled for$150 million. It was after thathe became a major player in theBaltimore community.

A lifelong Democrat, he wonelection to the Baltimore CityCouncil, and served on theCouncil from 1959 to 1963. Heran for mayor as an independentin 1964, but lost. He has beenan active supporter of national

Democratic candidates. Locally,in 2006, he publicly supportedthe Republican incumbent, BobEhrlich, for governor of Mary-land and criticizing Democraticcandidate (now Governor) Mar-tin J. O’Malley. Mr. Angelos hasbeen active in charitable pro-grams in the city and state. Heis married, and has two sons. Hehas given $10 million to his almamater; in return the new lawschool building that is being con-structed will bear the name ofhis parents. The now-under con-struction John and Frances An-gelos Law Center at the Univer-sity of Baltimore is due to becompleted in 2012.

21. GEORGE N.HATSOPOULOS,

PH.D$450 MILLION THERMO-IONICTECHNOLOGY

Dr. Hatsopoulos, 83, wasawarded at the November 2009Boston History & InnovationAwards for “half a century of in-novations in environmentalquality, health and safety tech-nologies”.

The Greek-born scientistwanted to change the way theworld makes electricity. He andhis brother John foundedThermo Electron in 1956 (witha $50,000 loan from a Greekshipowner). Thermo Electrongrew into an international com-pany recognized as a globalleader in environmental moni-toring and analysis instruments,and a major producer of paper-recycling equipment, biomedicalproducts, alternative-energy sys-tems and other products and ser-vices related to environmentalquality, health and safety. By1981, it was ranked 739thamong Fortune’s 1,000 largestindustrial firms. By the time it

merged with Fisher Scientific inNovember 2006, Thermo Elec-tron was seeing annual revenuesof over $2 billion, and employed11,000 people in 30 countries.Dr. Hatsopoulous’ work led torapid advances in thermo-ionicpower conversion. He retired in1999, but remains chairmanemeritus of Thermo Fischer Sci-entific (NYSE:TMO), which to-day is worth $23 billion.

His training began in Greeceat the National Polytechnic In-stitute in Athens. He received hisbachelor’s (1949), master’s(1950) and doctorate (1956), atMIT, all in Mechanical Engineer-ing. Dr. Hatsopoulos has testifiedat numerous congressional hear-ings on national energy policyand capital formation, and hasserved on many national com-mittees on energy conservation,environmental protection andinternational exchange. He isalso noted for his and JosephKeenan’s famous textbook,“Principles of General Thermo-dynamics.”

In 1996, Dr. Hatsopouloswon the John Fritz Medal, thehighest American award in theengineering profession. In 2007,he was one of the nine promi-nent Greek Americans who wereselected by President Carolos Pa-poulias to be honored with theHellenic Republic’s prestigiousCommander of the Order ofHonor award. Dr. Hatsopoulosis now chairman of AmericanDG Energy Inc., the leading on-site utility he formed with hisbrother in 2001 offering electric-ity, heat, hot water and coolingto commercial, institutional andindustrial customers. The com-pany specializes in green energyand carbon reducing solutions.

21. GEORGE M.MARCUS

$450 MILLION REAL ESTATE

Mr. Marcus, 68, is founderand chairman of Marcus & Mil-lichap Real Estate InvestmentServices, one of the country’spremier providers of investmentreal estate brokerage services,and the parent company of a di-versified group of real estate,service, investment and devel-opment firms. It has establisheditself as a leading real estate firmwith more than 1,200 brokers inmarkets throughout the UnitedStates. With more than 75 of-fices nationwide, the firm fo-cuses on investment brokerage,and provides financing and re-

search services to both buyersand sellers.

Together with his partner,William A. Millichap, Mr. Marcuslaunched a new business modelnearly 4 decades years ago,based on matching each prop-erty with the largest pool of pre-qualified investors. In 2010,Marcus & Millichap closed $13.6billion in investment transac-tions for private and institutionalinvestors. Included in thesetransactions were shopping cen-ters, office and industrial build-ings, apartment properties, ho-tels/motels, seniors housing,

manufactured home communi-ties, and land. “By closing moretransactions annually than anyother firm, its investment pro-fessionals have been able to pro-vide clients with an unparalleledperspective on the investmentreal estate market locally, re-gionally and nationally,” says thecompany’s website (www.mar-cusmillichap.com).

Mr. Marcus is also chairmanof Essex Property Trust, a pub-licly held, multi-family real es-tate investment trust (REIT). Lo-cated in Palo Alto, California andtraded on the New York StockExchange, Essex is a fully inte-grated REIT which acquires, de-velops and redevelops apart-ment communities in select WestCoast communities. The com-pany, according to its website,currently has ownership inter-ests in 140 apartment commu-nities. Mr. Marcus is also one ofthe original founders of PlazaCommerce Bank and GreaterBay Bancorp. Mr. Marcus servedon Greater Bay’s board of direc-tors until it was sold to Wells-Fargo in 2007 for $1.5 billion.

He came to San Franciscofrom Greece at the age of four.He completed his undergraduatestudies in Economics at SanFrancisco State University in justtwo and a half years, andfounded the university’s firsteconomics club. He also servedas a member of the Board ofTrustees of the California StateUniversity System in 1981-89,and has helped select severalSFSU presidents. He was namedSFSU Alumnus of the year in1989 and one of its 11 Distin-guished Centennial Alumni in1999. He and his wife Judyhelped create SFSU’s Interna-tional Center for the Arts with a$3 million gift. Mr. Marcus alsohelped develop SFSU’s GreekStudies program, and chairs itsModern Greek Studies Founda-tion, which supports the NikosKazantzakis Chair for ModernGreek Studies.

He is also a graduate of theHarvard Business School’s Own-ers/Presidents Management Pro-gram and the Georgetown Uni-versity Leadership Program.Among Mr. Marcus’ professionalmemberships are the Board ofRegents of the University of Cal-ifornia, the Real Estate Round-table and the Policy AdvisoryBoard of the University of Cali-fornia in Berkeley’s Center forReal Estate & Urban Economics.

24. JOHN G.RANGOS SR.

$425 MILLIONENVIRONMENTALMANAGEMENT

Mr. Rangos, 81, made his for-tune through the transportation,disposal and management of in-dustrial wastes, as well as secu-rity services. Among other com-panies, he founded ChambersDevelopment Inc., a firm whichprovided waste treatment ser-vices; developed commercial re-cycling programs; and brokeground with specially lined, lay-ered landfills to protect ground-water supplies.

Mr. Rangos began his careerwith Rockwell ManufacturingCompany in Pittsburgh, wherehe earned the distinction of be-coming the youngest generalagent in company history. Heformed several companies in the1960’s, and pioneered techno-logical advances in the trans-portation and disposal of indus-trial waste.

Mr. Rangos founded Cham-bers Development in 1971.Chambers went public and even-tually merged with USA Waste,the second largest waste man-agement company in the nation.USA Waste Services later mergedwith Waste Management Inc.,the number-1 trash hauler in the

Continued on page 9

The 50 Wealthiest Greeks in America ListContinued from page 7


country.Mr. Rangos’ many innovative

achievements include convertingpower plant boiler ash into auseful component of cinderblocks and anti-skid material forhighways. He also played an in-strumental role in inventingtechniques for recycling bitumi-nous byproducts and disposingsewage and sludge. He devel-oped methods for liquid indus-trial waste disposal, and createda resource recovery systemwhich converts waste-generatedmethane into energy.

Together with his sons, Alexand John Jr., Mr. Rangos advo-cated standards for regional san-itation sites which resolvedmany environmental concerns,and the Rangos family spear-headed many advances in soundenvironmental policy. They ini-tiated present-day environmen-tal protection standards decadesago, to include the design andstrict enforcement of federallaws forbidding corrupt practiceslike the transportation of illegalwaste. Across the EasternSeaboard and into the Midwest,they built the largest, most so-phisticated land disposal facili-ties in the industry – includingdouble-composite-lined HDPE(high-density polyethylene) fa-cilities to protect ground water– long before any other companyhad ever embarked on trying todo the same.

In October 1991, ChambersDevelopment owned and oper-ated a number of regional land-fills. Chambers had a reportedmarket value of $1.7 billion, andMr. Rangos was listed among theForbes 400 for the third consec-utive year. Chambers mergedwith USA Waste in 1995, and



There were up to pound-sized burgers on its menu, butburger chain Fuddruckers’ situ-ation was far from prime inApril 2010 when its owners filedfor bankruptcy. That’s when acouple of Houston restaurantmen – Chris and Harris Pappas- stepped in to rescue the na-tionwide chain boasting TheWorld’s Greatest Hamburger. Tobe more precise, Luby’s, theTexan cafeteria chain that theylead, respectively, purchasedFuddruckers.

The Pappas brothers had al-ready made a name and a profitfor themselves for decades asowners of the Pappas family ofrestaurants, which includes over90 restaurants of seven differentkinds. In 2000 they became in-volved as major stockholdersand corporate leaders at Luby’s.

In July, Luby’s Inc., which islisted on the NYSE, purchasedFuddruckers for over $63 mil-lion. The sale included 56 cor-porate-owned Fuddruckers.There are another 130 fran-chised Fuddruckers throughoutthe U.S. Three Koo Koo Roochicken bistros were included inthe sale.

Chris Pappas, today CEO,President and Director of the re-named Luby’s FuddruckersRestaurants LLC, explains that

he and his brother (Luby’s ChiefOperating Officer) grew up withFuddruckers. The restaurantchain was founded by Philip J.Romano in 1980 in San Anto-nio, Texas. The chain wasknown for its open kitchen,where patrons could view freshbeef ground daily, its rock’n rolldecor and self-service burgers,where customers added theirown toppings. The brand spreadthroughout the U.S. and beyond– with even franchises in theMiddle East. Yet somehow alongthe way, though, Mr. Pappas ex-plains, Fuddruckers lost its way.He says, “It expanded and thenit ran into financial difficulties.”

The Pappas family’s owneateries, from Pappasito's Can-tina to Pappadeaux SeafoodKitchen and Yia Yia Mary’sGreek food restaurant - are of anon-fast food variety. But thebrothers still appreciated thevalue of the Fuddruckers brand.They said despite leadershipand debt problems, people stillliked the chain. Chris Pappassays: “We felt that with the rightleadership in place the brandcould continue to expand as acompetitive brand in the mar-ketplace.”

LUBY’S: A TEXANPHENOMENON

He strikes a similar tonewhen discussing Luby’s. Adecade ago, they were con-vinced the right leadership

could turn things around at thatchain of cafeterias perhaps bestknown for its Lu Ann Platter,consisting of a half portion en-tree with vegetables. Chris Pap-pas says of the cafeteria chainlaunched in 1947: “The brandhad kind of lost a lot of the qual-ities it had early on. That’s whatdrew us to it. We felt it was aplace with good healthy food inthe marketplace. And it hadbeen around for 40 plus yearsand there is no reason why if a

little tender loving care was ap-plied to the Luby’s brand that itcould be around for many moreyears.” He emphasizes the largenumber of veggies available atLuby’s. The chain also has acatering arm that services med-ical and educational facilities.

The Luby’s challenge has in-volved trying to make opera-tions more efficient, improvingfood quality, closing branchesthat are not performing and de-veloping a still-to-spread Luby’srestaurant design prototype.Last year, Luby’s closed 24restaurants that weren’t making

the grade, but the first Luby’sWhat’s Brewing coffee houseopened in Houston in 2010. InJuly the Dallas News reportedthat the company has alreadypaid $120 million in debt; butit also noted that much of thecombined company’s wealth isnow in its real estate holdingsnation-wide. While the brandcontinues to slash the com-pany’s past debts, there is a con-sensus that the food quality hasimproved. Stocks in Luby’sclimbed with Fuddruckers’ pur-chase.PRUDENCE, FOCUS NEEDED

These challenges require par-ticularly good decision-making,because they are taking place inthe context of a recession.Luby’s CEO Pappas notes that indifficult times, you have to bemore focused than ever. Hesays: “This economy has put alot of pressure on every restau-rant chain out there, so youhave to be smarter today thanwhen the economy is just boom-ing along and the economy isdoing well. We have to be moreprudent and more focused todaythan you did when everythingis working fine.” Luby’s, he says,plans to “strategically grow bothbrands over the next severalyears.”

Limited time offers are im-portant, he says, in such times.Recent deals at Fuddruckers in-cluded 99 cent children’s meals

and $4.99 All You Can Eatweekend breakfasts.

Ways to improve and inno-vate the menu are of course im-portant too. Fuddruckers addedto its exotic burger options, thelikes of ostrich meat and wildboar and Fudd’s Favorites a newline of bacon and cheese burg-ers. Luby’s CEO says: “Rightnow we are looking at newproducts to bring in and howwe can increase the appetite foryour brand, by bringing newfoods, new ways to serve thingsto your market.”

Part of the success of a chain,of course, involves cooperationwith franchisees, including reg-ular meetings to exchange ideasand plans. Today, CEO Pappassays, it’s vital to make the mostof new methods of communicat-ing with customers too, be itTwitter, Facebook or constantly-updated Internet pages. “If yousit still, you are going to getpassed up. You have to keep in-novating,” says Mr. Pappas. Thisphilosophy extends beyond justtechnology.

Chris Pappas underlines thatthere’s no way the three differ-ent types of restaurants (Luby’s,Fuddruckers and his own Pap-pas restaurants) will take awaycustomers from each other, not-ing, “They are different cate-gories of eating experiences.”He adds they have, in many ar-eas, shared the same turf forperhaps 40 years. After all, hesays: “Nobody eats the samething every day. They like thevariety of going to differentplaces. I see eating out as en-tertainment. You just don’t wantto see the same movie everyday.”

There will inevitably be aGreek touch at the two newcombined chains, he says, ex-plaining: “Before we opened ourone Greek resetaurant (Yia YiaMary’s), people just asked me,‘When are you going to open aGreek restaurant?’ - after weopened many other type ofrestaurants. I always said, ‘Allof our restaurants are kind ofGreek, cause Greeks are runningit.’”

The success of the combinedLuby’s and Fuddruckers chainswill be a test of how good oldfashioned Greek Americanrestaurant smarts can be appliedon a big scale.

[email protected]

Pappas Bros Revive Luby’s, Fuddruckers Restaurant Chains

In July, Luby’s Inc. purchased Fuddruckers for over $63 million.The sale included 56 corporate-owned Fuddruckers. There are

another 130 franchised Fuddruckers throughout the U.S. ThreeKoo Koo Roo chicken bistros were included in the sale.

Chris Pappas: “I alwayssaid, ‘All of ourrestaurants are kind ofGreek, cause Greeks arerunning it.’”

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Mr. Rangos served as vice chair-man of USA Waste, duringwhich time Waste Managementwas also acquired. He was on-board for that merger in 1998.It was a tremendous successstory, and in the span of sevenyears, Mr. Rangos and his sonswere the driving and guidingforce of an immensely successfultransition from one smaller com-pany to the largest company intheir industry.

Their commitment to soundenvironmental practices and re-gional economic developmentwas unquestionable. CarolBrowner – director of the WhiteHouse Office of Energy & Cli-mate Change Policy under Pres-ident Obama, and administratorof the Environmental ProtectionAgency under President Clinton– approved a huge landfill inOkeechobee, Florida and signedoff on Chambers’ permit to de-velop and operate the facility be-fore she joined the Clinton Ad-ministration in January 1993.That site has a 100-year capacityand receives 7,000 tons of wastedaily.

Such monumental, environ-mentally-friendly disposal sitesare also an economic boon tothe areas in which they function.Okeechobee County receivesmillions of dollars in royaltiesfrom its landfill each year, andis just one of many to reap suchrewards. Sanitation site rev-enues help local governmentsexpand their capitalization tobuild schools and roads, as wellas improve police and firefight-ing services, thereby easing theburden of property taxes, whichtypically pay for such projectsand services.

Mr. Rangos’ business interestswere not restricted to wastemanagement, however. He alsofounded U.S. Utilities in the mid-1960’s. USU, the precursor toChambers Development, waspart of a conglomerate Mr. Ran-gos had formed which eventu-ally became part of Chambers.USU subcontracted with Stone& Webster (now part of theShaw Group), a major engineer-ing services firm which was thenthe world’s largest nuclearpower developer, to help buildatomic energy plants.

Together with his partner IanMcLennan, a respected FBIagent, Mr. Rangos cofoundedSecurity Bureau Inc., one of themost prominent security compa-nies in the country, in the mid-1970’s. SBI guarded everythingfrom banks to shopping centersto industrial and atomic energyplants. It started out as a smallbusiness, and grew into a com-pany with a license in every statein the Union, having earned theU.S. Government’s highest ratingand eventually selling for morethan $40 million.

24MICHAEL E.KALOGRIS

$400 MILLIONTELECOMMUNICATIONS

Mr. Kalogris, 60, was chair-man & CEO of SunCom Wireless,a wireless carrier which had op-erated in the SoutheasternUnited States since 1999, and inparts of the Caribbean since2004. Founded in January 1999as Triton PCS Holdings, Tritonchanged its name to SunCom in2005. Based in Berwyn, Pennsyl-vania, SunCom went throughseveral deals with other majorcellular carriers. Before it was fi-nally acquired by T-Mobile for$1.6 billion in cash and $800million in assumed debt in Feb-ruary 2008, SunCom provideddigital wireless communicationsservices to more than 1.1 millionsubscribers. Mr. Kalogris has along history in the “buy it, buildit, sell it” business. In November1999, he reached an agreementwith Rural Cellular Corporation,which purchased portions of Tri-ton’s assets for $1.24 billion inearly 2000 (Verizon eventuallyacquired Rural for $2.66 billionin cash and assumed debt in Au-gust 2007). He also built out Tri-ton’s network with CingularWireless in 2004 before changingTriton’s name to SunCom and ul-timately selling SunCom to T-Mobile.

A stocky, graying zealot of thewireless industry, he still livesoutside Philadelphia with hiswife of many years (his highschool sweetheart), with whomhe has two children. Besides Mr.Kalogris’ reputation of makingmoney for his investors, it was adeal with AT&T in the 1990’swhich attracted investors. In ex-change for a small equity stake,AT&T gave Triton licenses cov-ering 11 million people in areascontiguous with AT&T’s territo-ries in the Southeast.

Mr. Kalogris earned his MBAat Columbia University BusinessSchool in 1982. After working atIBM for a spell, he entered thetelecommunications business bytaking a job with a Philadelphia-based outfit called Metrophone,helping to build it into a $1.1 bil-lion cellular company inPhiladelphia and its suburbs be-fore its owners sold Metrophone

to Comcast in 1991. Mr. Kalogrishad no equity in Metrophone, sohe left to build Horizon to oper-ate mostly in suburban Pennsyl-vania and Washington, D.C. Fiveyears later, Horizon was sold ina series of deals for the $575 mil-lion, but Mr. Kalogris and his fel-low managers got to share just$10 million of that among them.This only made him determinedto get more of the action, so hefound backers in J.P. Morgan,Chase Capital Partners and DesaiCapital Management to give him10 percent of Triton as compen-sation for running the deal. Themoney flowed in: Even beforethe bonds were placed, Mr. Kalo-gris got a $425 million bank re-volver loan and $140 million inequity commitments. That andjunk bond proceeds built his sys-tem, and he has since neverlooked back.

Mr. Kalogris has consistentlydistinguished himself as a leaderin the highly competitive wire-less industry, and is a formerboard member as well as formerchairman of the CellularTelecommunications & InternetAssociation (CTIA).

26KOSTA & TOMKARTSOTIS

$400 MILLIONWATCHESLEATHER ACCESSORIES

Kosta Kartsotis, 58, is director& CEO of Fossil Inc., and TomKartsotis, 51, served his last termas chairman of the board lastyear. One of the hottest stocks atthe moment, Fossil is based inRichardson, Texas. It sells prod-ucts in 100 countries around theworld. In 2010 stock prices morethan doubled for the company,with a 40% increase in globalsales. Kosta Kartsotis holds a 9.4% share in the company.

Founded by Tom Kartsotis in1984, Fossil is a designer andmanufacturer of clothing and ac-cessories, primarily watches andjewelry, but also sunglasses andwallets. Its brands include Fossil,Relic, Abacus, Michele Watchand Zodiac. Fossil watches arecommon in middle-income retailstores, as well as at most depart-ment stores. Fossil also branchedinto the sale of leather goods andother accessories in the 1990’s.Fossil’s desire to establish a Swisspresence led to the purchase ofZodiac Watch in 2001 to offer ahigher-end brand. The 2004 pur-chase of Michele Watch com-pleted the cycle by offering ahigh-end Swiss watch with de-signer flair. Fossil has also beenvery successful with its ownbrands, and this success has ledto companies coming to Fossil tocreate licensed watch lines. Thewatch lines Fossil designs, man-ufactures and distributes includeBurberry, DKNY, Emporio Ar-mani, Columbia Sportswear,Diesel, Michael Kors, Marc Ja-cobs and Adidas. Fossil also pro-duces collectibles, some of whichare based on popular films orpop culture characters. Previousdesigns have included Super-man, Batman, Pirates of theCaribbean, Star Wars, andChronicles of Narnia. Vintage re-issue handbags and build-your-own watches are among theirproducts.

27D. JAMESBIDZOS

$350 MILLION COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

Mr. Bidzos, 55, is founder ofVeriSign, which is the SSL Cer-tificate provider of choice forover 95% of the Fortune 500 and96 of the world’s 100 largestbanks. The company secures bil-lions of online transactions everyday and has 2,650 employersworldwide. In 2010, the com-pany’s authentication serviceswere purchased by Symantec for$1.28 billion. Bidzos still chairsits VeriSign Inc. operations.

Born in Greece, he came tothe United States as a boy. Hisfather worked as a barber, andhis mother managed a restau-rant. A former computer pro-grammer, he is credited withforeseeing the need for onlinesecurity in the early 1990’s. Mr.Bidzos is an Internet and securityindustry pioneer whose accom-plishments include building RSASecurity, an Internet identity andaccess management solutionprovider, into the early standard-bearer for authentication and en-

cryption, and launching VeriSignas a spin-off in 1995 to developthe digital certificate infrastruc-ture for Internet commerce.VeriSign operates infrastructureservices which enable and pro-tect billions of interactions everyday across the world’s voice,video and data networks.

The Mountainview, Califor-nia-based VeriSign (now movedto Dulles, Virginia) offered a va-riety of Internet and communi-cations-related services in itsglobal affiliate network. VeriSignmanaged two of the world’s 13Internet root servers, a.root-servers.net and j.root-servers.net,considered national IT assets bythe U.S. Federal government.Since 2007, the company hasbeen focusing on its core busi-ness and whittling away lessprofitable side efforts. In 2009 itsold its security service businessto SecureWorks and its securityconsulting business to AT&T.Verisign focuses now on its in-ternet infrastructure services.Among the company’s servicesare providing .com, .net, .cc, .tv,.name and .jobs domain namesfor websites. Mr. Bidzos servedas VeriSign’s first president andCEO. He also served as chairmanof its board of directors fromApril 1995 until December 2001,and as vice chairman from De-cember 2001 to July 2007. Heserved as president and CEO ofRSA Security from 1988 to Feb-ruary 1999, and then served asRSA’s vice chairman from 1999to May 2002. He has beennamed one of TIME magazine’s“Digital 50,” and is in CRN’s“Computer Industry Hall ofFame.”

27NICHOLASGALAKATOS,

PH.D$350 MILLIONBIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Galakatos, 53, joinedForbes “Midas List” in 2009,ranked 24th out of 100 corporateexecutives. He has been Manag-ing Director of Clarus Venturessince the Cambridge, Massachu-setts-based firm’s inception in2005. Clarus Ventures is a lifesciences venture capital firmfounded by a team of “accom-plished investment professionalswith extensive and complemen-tary industry backgrounds whichhave enabled them to establisha long history of success in cre-ating value,” according to itsw e b s i t e(www.clarusventures.com),which also reports $1.2 billionof assets under its management“across two life sciences dedi-cated funds.”

Dr. Galakatos has over twodecades of industry and invest-ment experience in the health-care sector. From 1997 to 2000,he was vice president of NewBusiness at Millennium Pharma-ceuticals, a leading biopharma-ceuticals company purchased bythe Takeda Oncology Companyfor $8.8 billion in May 2008, anda member of its managementteam. During that time Dr.Galakatos co-founded Millen-nium Predictive Medicine andTransForm Pharmaceuticals,where he was chairman. Prior tohis stint at Millennium, he wasan associate at Venrock Associ-ates focusing on early stagebiotechnology investments. Be-fore Venrock, he was head ofMolecular Biology Research atNovartis.

Born in Athens and raised inThessaloniki, where he studiedat Anatolia College. Dr.Galakatos earned his doctoratein Organic Chemistry from MITbefore post-doctoral studies atHarvard Medical School. UntilDecember 31, 2009, he was thelead director of Affymax, a bio-pharmaceutical company creat-ing novel drugs for patients suf-fering from kidney disease. AfterAffymax went public in 2006, Dr.Galakatos raised $660 million forthe company in 2008. Still, Dr.Galakatos “made out well with2007 sale of Hypnion to Eli Lillyfor $315 million,” Forbes re-ported. Hypnion, where Dr.Galakatos was also lead director,was engaged in the discoveryand development of therapeuticdrugs to treat disorders of thecentral nervous system, particu-larly sleep and wake-alertnessdisorders and circadian rhythmabnormalities.

He is also director of cancer

therapy companies Aveo andPortola. He and his wife, Alice,have two sons. Dr. Galakatos ison Anatolia College’s board oftrustees.

29. PETERKARMANOS JR.

$340 MILLION COMPUTER SOFTWAREPROFESSIONAL HOCKEY

Mr. Karmanos, 67, is theowner of the National HockeyLeague’s Carolina Hurricanesand CEO of Compuware Corpo-ration, a Detroit-based softwarecompany with products aimed atthe information technology de-partments of large businesses.

Compuware’s services also in-clude testing, development andmanagement software for pro-grams running on mainframecomputer and client-server sys-tems. Compuware customers in-clude 46 of the top 50 Fortune500 companies, with 12 of thetop 20 U.S. most-visited sites.Compuware develops, marketsand supports systems softwareproducts designed to improvethe performance of informationtechnology organizations. Thecompany also provides profes-sional services, which includebusiness systems analysis, de-sign, communication, program-ming and implementation, aswell as software conversion andsystems planning and consulting.The company’s stock has beenclimbing in recent years, up from$5.50 in March 2009 to just un-der $11 last month. The com-pany’s capitalization increasedfrom $1.82 billion to $2.3 billion.

Born into a Greek immigrantfamily, Mr. Karmanos’ fatherowned a diner, where he ran thecash register as a young boy. Mr.Karmanos did not actually startspeaking English until he was ingrade school. He graduated fromWayne State University andfounded Compuware in 1973with two partners, ThomasThewes and Allen Cutting. Hehas announced that he’d retirefrom Compuware in 2013.

Mr. Karmanos also co-founded the Detroit CompuwareHockey organization in the late1970’s. The organization in-cludes all levels of hockey fromrecreational to AAA & Junior Aleagues. The Ontario HockeyLeague awarded an expansionfranchise in December 1989known as the Detroit Com-puware Ambassadors. The teamlater became the Detroit JuniorRed Wings, and is now called thePlymouth Whalers. Mr. Kar-manos also purchased the NHL’sHartford Whalers for $48 millionin 1994. The team was movedto North Carolina and renamedthe Carolina Hurricanes after the1996-97 season. Mr. Karmanosreceived the Lester Patrick Tro-phy for outstanding service tohockey after the 1997-98 season.The team went onto win theStanley Cup in 2006, and isworth a reported $162 milliontoday, but Karmanos is lookingto sell half the team.

Mr. Karmanos is remarriedand resides in Michigan with histhird wife, Danialle, and theirtwin sons Socrates and Leonidas.He has three sons from his firstmarriage, Peter III, Nick and Ja-son and eight grandchildren. Hisfirst wife, Barbara Ann, died ofbreast cancer. He has donatedmillions to cancer research in hermemory, and the Barbara AnnKarmanos Cancer Institute (for-merly the Prentis Cancer Center)is one of the country’s leadingcancer centers, and the only ma-jor cancer center named after awoman. This spring, work is ex-pected to begin on a new $5 mil-lion Karmanos Cancer Institutecenter building in Detroit.

30JAMES DIMON

$335 MILLIONCORPORATEADMINISTRATION

Mr. Dimon, 54, is chairman& CEO of JPMorgan Chase, oneof the country’s largest banks.Currently ranked 79th amongForbes highest paid CEO’s, whichlists his five-year compensationat $109.96 million and stockownership at $226.3 million, Mr.Dimon has managed to keep JP-Morgan well ahead of the curvesince taking the helm in 2006.At a time when all the country’s

major banks – e.g., Bank ofAmerica and Citigroup – arebarely managing to stay afloat,the $2 trillion-in-assets bank isthriving, earning Mr. Dimonpraise from President Obamaand the respect of his peers. Hehas been on Time magazine’s listof 100 most influential peoplethree times since 2006.

Mr. Dimon was born in NewYork. His grandfather, a Greekimmigrant from Smyrna, was abroker and passed his knowledgeof the business onto his son andpartner Theodore, Mr. Dimon’sfather. As a boy, Mr. Dimon at-tended the Browning School, aprestigious all-boys prep schoolon the Upper East Side. He latermajored in Psychology and Eco-nomics at Tufts University, andearned his MBA from HarvardUniversity Business School. Upongraduating in 1982, SanfordWeill convinced him to turndown offers from GoldmanSachs and Morgan Stanley, andjoin him as an assistant at Amer-ican Express. Through a series ofunprecedented mergers and ac-quisitions which ensued, theyformed Citigroup, then thelargest financial services con-glomerate in the world. Mr. Weillwas the one who made the deals,but Mr. Dimon was the “whizkid” who made the numberswork. Mr. Dimon left Citigroupin November 1998 due to an in-ternal conflict with Mr. Weill.

He serves on the boards of di-rectors of the Federal ReserveBank of New York, the ClearingHouse, the United Negro CollegeFund and Harvard BusinessSchool. He serves on the execu-tive committee of the BusinessCouncil, Business Roundtableand the Partnership for New YorkCity, and is a member of the Fi-nancial Services Forum, Finan-cial Services Roundtable andCouncil on Foreign Relations.Heis married to Judith Kent, withwhom he has three daughters.

31JAMES T.DEMETRIADES

$315 MILLIONCOMPUTER SOFTWARE

Mr. Demetriades, 48, is thefounder of SeeBeyond Technol-ogy Corporation (formerly Soft-ware Technologies Corporation),a software company which wassold to Sun Microsystems for$387 million in June 2005. Mr.Demetriades was raised in a fam-ily of scientists, and wrote hisfirst software program at the ageof 9. A child prodigy, he beganhis scientific career at the Cali-fornia Institute of Technologywhen he was just 11 years old,and is a 1980 graduate of theWebb School. He is one of thepioneers in EAI (enterprise ap-plication integration) technology.

Mr. Demetriades was inter-ested in computers from an earlyage. His father was a scientist atCaltech, providing him access toa computer while most of hispeers were still churning outterm papers on electric typewrit-ers. When his dad went into busi-ness designing portable rocketengines, Mr. Demetriades alsoabsorbed the day-to-day func-tions of an entrepreneur, includ-ing mundane tasks like balancingthe budget and payroll.

After graduating from LoyolaMarymount with a dual major inComputer Science and Econom-ics and a minor in Business Mar-keting, Mr. Demetriades workedfor two companies designingsoftware for insurance compa-nies and hospitals. When he no-ticed that work being repeatedup to 70 percent of the time, hecreated a product which wouldreduce the cost and time neces-sary to integrate applications. “Itook the idea to my boss, and hesaid he didn’t want to focus onthat aspect of the job, so I said,‘Do you mind if I quit and workon this?’” In less than a decade,Demetriades found himself at thehelm of a multi-million dollar,publicly-traded company. In1989, he was developing inter-face engines to integrate appli-cations running on a variety ofproprietary operating systems. In1991, he founded STC, whichwas based in the Los Angelessuburb of Monrovia. STC becameone of the leading providers ofintegration solutions. Startingwith one employee and one cus-tomer, Mr. Demetriades turnedit into a company with more

than 200 staff members workingon R&D, and 350 professionalssupporting more than 1,000 EAIinstallations worldwide. “I in-vented something new, and withthat there was a certain amountof self doubt at first, but confi-dence is something that is key toan entrepreneur’s success. Weare all born with a variety of skill,luck and other attributes. Thereal potential is in our ownminds,” he told the Webb Schoolback in August 2007. The WebbSchool now has a James T.Demetriades ’80 Endowed Prizefor Unbounded Teaching. Mr.Demetriades has devoted the lastfew years to raising (and home-schooling) his six children, withhis wife Nancy. Recently, he hasinvested in a hotel, bar and tworestaurants on six acres in Mam-moth Lakes, California. An avidyachtsman, he has won both Cal-ifornia’s Big Boat Series and LongBeach Race week. He is on theboard of the Children’s Lifelinecharity.

32ANGELIKIFRANGOU

$310 MILLION SHIPPING

Angeliki Frangou, 45, is theChairman of the Board and ChiefExecutive Officer of Navios Mar-itime Holdings, a leading mar-itime company with a fleet ofmore than 60 dry bulk vesselsand an additional 20-30 vesselsfor short- or medium-term em-ployment. It’s a position she’sheld since 2005. The NYSE-listedcompany’s market capitalizationis currently about $491.95 mil-lion; its enterprise value is $2.59billion. The company maintainsoffices in New York, as well asGreece, Uruguay and Belgium.Ms. Frangou is also the Chair-man and Chief Executive Officerof Navios Maritime Partners, L.P.(NYSE: NMM) and Navios Mar-itime Acquisition Corporation(NYSE: NNA).

Ms. Frangou’s father, Capt.Nikolaos Frangos, has been run-ning one of the major Greekshipping companies, Good Faith,for more than 40 years.

By the end of the ‘90s, Mr.Frangos’ company was thelargest company in terms of

Greek-owned vessels. While re-ceiving the Aristeon Award fromthe Hellenic American Women’sCouncil in November 2009, Ms.Frangou said of her father, “Hetaught me that ingenuity andhealthy skepticism of conven-tional wisdom are the buildingblocks of success.”

Prior to taking on her currentrole, Ms. Frangou received abachelor's degree in mechanicalengineering from Fairleigh Dick-inson University (summa cumlaude) and a master's degree inmechanical engineering from Co-lumbia University. From 1987 to1989, she was an analyst on thetrading floor of Republic Na-tional Bank of New York.

From 1990 until October2001, Ms. Frangou was the chiefexecutive officer of Franser Ship-ping S.A., a company in Piraeus,Greece. In 2004, she served asChairman, Chief Executive Offi-cer and President of Interna-tional Shipping Enterprises, untilISE's acquisition of and mergerinto Navios Holdings in 2005.Ms. Frangou was also a memberof the board of directors of Em-poriki Bank of Greece, the sec-ond largest retail bank in Greece,from April 2004 to July 2005.Ms. Frangou is the Chairman ofthe board of directors of IRF Eu-ropean Finance Investments Ltd.,listed on the AIM of the LondonStock Exchange. She was alsoChairman of the board of direc-tors of Proton Bank, based inAthens, Greece, from June 2006until September 2008. She isVice Chairman of the Mediter-ranean Committee of the ChinaClassification Society and is amember of the Hellenic andBlack Sea Committee of BureauVeritas as well as a member ofthe Greek Committee of NipponKaiji Kyokai.

Ms. Frangou has received nu-merous awards, including theDry Cargo Company of the YearAward in 2009 and the News-maker of the Year award byLloyd’s List in 2009. She wasnamed the Connecticut MaritimeAssociation Commodore for theyear 2011. She has developed a



reputation as an impressive in-vestor and philanthropist.

33MICHAEL D.CAPELLAS


Mr. Capellas, 56, was chair-man & CEO of First Data Corpo-ration (FDC), the world’s leadingpayment processing company,from 2007 to 2010. He is nowChairman and CEO of VCE, theVirtual Computing EnvironmentCompany, formed by Cisco andEMC with investments fromVMware and Intel, offering tech-nology products and solutionsfor cloud-based computing. Heis on the board of Cisco, a multi-national corporation networkingand communications technologyand services company that isranked 75th on Forbes Global2000 list in 2010 with 63,900employees and reported net salesdipping from $39.5 billion in2008 to 35.53 in 2010. He wasalso senior advisor for SilverLake Partners, a $13 billion pri-vate equity firm focused on mak-ing large-scale investments inleading technology companies,from October 2006 to July 2007.

Mr. Capellas’ earlier executiveroles include chairman & CEO ofCompaq Computer Corporationbetween 1999 and 2001. Follow-ing Hewlett-Packard’s acquisitionof Compaq, he stayed on as pres-ident of HP for six months toease the integration of the twocompanies. He then left HP tobecome chairman & CEO of MCIWorldCom between 2002 and2006, presiding over the even-tual Verizon-MCI merger. He hadjoined WorldCom, which was inbankruptcy, to help it overcomea massive accounting scandal.After the transfer to Verizon wascompleted, Mr. Capellas receiveda $40 million severance package.

A 30-year veteran of the ITindustry, he took charge of FirstData shortly after KohlbergKravis Roberts acquired thecredit card giant for $29 billionin April 2007. In 1992, First Dataspun off from American Express.It handles e-commerce process-ing services, including merchantand bank transactions, credit, re-tail and debit card issuing andprocessing. It also providesmoney orders and paper checkprocessing. Forbes ranked FDC26th this past October (up from#36 the previous year) amongthe country’s largest private com-panies, with its 2009 revenuesat $9.31 billion.

Mr. Capellas says he inheritedhis gritty determination from hisfather, a Greek citizen whofought with the Greek Armyagainst the Germans in Italy dur-ing World War II. After the War,the elder Capellas met and mar-ried his wife Juliet in Italy. Thefamily then immigrated to Ohio,where Mr. Capellas’ fatherworked his way up from laborerto superintendent at the RepublicSteel Corporation, where heworked for 30 years. Mr. Capel-las developed an interest in com-puters as an undergraduate atKent State University. Shortly af-ter he graduated, he met hiswife, Marie Angelillo, a formernurse. The two married in 1979,and traveled the world for twodecades as Mr. Capellas’ businessreputation grew. He was a seniorvice president of Oracle Corpo-ration in 1997-98. He is credited,in his work with Compaq, withmaking it Microsoft’s key strate-gic partner for the release of itsWindows 2000 operating sys-tem. In December 2006, Mr.Capellas was appointed actingCEO of Serena Software, se-lected by Silver Lake, which tookSerena private in March 2006.

Mr. Capellas and his wifehave two children. He likes golfand rock and roll. He is also ac-tively involved in communityand charitable work. In 2002, hebecame the first recipient of theHope Technology Award fromthe Center for Missing & Ex-ploited Children. He is a memberof the Board of Governors of theBoys & Girls Clubs of America.Mr. Capellas previously servedas a member of the AmericanUniversity Board of Trustees, andis recognized as a global thoughtleader in the technology industry.Thanks to Facebook, says Mr.



It’s Superbowl weekend, andthe Catsimatidis family ispreparing for daughter An-drea Catsimatidis’ Super-

bowl party at their Manhattanapartment. But Red AppleGroup CEO and Chairman bil-lionaire John Catsimatidis takesa few minutes out to speak toThe National Herald about hispath to success, a major earlydecision/turning point and whyhe chooses to invest in educa-tion for the future.

Here are a few of thethoughts of the businessmanfrom the Dodecanese island ofNissiros, who climbed to the topwith his Gristedes supermarketschain – and expanded his busi-ness into real estate and petro-leum interests, making Red Ap-ple Group one of the top privatecompanies in the U.S.

TNH: What are the compo-nents of success? What do youattribute to luck versus hardwork?

JC: Success comes from hardwork. You know part of myGreek blood –and I was born inGreece and raised in a Greekhousehold – to be successful,you have to work hard. And ifyou are working 12 hours a day,five days a week and you arenot being successful, then youwork 14 hours a day or 16 hoursa day, 7 days a week. But partof our Greek heritage, the waywe grew up with immigrants,was you do what you have todo to be successful. A little bitof good luck always helps.

To be successful you have towork hard, you have to have tohave good relationships withpeople. You can’t be arrogant;people don’t like arrogant peo-ple.... Number 2, be accommo-dating to people – and a littlebit of luck “pantote” (always)helps.

TNH: Tell us about an earlyturning point in your career?

JC: I started very young. Iwas going to New York Univer-sity and in my junior year all ofa sudden the problem was, thecrisis, how well do I do inschool, how hard do I work –and having a full time job, sevendays a week at the same time.So something had to give. I at-tended New York University forfour years, got a great educa-tion. But because of my work, I

was eight credits short and Inever got my degree. Talking tothe president of New York Uni-versity now, John Sexton, hesays to me, ‘Well why don’t youfinish your eight credits.’ And Isaid to him, ‘Well I’ll considercoming back and teaching acourse for those eight credits’....

The thing at that point was Iwas going to be an engineer andengineers back in 1969, 1970were making, I don’t remember,$10,000 a year, $15,000 a year

and that was considered a goodsalary at that time. But I wasworking at the same time in mybusiness and I was making $50- $70,000 a year.

When I was about to finishuniversity and I continued in mybusiness, my mother cried, myfather yelled, ‘We sent you tothe university to become a‘hamali’” –that’s the Greek Turk-ish word I guess for a laborer -because I was earning a lot ofmoney, but I was working sevendays a week, 14 hours a day....

But further than discussionwith my parents, even though Istarted with that one little store,I used my education to create abusiness. Part of me is I love tocreate. I hate people that de-stroy. Creation. So we took itfrom one store, when I was 19,

20 years old, to ten stores withinthree years. So I was using myeducation to create a business.So I was all of a sudden runninga business, instead of being ahamali in one store. So thatmade my parents feel better thatI was using my education to dosomething that was great forme, the family and the commu-nity.

TNH: Which of your char-ity/philanthropic work is dear-est to your heart?

JC: I had many mentors. AndI was taught that you have tobalance your life. You balanceyour life through your family,your business, your religion andthen your charity work...

My first charities that Istarted, remembering that Igrew up in a very poor neigh-borhood on 135th Street in NewYork, which was consideredHarlem, I went to work, in myspare time, on children’s pro-jects. I worked for the BoyScouts, I worked for the PoliceAthletic League. What happens,you address kids and you try tohelp them and guide them...Re-cently at a Police AthleticLeague party ...I looked at these1,000 kids we had at this partyand it was at 145th street inHarlem and I scratched my head

and looked at them, it wasaround Christmastime, and Isaid, How many of these kidswill be able to escape theghetto? ... We can’t save all1,000, but if we can save 100,and give them a better life, thanthat I consider success.

TNH: What advice do youhave for young people toachieve success?

JC: The best advice I give tothe next generation is that theworld is changing. Everybodycan’t do what I did. There aredifferent parameters. But there’sno substitution for hard workand you have to be able to lookat the changes. What I look at isthe forks in the road. Every timeyou grow up and get an educa-tion, there are different forks inthe road. You have to choose theright forks in the road that leadto success. Choosing the rightforks is very important for a newyoung man growing up to bevery successful.

TNH: As a prominent GreekAmerican, what do you do tomaintain a positive image forcommunity?

JC: You wake up one morn-ing and your realize that youmight be a role model for thecommunity, for future genera-tions and future kids and youtry to do the right thing. You tryto go down the right road whereyou are not ashamed of whatyou are doing. The Greeks, myparents, raised me to be able tohold my head up high. I still canhear my mother, my father’swords if I did something wrong:“Den Drepese?!” (Aren’t youashamed)- and I would put myhead down and did not want todisappoint my parents. So youwant to do the right thing andnot disappoint your parents.Then, when you lose your par-ents and you don’t have any-body else, you don’t want to dis-appoint the community.

TNH:We at the paper appre-ciate, for one, that you tell usyour honest opinion on issueswhen we call.

JC: You have to be able totalk through your heart and tellpeople what you really feel andconvince people that that is thecorrect way to feel because ofthe situation. And I think that isvery important too.

Find the interview on ourwebsite at www.thenational-herald.com/video/1821.

John Catsimatidis on Working Hard and Giving

John Catsimatidis believes that success is based in large parton hard work. He also believes in giving young people a helpinghand.

Rania Mesiskli’s paintings are an imaginary city where optimism has freereign, a kaleidoscopic journey into the heart of entertainment. The eclectic cast of char-acters draws spectators into a fanciful, dreamlike world. The dynamism and unbridledenergy of the characters and it’s exuberant fauna are expressed in the colors of the cos-tumes. Colors that evoke the liveliness and excitement of the entertainment industry.Every costume brings a unique approach and knowledge to the task. Each drawing con-stituting a poem or picture that allows the artist to get to know the character she paintsbetter. She begins her research by drawing inspiration from a variety of sources: film,literature, opera, fashion, art movements, magazines, history or science books and, ofcourse, her own imagination. The paintings of Rania Mesiskli offer a glimpse of ecstasyat the heart of madness, of light at the heart of darkness. The human spirit remains im-placable despite profound changes and uncertainty, despite all the trials and tribulations,indomitable is the face of adversity. Her art celebrates this vital strength, which is drivenby the thirst for renewal. A gallery of intensely theatrical characters rooted in universalarchetypes, tinged with romanticism, commedia dell’arte traditions and the age ofbaroque with elements from Africa and the Arabian Nights thrown in.

Rania Mesiskli conveys beauty, a feast for the eyes, and awaken the sensesand the imagination by transforming her vision into something real. What makes herwork so striking is the honesty and expressiveness. The faces of the entertainers on hercanvases are vibrant and alive, their eyes full of hope and curiosity, laughter and pen-siveness, confidence and doubt. By considering the portrait, the viewer can begin to un-derstand and perhaps even relate to the many stories behind the face.

Rania Mesiskli holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from the Nationaland Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and she is a mother of two boys. She was a private tutor inGreece from 1985 to 1994, teaching Greek language, history and sociology. She is an accomplished performer,placed first out of two thousand contestants, in a singing competition in Greece, for Legend RecordingsCompany. She has performed live shows for up to 15,000 people and she worked as lead singer with role invarious choreographies. She was a hostess on a live TV entertainment show in Greece, and acted as differentcharacters in small theatrical plays during the show, covering socially relevant topics. She is a correspondentof the Greek Overseas Press ( E.A.E.T.E. ) and she is an article contributor for Greek newspaper in New Yorkcovering social subjects such as: inner self, relationships and career. The newspaper section is “The SimpleLife”, with a different photo of Rania every week. As a painter, she had six group exhibitions in Manhattan,New York, from January 2008 to May 2010, and a solo exhibition in Times Square, New York, in September2010. One of the paintings (“Acquired Tastes”) was the cover page of High Class Living Magazine, Jan.–Feb. 2010, and there were 48 publications in three years about her work as an artist (New York ). Her upcoming exhibition is in May 2011 at Agora Gallery in Chelsea, New York.

RANIA MESISKLI:PAINTINGS WITH FABULOSITY OVERLOAD

www.raniamesiskli.comwww.youtube.com/user/MadonnaRania

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The Artist Rania Mesiskli at her solo exhibition, Sept. 2010.

Capellas, he’s more connectedthan ever with family membersin Greece.

33JAMES S.CHANOS

$300 MILLIONINVESTMENT

Mr. Chanos, 53, is the founderand president of Kynikos Associ-ates, the world’s biggest short-selling hedge fund. A second-generation Greek American, MrChanos, grew up in Milwaukee.His father owned a chain of drycleaners in Milwaukee and hismother worked as an office man-ager at a steel company. Hefounded Kynikos Associates - (inGreek, kynikos means cynic)- in1985 after a Wall Street careeras a financial analyst with PaineWebber, Gilford Securities andDeutsche Bank. Jim Levitas, hisformer boss, partnered with MrChanos to launch Kynikos Asso-ciates with $16 million. A yearlater, Mr. Levitas, unable to en-dure the stress of short selling,left the company. Estimates ofthe company’s assets under man-agement range from over $1 toover $4 billion. The company hasoffices in New York and London.In late 2010, he created KriticosInternational, a new hedge fund.

Mr. Chanos has a long historyof making shrewd predictionshaving identified several finan-cial meltdowns such as BostonChicken, Conesco and Tyco In-ternational. In 2000 he startedinvestigating Enron Corporation.In 2001, predicting the com-pany’s financial problems, he be-came Enron’s short seller. By thetime the Enron scandal was pub-lic, Kynikos Associates profitedgreatly. Financial magazine Bar-ron’s mentioned his early predic-tion of Enron’s fall as “the marketcall of the decade, if not the pastfifty years.” Later on, he success-fully predicted Sotheby’s stockdrop –it plummeted between No-vember 2007 from $57 to $10.In March 2006, Mr. Chanos cre-

ated the Coalition of Private In-vestment Companies, an organi-zation aiming at promotinghedge funds in Washington.

He appears regularly in theAmerican media giving financialadvices and predictions. He haslong been considered a “mediaoperator” with a strong relation-ship with journalists that respectand promote his ideas. He hasrecently declared, against pre-vailing sentiments, that China’seconomy will crash. Mr. Chanosis a graduate of Yale University,where he studied economics. Hehas four children.

33JOHN A.THAIN


Mr. Thain, 55, was born inthe United Kingdom and grewup in Antioch, Illinois. His fatherwas an officer in the U.S. AirForce, and his mother is a GreekAmerican from Indiana. In 2010he became chairman and CEOof lender CIT, aiming to bringthe bailed-out company backfrom the brink of bankruptcy.

Known as Wall Street’s clean-up man, he was previously CEOat the NYSE and president and

chief operations officer and CFOof Goldman Sachs. Mr. Thain re-ceived starting compensationworth about $50 million at Mer-rill Lynch in 2007 as chairmanand CEO. He received an addi-tional $19 million to make upfor stock awards, and receiveda $15 million cash sign-in bonusin December 2007. His initialpay included a salary of$750,000; restricted stock worth$28 million at current marketvalues; and a three-tier grant of1.8 million stock options worthabout $20 million, by conserva-tive valuation assumptions.

Less than a year after takingthe helm of the storied firm,even Mr. Thain couldn’t saveMerrill from the economic col-lapse, which claimed the lives ofseveral Wall Street giants likeBear Stearns and Lehman Broth-ers. However he still managedto cut the best possible deal forMerrill stockholders by facilitat-ing Merrill’s $50 billion acquisi-tion by Bank of America, thenthe country’s largest commercialbank. The deal worked out okayfor Merrill Lynch, but it turnedout to be a disaster for Bank ofAmerica, whose stock plum-meted dramatically in 2007 and2008. Mr. Thain, who becamethe number-2 man at Bank ofAmerica after the merger was

complete, was fired by BA CEOKen Lewis at the end of January2009 because of an additional$15.3 billion in losses at the endof 2008. He also saw to it thatMerrill execs got $3.6 billion innow-controversial bonuses be-fore the merger was finalized.

Mr. Thain earned his bache-lor’s degree in Electrical Engi-neering from MIT in 1977 andhis MBA from Harvard BusinessSchool in 1979. He is a memberof the MIT Corporation, theDean’s Advisory Council at theMIT Sloan School of Manage-ment, U.S. National AdvisoryBoard, James Madison Councilof the Library of Congress, Fed-eral Reserve Bank of New York’sInternational Capital MarketsAdvisory Committee, theFrench-American Foundation,the National Urban League’sboard of trustees, and the NewYork Presbyterian Foundation,which he served as governor. Heand his wife Carmen have fourchildren. The family establishedthe Thain Family Cafe at Yale,where their daughter Nicole wasa student.

36WILLIAM S.STAVROPOULOS,

PH.D$275 MILLIONCORPORATEADMINISTRATION

Dr. Stavropoulos, 71, is a di-rector at Tyco International Lim-ited, a major diversified, multi-national company that is aleading provider of securityproducts and services, fire pro-tection and detection productsand services, valves and con-trols, and other industrial prod-ucts.

He joined Tyco in March2007. Tyco is headquartered inNew Jersey. It employs over100,000 people worldwide. InMay 2007, just two months afterDr. Stavropoulos became aboard member, Tyco agreed topay almost $3 billion to de-frauded investors, the largest

such payment ever made by asingle company. The company’s2010 revenue was over $17 bil-lion.

Prior to joining Tyco, Dr.Stavropoulos was chairman,president & CEO of The DowChemical Company, where hiscareer spanned 39 years. His ca-reer with Dow began in Indi-anapolis with pharmaceutical re-search in 1967. While he waswith Dow, he held various posi-tions in research, marketing andgeneral management. He alsoserved in a variety of researchand business positions in phar-maceuticals and diagnostics. Dr.Stavropoulos was named presi-dent of Dow USA in 1990, andwas elected vice president ofDow Chemical Company. Hewas then elected a senior vicepresident of Dow in May 1991,and became chief operating of-ficer in 1993. He served as CEOin 1995-2000 and again in 2002-04, and was a member of Dow’sboard of directors from July1990 to March 2006 (he wassucceeded by Andrew Liveris, aGreek Australian). He is Chair-man Emeritus of the company.

Dr. Stavropoulos holds aBachelor of Science degree fromFordham University and a doc-

torate in medicinal chemistryfrom the University of Washing-ton. He is a director of ChemicalFinancial Corporation, TeradataCorporation, Maersk Inc. andTyco International LTD. He is atrustee of the Fidelity Equity andHigh Income Funds’ Board andis an Advisory Partner of Clay-ton, Dubilier & Rice LLC. Dr.Stavropoulos is non-executivechairman of Univar. He is on theAdvisory Board for MetalmarkCapital LLC. Dr. Stavropoulosis also a past chairman of theAmerican Chemistry Council,Society of Chemical Industry,and American Plastics Council.Just a few of his many awardsand honors are AHEPA’s Man ofthe Year (1995), an honoraryDoctor of Laws Degree fromNorthwood University (1998),the Ellis Island Medal of Honor(1998) and induction into Ju-nior Achievement of CentralMichigan’s Business Hall ofFame (2005). “Institutional In-vestor” magazine named himone of America’s best CEO’sthree times (1998, 2003 and2004). In 2010, he was namedan Archon of the Ecumenical Pa-triarchate and was inducted intothe Midland County Sports Hallof Fame as a Professional Base-ball Visionary (for work includ-ing founding the Michigan Base-ball Foundation in 2005). Dr.Stavropoulos and his wife Lindahave two children, Bill and An-gela.

37SOTIRIOSVAHAVIOLOS

$260-$275 MILLIONASSET PROTECTIONSOLUTIONS

Dr. Sotirios J. Vahaviolos isthe Founder, Chairman and CEOof Mistras Group, the New Jer-sey-based global provider oftechnology-enabled asset protec-tion solutions used to evaluatethe structural integrity, safetyand efficiency of critical energy,industrial and public infrastruc-ture.

With more than 17 locationsin 15 countries, Mistras Groupprovides the majority of theirservices to clients on a regular,recurring outsourced basis. Itmonitors daily such historicbridges as the Ben Franklinbridge in Philadelphia, the Sev-ern bridge connecting Englandand Wales, platforms and oil rigsin places including the NorthSea, U.S.-based nuclear powerplants, and other industrial plantfacilities in countries all over theworld daily, through the help ofinternet based online monitoringtechnologies based on satellitesand other links. Internationalclients are in the fields of oil andgas, fossil and nuclear power,public infrastructure, chemicals,aerospace and defense, trans-portation, primary metals andmetalworking, pharmaceuticalsand food processing. Amongthem are American ElectricPower Inc., Bayer AG, BP, Bech-tel Corp., General Electric Co.,Boeing Co., Excelon, ExxonMo-bil, Shell and Valero Energy Co.The Mistras Group combines in-dustry-leading products andtechnologies, expertise in me-chanical integrity (MI) and non-destructive testing (NDT) ser-vices and proprietary dataanalysis software to offer cus-tomized solutions, ranging fromroutine inspections to complex,plant-wide asset integrity assess-ments and management. Thecompany works to extend theuseful life of their assets, in-crease productivity, minimize re-pair costs, comply with govern-mental safety andenvironmental regulations, man-age risk and avoid catastrophicdisasters.

Since going public in theNYSE in October 2009, MIS-TRAS ended fiscal year 2010 at$272.1 million, up from $209.1the previous year for a revenuegrowth of 30%. Since going pub-lic, MISTRAS shares are up by20% ($12.50 to around $15.00).

Dr. Vahaviolos, who was bornin 1946 in historic Mistras, inthe Peloponnese, as a childripped apart electrical machin-ery and rebuilt it for fun – aswell as for better safety in thenewly electrified village. Hecame to United States to studyengineering at Fairleigh Dickin-son University, in New Jersey,where he graduated No.1 in hisScience and Engineering classand went on, as a recipient ofThe Bell Laboratories GraduateStudy Scholarship Program, toget his M.S. and Ph.D. in elec-trical engineering from Colum-bia University. He also receiveda Masters in Philosophy. Hestarted his career at AmericanTelephone & Telegraph's BellLaboratories, where the conceptof acoustic emissions was devel-oped in the late 1940s. WhenDr. Vahaviolos came to the com-pany in the 1970s, he workedout computerized solutions tothe long-standing problem ofhow to filter out irrelevant back-ground noise during acoustic-emission testing, thus makingthe technology useable to detectin real time imperfections,




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cracks and growing corrosion inmaterials and structures.

Dr. Vahaviolos has writtenover 100-technical papers and 3books, amassed numerouspatents and many honors andawards over the years, and be-longs to various professional andscientific organizations, includ-ing the American Society forNon Destructive Testing, for

which he has served as presi-dent, and the International Com-mittee for Nondestructive Test-ing (ICNDT), which collaborateswith the United Nations. A for-mer president of ICNDT, he is aLife Honorary Member of itsboard. (NDT is the testing of ma-terials without interfering withtheir make-up and encompassesa broad range of scientific disci-plines.) Dr. Vahaviolos is mar-ried to Aspasia Nessas Vahavio-los, with whom he has threedaughters: Athanasia Vahavio-los, who runs the Greek Mistras-Envirocoustics company com-pany serving the Balkans andEastern Mediterranean coun-tries, Stephanie-Athena Folia,Mistras’ Benefits Manager, andKristy Vahaviolos-Kyriakopoulos.

38PETERGEORGIOPOULOS

$250 MILLIONSHIPPING INDUSTRY

Mr. Georgiopoulos, 49, isfounder, chairman & CEO ofGeneral Maritime Corporation,

which operates crude oiltankers, mostly in the AtlanticOcean, including ports in theCaribbean, South and CentralAmerica, the United States,Western Africa, the Mediter-ranean, Europe and the NorthSea. The group’s principal activ-ity is providing internationalseaborne crude oil transporta-tion services. Its fleet grew in2009 from 21 to 31 whollyowned vessels, consisting of twovery large crude carriers, 12Aframax-class. 11 Suezmax-class, 2 Panamax-class and 4Handymaxclass vessels. Todaythere are 36. GMC’s customersinclude international oil compa-nies such as Chevron, CITGO,Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil,Hess, Lukoil, and Sun Interna-tional LTD.

Mr. Georgiopoulos is alsofounder and chairman of GencoShipping & Trading LTD, a com-pany listed on the New YorkStock Exchange, and chairmanand director of Aegean MarinePetroleum Network, a marinefuel logistics company also listedon NYSE. Genco Shipping trans-ports dry cargo such as coal, aswell as steel products, througha fleet of 34 oceangoing dry bulkcarriers.

Ninety percent of the globaltrade volume is carried by shipsand facilitated by seaports, whileoil and gas found offshore re-main critical sources of energyto power the world economy.Even as maritime financing facesa tough world-wide market,GMC remains a leader. How-ever, in the first three quartersof 2010, net voyage revenuesdecreased 20.3% to $184.5 mil-lion, compared to $231.5 millionfor the first three quarters of2009. The company’s stockdipped over the past year from$7.8 in January 2010 to abouthalf.

In 2008, Mr. Georgiopoulosfounded the Green MaritimePartners, an investment aimedat funding environmentally sus-tainable businesses in the ship-ping and energy sectors.

Mr. Georgiopoulos, whosefamily hails from Sparta, endedup in a historically traditionalposition as a Greek shippingmagnate though he told the NewYork Times in an April 2007 in-terview, “I never thought of my-self as Greek. My family hasbeen in the United States sincethe 1800’s, I’ve got blond hairand blue eyes, and like most

American kids, I liked only plainfoods like hamburgers andsteak.”

Mr. Georgiopoulos is a grad-uate of Bronx Science and Ford-ham University. His father wasa successful maritime lawyer,and many of his clients werewealthy Greek shipping tycoonswhose lifestyles appealed to theyoung Peter, and when he grad-uated from college, one of themoffered him a job in Athens. Af-ter two years of working forsomeone else, he decided hewanted to start his own shippingcompany, so he left Greece andwent to Dartmouth College,where he earned his MBA. Whenhe graduated in 1985, he took ajob at Drexel Burnham Lambert.He didn’t like investment bank-ing, and still wanted to be hisown boss, but he made a lot ofmoney, and met a lot of people.From 1990 to 1991, he was af-filiated with Mallory Jones Lynch& Associates, an oil tanker bro-kerage firm.

From 1991 to 1997, Mr.Georgiopoulos was the principalof Maritime Equity Manage-ment, a shipping and investmentcompany, which he founded in1991. The company had a Nor-wegian partnership, but whenthat country changed its tax lawsin the 1990’s, and partnershipshares plummeted, Mr. Geor-giopoulos convinced a group ofinvestors to buy some ships, andGMC was born in 1997. Thecompany went public in 2001.

By 2003, it was the fourthlargest tanker company in theworld. And that was when peo-ple started referring to him as aGreek shipping tycoon.

He is a member of the Amer-ican Bureau of Shipping, andlives in a townhouse in Manhat-tan’s Greenwich Village. “I’mproud to be Greek. I got married... and my wife converted toGreek Orthodox. I was namedafter my grandfather, Peter Con-stantine, because that’s theGreek custom. And while I stilllike plain foods best, I’ve learnedto like, and even to cook, Greekfood, too. But I never forget that,if I hadn’t been brought upAmerican, I might never havemade it so big in a classic Greekcareer,” he said. He and his wife,former model/Hair Rules NewYork salon owner Kara Young,have two children.

39STRATTONSCLAVOS

$225 MILLIONCOMPUTERSCELLULAR TECHNOLOGY

Mr. Sclavos, 49, was chair-man, president & chief executiveofficer of VeriSign for 12 yearsbefore he resigned in May 2007,leading that company throughmany acquisitions.

He is now a director at multi-billion-dollar companies JuniperNetworks and Salesforce.com.Juniper designs, develops andsells products and services whichprovide its customers with per-formance network infrastructurewhich creates responsive andtrusted environments over a sin-gle Internet protocol-based net-work. From early 2010 to early2011, Juniper stock enjoyed ahigh of over $39 and a low of$22.25 per share (market value,according to Forbes: $19 bil-lion). He served on the board ofdirectors of Intuit, Inc. from2001 to 2010. Salesforce.comprovides software to businessesof all sizes and industries world-wide. Its stock made a phenom-enal ascent in 2010. He is alsogeneral partner at Radar Part-ners LLC, a private investmentfirm.

Mr. Sclavos earned his bach-elor’s degree in Electrical &Computer Engineering from theUniversity of California in Davis.From October 1993 to June1995, he was vice president ofworldwide marketing & sales for

Taligent Inc., a software devel-opment company which was ajoint venture among Apple Com-puter, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.He joined VeriSign in July 1995as one of its first employees.Since joining VeriSign, he helpedestablish the company as aglobal corporation used by mil-lions of consumers and busi-nesses daily as they interact onthe world’s voice and data net-works. Mr. Sclavos led the com-pany through a decade of robustgrowth and technological inno-vation. His last years withVeriSign were taken up with in-vestigations into the company’sstock option program, but it isnot believed that Mr. Sclavospersonally benefited from theoption grants in question,though it did occur under hiswatch.

Mr. Sclavos was born to sec-ond-generation Greek Americanparents in San Francisco. He stilllives in California with his wifeJody and their two children. Alifelong Bay Area resident, Mr.Sclavos formed the Sclavos Fam-ily Foundation to support chari-table efforts in children’s educa-tion and medical research. Helikes to play basketball. In June2002, he was honored with theErnst & Young Northern Califor-nia Entrepreneur of the YearAward. He was also honoredwith the 2001 Morgan StanleyMorgan Leadership Award forGlobal Commerce; named toForbes’ Top 50 CEO’s list; andserved alongside 30 technologyexperts on former PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s National Se-curity Telecommunications Ad-visory Committee.

40CHRIS &HARRIS PAPPAS

$200 MILLION

Brothers Christopher J., 62,and Harris Pappas, 64, todaylead privately-owned PappasRestaurants, Inc. – a companyoperating over 90 restaurants inseven states. Chris Pappas is thecompany’s CEO. His brother isits president. The Nation’sRestaurant News placed thecompany #70 in its listing of Top100 companies in 2010 (basedon 2009 figures), with $480 mil-lion, when it came to U.S. Food-service Revenue figures. On thatlisting, the company’s revenuegrowth rate was 50%. The twohave become – since 2001- ma-jor shareholders in the once-ail-ing, 50-year-old restaurant chainLuby’s, Inc., which is listed onthe NYSE; the company’s stockshot up from about $3.5 to $6over the past year. Ludy’s ac-quired 200-restaurant chainFuddruckers (and 3 Koo KooRoo California Kitchen eateries)in June 2010 for $63 million.Chris Pappas is President andChief CEO of Luby’s, which has96 restaurants; Harris Pappas isits Chief Operating Officer.

Pappas Restaurants grewfrom their father and uncles’work at Pappas Refrigeration.Currently Pappas Restaurantshas nine brands, including Pap-pas Seafood Houses, Pappasito’sCantinas, Pappadeaux SeafoodKitchens, Pappas Bar-B-Q’s, Pap-pas Bros. Steakhouses, PappasGrill Steakhouse, Pappas Burger,Yia Yia Mary’s Pappas GreekKitchen and the Dot CoffeeShop. Each company has itsown speciality, with Yia YiaMary’s, for instance, specialisingin Greek food, fish – as well asmezedes (Greek, with a hint ofTexas). Pappas Restaurants alsohas a food catering business.

Chris Pappas serves on theBoard of Directors for theGreater Houston Partnershipand is also a member of theDean's Advisory Board at theConrad N. Hilton College of Ho-tel and Restaurant Managementat the University of Houston. Hewas inducted into the college’sHospitality Industry Hall ofHonor in 2009. Chris is a mem-ber of the Board of Directors forthe National Restaurant Associ-ation, the Texas Restaurant As-sociation, and the Greater Hous-ton Restaurant Association andis an Advisory Board member of


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Amegy Bank. In 2001, he wasinducted into the Texas Restau-rant Association Hall of Honor.He is also a member of the Hous-ton Food Bank’s Capital Cam-paign Committee and he has as-sisted in raising over 40 milliondollars for the organization.Chris received his Bachelor's de-gree in Mechanical Engineeringfrom The University of Texas atAustin. He and his wife Mariahave been married 30 years andhave five grown children.

A graduate of Texas A&M,Harris Pappas was commis-sioned as a 2nd Lieutenant inthe U.S. Army, serving one yearin Thailand and one year in Viet-nam, earning two Bronze Starsand three Army Commendationmedals. He is also a member ofthe Board of Directors of Ocea-neering International, Inc., apublicly-held oil and gas opera-tions firm, and also served a ten-year term on the Board ofTrustees of Memorial HermannHealthcare System in Houston.He is an advisory director of theBoys and Girls Clubs of GreaterHouston and of Bank - Frost Na-tional Houston. He is onSchreiner University’s AdvisoryBoard. He is a member of theTexas A&M Foundation Devel-opment Advisory Committeeand serves on the Education De-velopment Council AdvisoryCommittee. He has receivedawards from both Texas A&MUniversity and the school’s MaysCollege of Business. Harris isalso a member of the WorldPresident’s Organization. He isalso a founder of the HellenicFoundation, which endeavors toraise scholarship money for sem-inary students attending HolyCross Greek Orthodox School ofTheology. An avid boater andfisherman, he and his wife, VickyMarinos Pappas, have six chil-dren.

The brothers’ grandfather,H.D., arrived in the U.S. in 1897

and became a restaurateur. Hissons followed his lead with en-deavors including opening Pap-pas Bar-B-Q. The Pappas broth-ers are often help nonprofitgroups and churches renovatetheir kitchens. Highly involvedin the Annunciation Cathedralof Houston, both brothers werenamed Archons of the Patriar-chate in 2008.

40RITA WILSON

$200 MILLIONENTERTAINMENT

Ms. Wilson, 54, is an Ameri-can film and stage actress andproducer. She is wife of super-star actor and producer TomHanks. Born Margarita Ibrahi-moff in Los Angeles, her fatherwas a Pomak born in Greece. Be-fore immigrating to the U.S., hehad lived in Bulgaria and

Turkey; her mother was bornand raised in a Greek village onthe Albanian border. Her familychanged their surname to Wil-son, which was the name of alocal street in Southern Califor-nia.

As co-executive producer, Ms.Wilson is often credited with be-ing the driving force behind NiaVardalos’ smash-hit movie, “MyBig Fat Greek Wedding,” whichbecame the highest-grossing in-dependent film of all time. Ms.Wilson has had recurring rolesin various television series, andhas appeared in several movies.These include “Midnight Caller,”“Volunteers,” “Bonfire of theVanities,” “Sleepless in Seattle,”“That Thing You Do,” “Frasier,”and “Runaway Bride.” She alsoplayed Susan Borman, wife ofastronaut Frank Borman, in theHBO miniseries “From the Earthto the Moon,” and performedthe role of Roxie Hart in theBroadway revival of “Chicago”from June to August of 2006.

She has contributed to theMoffitt Cancer Center by donat-ing “True Hearts” jewelry, madeof sterling silver and 14-karotgold. The proceeds went to thebenefit of several charities. Sheand her husband are membersof the Greek Orthodox Church.She has been married to Mr.Hanks since April 1988, and hastwo children. Factoring in herhusband’s fortune – Mr. Hankscommands at least $20 millionper picture these days, and hasstarred in seven consecutive$100 million blockbusters. Injust 2010, the couple made $35million. Their combined networth probably exceeds $200million. “Mamma Mia!”, the mu-sical produced by the couple in2008, made $600 million world-wide. She appeared in new filmHomework this year.

40SOPHOCLES N.ZOULLAS *

$200 MILLION SHIPPING

Sophocles N. Zoullas, 45, isthe founder, director, chairmanand CEO of Eagle Bulk Shipping-the largest U.S.-based owner ofHandymax dry bulk vessels. Thecompany has 39 ships, withseven more being built. He isalso chairman and an owner ofprivately-owned dry bulk com-pany Delphin Shipping LLC,formed with Kelso InvestmentAssociates VII in 2009. Mr. Zoul-las’ parents, Nicholas Zoullasand Marianna Souyoutzoglou,born in Greece, came to the USafter World War II and settled in

New York. There is shipping inthe blood – as he is a descendantof Panagiotis Pantaleon,Smyrna’s legendary 19th-cen-tury shipowner, whose vesselsrescued Greeks of Smyrna andhelped liberate Mytiline, Chiosand Oinouses isles. Mr. Zoullasfounded Eagle Bulk Shipping in2005, buying four Supramaxvessels, with a capacity of50,000-60,000 tons of dry cargo.That same year, he listed thecompany on the NASDAQ StockExchange, accumulating morethan $200 million. A native NewYorker, he has been involved inthe dry bulk shipping industryfor 23 years. From 1989 to Feb-ruary 2005, Mr. Zoullas servedas an executive officer and a di-rector of Norland Shipping &Trading Corporation, a shippingagency in the dry bulk shippingindustry. He holds a bachelor'sdegree from Harvard Collegeand an MBA from IMD in Lau-sanne, Switzerland. He is cur-rently Chairman of the USA Ad-visory Committee of Lloyd'sRegister, the American Bureauof Shipping, and Director Emer-itus of the North American Ma-rine Environment Protection As-sociation. In October 2010, theHellenic-American Chamber ofCommerce gave him the Person-ality of the Year award. In 2008he was awarded the Wild CardDeal of the Year by MarineMoney International, while For-tune Small Business ranked Ea-gle Bulk Shipping in the top 100fastest growing corporations inthe U.S. He told TNH: "I couldnot have started this company ifI did not recall, with every step,my grandfather's words: ‘Sopho-cles, you can win or lose money,but you have a name that youshould never lose.’"

43JENNIFERANISTON

$170 MILLIONENTERTAINMENT

Popularly and affectionatelyknown as “America’s Sweet-heart,” Ms. Aniston, 42, oncelived in Crete and Athens as Jen-nifer Anastassakis. The daughterof famous daytime soap operastar John Aniston (“Days of OurLives”), she eclipsed her father’stelevision fame and success withher own role as Rachel Green onthe eternally popular situationcomedy, “Friends.” In the show’sfinal years – it ran for ten sea-sons – Ms. Aniston and her fivecastmates struck what was thena record deal – $1 million eachper episode – and she still col-lects a sizeable paycheck fromthe now-iconic sitcom’s syndica-tion.

She continues to have littlescreen success - most recently inTina Fey’s 30 Rock, but Ms. Anis-ton’s film career has been some-what hit-or-miss. Her new film“Just Go With It”, co-starringAdam Sandler, out in February,may break her losing streak. Herrecent films, “Love Happens(2009)” and “The Switch(2010),” were consideredbombs, but have been more thanoffset by box office bonanzas like“Bruce Almighty (2003),” “TheBreakup (2006)” and “Marley &Me (2008),” which helped estab-lished her as a movie star. Forbesslid her from 8th to 26th on its“Celebrity 100,” reporting inJune that she made $27 millionover the past year. The actress,who currently cranks out at leastthree films a year, has startedparticipating in Hollywood pro-jects as a producer too. She di-vorced from superstar actor BradPitt six years ago, but the press-

averse Ms. Aniston is magazine-cover gold. She has won multipleawards during her career, to in-clude the Screen Actors Guild(1996), Emmy (2002), GoldenGlobe (2003) and People’sChoice (four times) Awards, andhas assisted and worked withmany charities like Rain (an anti-sexual assault organization), St.Jude’s and various cancer-fight-ing organizations.

44ARIANNASTASSINOPOULOS

HUFFINGTON*$125 MILLIONNEW MEDIA

Arianna Stassinopoulos Huff-ington, 60, is a nationally syndi-cated columnist, author of thir-teen books, and the co-founderand editor-in-chief of The Huff-ington Post, a popular newswebsite. The Huffington Post –a media phenomenon and opin-ion-shaper- was born of thebrains and charisma of the in-defatigable Greek Americanwoman who has been called theworld’s greatest networker. Sheand her partners sold the site toAmerican Online for a neat $315million in February 2011. Shewill remain editor-in-chief andbe president of the new Huffin-gton Post Media Group. In 2011,the site had expected 2011 rev-enue of $60 million and 26 mil-lion unique visitors per month.Ms. Huffington was said to ownsome 14% of the site at its sale.According to the FinancialTimes, The Post employs morethan 200 people, including re-porters who cover many topics,but the heart and soul of the op-eration are still the big namebloggers like Alan Dershowitzand playwright David Mametwho helped launch it by writingwithout being paid at the out-set.

The Post was born in May,2005 and is one of the mostwidely read, linked to, and citedsites on the Internet. The rapidsuccess of The Post catapultedArianna to the Time 100, Timemagazine's list of the world's 100most influential people and in2009 Forbes named her the12th-most influential woman inthe Media.

She was born AriannaStassinopoulous in Athens,Greece, the daughter of Kon-stantinos, who was a journalistand management consultant,and Elli Georgiadi. She movedto England to attend CambridgeUniversity and has ridden a



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•••Please join AGAPW’s Board of Directors, Consul General of Greece Hon. Aghi Balta, Consul General ofCyprus Hon. Koula Sophianou, New York State Assemblywoman Hon. Aravella Simotas and United StatesCongresswoman Hon.Carolyn Maloney, in celebrating International Women’s Day and presenting theGreek American Woman of the Year Award to Mrs.Loula Loi Alafoyiannis.The Award Ceremony and Reception will take place on March 8th, 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Yale Club, 50 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY. Ticket price: $75.To RSVP by March 6th, please contact Keke Kyriakopoulos at [email protected] or (202) 285-579For inquiries on the scholarship, please contact Dr. Paraskevi Giannakakou at [email protected] criteria: Female student of Greek descent enrolled in an accredited US university at the undergraduate level, who demonstrates academic excellence and financial need.Please submit your CV, transcripts, short personal statement and proof of financial need to Dr. Giannakakou by February 28.For further information about AGAPW, please visit www.agapw.org or contact Dr. Olga Alexakos, President and Founder, at [email protected] or 917-405-6833.We are looking forward to seeing you.

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wave of energy, intelligence andcharisma more or less straightthrough to her triumph withThe Post. The Times of Londondescribed her, back in 1971, as“glamorous, with lots of charm.Her clothes are stunning.” Shegraduated with an M.A. in eco-nomics. At 21, she became pres-ident of the famed debating so-ciety, the Cambridge Union.

She moved to the UnitedStates in 1980 and was marriedto California oilman MichaelHuffington in 1986. In the late1980s, she wrote several articlesfor National Review and her hus-band, a Republican, served inthe U.S. House of Representa-tives before his career endedwhen he lost a close race for theU.S. Senate in 1994. The coupledivorced in 1997 and by then,she had gained national promi-nence and begun to shift to thepolitical left. She told The Finan-cial Times that she had “longbeen interested in steering herconservative friends towards so-cial activism and the problemsof worsening inequities in Amer-ican life.” Nonetheless, Ms.Huffington’s first foray into the

Internet was a website calledResignation.com, which calledon President Clinton to resign.In 2003, she ran as an indepen-dent candidate for Governor inthe California recall election.

Ms. Huffington makes guestappearances on televisionshows. She serves on severalboards of community servicegroups, including A Place CalledHome, which works with at-riskchildren in South Central LosAngeles. She also serves on theboard of the Reform Institute,which works on campaign andelection reform issues. She hastwo daughters.

45JOHN A.LEONTAKIANAKOS

$120 MILLIONBIOTECHNOLOGYHOMELAND SECURITY

Mr. Leontakianakos, 49, is aprimary shareholder of threebiotechnology companies,BioAvenge, Capital Genomix,and Immunomic Therapeutics,and a co-founder and senior vicepresident of GateKeeper USAInc., a company which special-izes in installing security devicesfor containers on ships, man-dated by the federal containersecurity initiative, and has con-tracts with the Department ofHomeland Security. In December2009, Gatekeeper made a publicannouncement that the com-pany's Advanced Container Se-curity Device (ACSD) commer-cially known as the CAMS, hasthe ability to detect PETN - theexplosive that nearly broughtdown the Norwest Airlines flight253, in the Christmas Day, 2009terrorist attack.

Gatekeeper is "seriously con-sidering entering the aviation se-curity industry" in 2010.BioAvenge, now a subsidiary ofGateKeeper USA (acquired in2008), uses technologies tostudy genes, gene expressionand genetic sequence in orderto identify biohazardous agents.Capital Genomix uses two tech-nology platforms for the com-prehensive analysis of genes andproteins, in order to developdrugs to enhance immune sys-tem response. Immunomic Ther-apeutics is developing next-gen-

eration vaccines for allergies. Itsfirst vaccine will be for JapaneseRed Cedar-induced asthma.

Mr. Leontakianakos firstcame to the United States in1970 at eight years of age. Hisparents came to New York,where he grew up in Woodside,Queens. He is a graduate of theTransfiguration School inCorona, and his family thenmoved to Long Island, where hegraduated from Half HollowHills High School in Dix Hills.He completed his undergraduatestudies in college-level mathe-matics by the time he was 16;was accepted at MIT; and waslisted in “Who’s Who” for youngAmericans. He chose to attendLIU C.W. Post to stay close to hisfamily, but had to pull out of col-lege due to the untimely deathof his father. He worked severaljobs to help support his motherand two sisters, joining the U.S.Marine Corps in 1982. He wason tour in Lebanon duringbombing of Marine barracks inBeirut in 1983 under PresidentReagan. A highly decorated vet-eran due to his combat servicewith 24th Marine AmphibiousUnit in Beirut, Mr. Leon-takianakos was honorably dis-charged in 1985.

From 1985 to 1992, heworked in the investment bank-ing industry, employed by suchfirms as Gateway FinancialGroup, Euro-Atlantic Securitiesand Cohen & Cohen. In 1992-93, he served as vice president

of Mergers & Acquisitions forAmerican Public Companies.From 1993 to 1995, he servedas executive vice president ofCorporate Finance and presidentof Global International EquityCorp., where he arranged fund-ing for several public and privatecompanies and managed a $398million portfolio of assets on be-half of Global Security CreditLTD. From 1995 through 2000,he served as managing directorof Corporate Finance and asCEO of Odyssey Capital & Re-search Group Inc., where he cre-ated and implemented invest-ment structures which havefacilitated more than $5 billionin private investments. Havingworked in M&A where 90% ofthe investments of that timewere in biotechnology, he de-cided to move into the biotech-nology sector. In 1999-2000, heserved as director and executiveVP of BioTherapeutics Inc., andhas also served as general part-ner of Ares Venture Partnerssince its inception in 2000. Inthat time, he managed to “piece-meal” his MBA together, takingcourses at various institutionsover an 11-year period.

Mr. Leontakianakos also hasreal estate interests stateside andabroad, and is the founder theChildren’s Research Institute forPersonalized Medicine, a non-profit charity which helps chil-dren locate and secure alterna-tive treatments in terminal cases.He and his wife Angelica residein Long Island and have threechildren.

46GEORGEPERLEGOS

$100 MILLIONELECTRONICS

Mr. Perlegos, 60, was chair-man & CEO of Atmel Corpora-tion, a global leader in the man-ufacturing of semiconductorsand flash memory devices basedin San Jose, California. He wasborn in Tripoli, Greece. His fam-ily came to the United Stateswhen he was 12 years of age.Though he entered San JoseState University intending tostudy medicine, the semiconduc-tor industry attracted his atten-tion. He worked in Silicon Valley

upon graduation, and then stud-ied Electrical Engineering atStanford.

He bootstrapped Atmel in1984 with $23,000 of his ownmoney. The company designs,develops, manufactures and sellsa range of integrated circuitsproducts, including microcon-trollers and advanced logic,mixed-signal, nonvolatile mem-ory and radio frequency compo-nents. Mr. Perlegos was termi-nated in August 2006 after aneight-month investigation. Theboard of directors accused himand his brother Gust (an execu-tive vice president of the com-pany) of spending $235,000 incompany funds on airplane tick-ets for themselves and their im-mediate families, although theDelaware Chancery Court ex-pressed its “discomfort with thethoroughness and fairness of theinvestigation and with the deci-sions.” Mr. Perlegos called ameeting to replace five of theexisting board members, whichthe board attempted to cancel.In March 2007, the DelawareChancery Court ruled that theshareholder meeting must pro-ceed, but this action was com-pleted after Mr. Perlegos was re-moved as president. The actionresulted in a special shareholdervote, which failed to generatethe necessary 50 percent for Mr.Perlegos.

Last year, the San FranciscoChronicle reported Mr. Perlegos’shares at $84.4 million. Atmel’s

current market value is $2 bil-lion, according to Forbes. Atmelreported revenues for the thirdquarter of 2009 were $317.7million, down from $400 millionfor the third quarter ended Sep-tember 30, 2008. Despite theconflicts at Atmel, Mr. Perlegosremains a force in Silicon Valleyas a semiconductor consultant.Analysts have watched himevolve from a brilliant engineerat Intel into a respected leaderof a billion-dollar public com-pany. Atmel’s IPO (initial publicoffering) increased his net worthby millions.

47WILLIAM J.CATACOSINOS,

PH.D$80 MILLIONMINING AND ULTILITIES

Dr. Catacosinos, 79, has beena director of International CoalGroup (ICG) since 2004. ICG isa leading coal mining companyoperating in the United States,with more than 2,220 employ-ees. The company is principallyengaged in the extracting andprocessing of steam and metal-lurgical coal in Northern andCentral Appalachia. ICG pro-duces, processes and sells steamcoal from 13 regional miningcomplexes, which are supportedby 13 active underground mines,11 active surface mines and 11preparation plants locatedthroughout West Virginia, Ken-tucky, Maryland, Virginia andIllinois. As of September 30,2010, the company controlledaround 318 million tons of met-allurgical quality coal reservesand around 769 million tons ofsteam coal reserves. ICG alsoowns the Sago Mine in West Vir-ginia, where 12 miners werekilled during an explosion inJanuary 2006. Shares outstand-ing are at $203.81 million.

He has also been a managingpartner at Laurel Hill CapitalPartners, a private equity invest-ment firm, for over five years.From 1953 to 1956, Mr. Cata-cosinos served as an officer in theU.S. Navy and from 1957 to1969, he was Assistant Directorat Brookhaven National Labora-tory, Upton, New York. He wasalso, previously, the founder,



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chairman and CEO of AppliedDigital Data Systems, Inc., a com-puter manufacturer as well as pi-oneering heart fetal heart moni-tor company CorometricsMedical Systems, Inc. Until theend of 2005, Dr. Catacosinos hadserved as chairman, president &CEO of TNP Enterprises Inc., theparent of Texas-New MexicoPower in Fort Worth, Texas. Hewas also chairman & CEO ofLong Island Lighting Co., whichbuilt the controversial ShorehamNuclear Power Plant (never used,though it bore a $6 billion pricetag) on Long Island, from Janu-ary 1984 to July 1998, pocketinga $42 million severance packageafter a controversial parting ofthe ways at the time.

Dr. Catacosinos also served asa director of Preservation Ser-vices Inc., a company in St. Pe-tersburg, Florida which re-searches, develops and marketspreservatives and preservativetechnologies for food, beverageand industrial products. Heearned his bachelor’s degree,MBA and a doctorate in Econom-ics from New York University.

48EMMANUEL A.KAMPOURIS

$80 MILLIONINDUSTRIAL GOODSCORPORATE MANAGEMENT

Mr. Kampouris, 75, served aschairman, president & CEO ofthe American Standard Compa-nies (now known as Trane), theleading global manufacturer op-erating in 34 countries, whichwas known as Ideal Standard inEurope. Its products includedtechnologically advanced airconditioning systems, bathroomand kitchen fixtures and fittings,and vehicle control systems.Prior to joining American Stan-dard, Mr. Kampouris worked inGreece and Egypt, and joinedAmerican Standard’s Greekplumbing products subsidiary in1966 as general manager ofmanufacturing. In 1999, hecapped his 35-year career withAmerican Standard by leadingthe company to record sales of$7.2 billion. It was listed as aFortune 500 company in 2004,with sales exceeding $9.5 bil-lion. The company divested allbut the air conditioning aspectof its business in 2007, and re-named itself.

Mr. Kampouris, now retired,has also served on the boards ofStanley Works, Alticor Inc., ClickCommerce Inc., and the Smart-Disk Corporation. StanleyWorks, a manufacturer of toolsand hardware founded in 1843that purchased giant Black &

Decker for $4.5 billion in 2010.Alticor Inc., now known asAmway, ranked 32th amongForbes’ listing of America’slargest private companies in2010; Amway manufactures,markets and distributes con-sumer products and logistics ser-vices in more than 80 countries,employing more than 13,000people worldwide. Click Com-merce, which provided indus-trial software to millions of usersin 70 countries to support thebusiness processes of manufac-turing, aerospace and defenseand high-tech industries was ac-quired by Illinois Tool Works for$292 million in October 2006.SmartDisk was purchased byVerbatim in 2007.

Mr. Kampouris earned a mas-ter’s in Law from Oxford Univer-sity, and a degree in CeramicTechnology from North Stafford-shire College of Technology. Hecurrently serves on the board ofHorizon Blue Cross Blue Shieldof New Jersey, and is a trustee(Emeritus) of the Hudson Insti-tute, a non-partisan policy re-search organization dedicated toresearch and analysis which pro-motes global security, prosperityand freedom. He has served onthe boards of the National En-dowment for Democracy and theU.S. Chamber of Commerce.He’s a member of the OxfordUniversity Council for the Schoolof Management Studies and the

Eisenhower Exchange Fellow-ship. Mr. Kampouris is also thepublisher of Kairos, a journalwhich “seeks to embolden, edu-cate and support pastors as theystrive to restore the nationalmoral conscience and propheticvoice of the Church”, which heviews as essential to the refor-mation of culture. In 2011 he islaunching a new Internet projectcalled Biblemesh, which will in-troduce the events and the char-acters of the Bible in a very easyand accessible way to combatBiblical illiteracy which, he says,is at an all-time high.

49MERKOURIOS“MIKE”

ANGELIADES$74 MILLIONCONSTRUCTION, REALESTATE

Born on the island of Simi,in the Dodecanese, Mike Angeli-ades, 69, established the fifthlargest construction business inthe Metro New York area (andone that is among the top 400in the country). The islander’sfirst jobs when arriving in theU.S. in 1960 included packagingcheese, olive oil and olives, boatconstruction, loading freezersfor an ice cream and eventreacherous work paintingbridges. Then he was hired byGeorge Levesanos, a friend ofhis carpenter father’s, in con-struction and realized how muchhe enjoyed the trade that he hadbeen trained on, in part, byworking with this carpenter fa-ther in Simi.

In 1965, he and his cousinGeorge Nikolis took a major stepby establishing their ANT Con-struction Company renovatinghomes. Three years later, theyestablished a new company andthis time worked in renovatingrestaurants. He told the NationalHerald, “In a short period oftime we ended up doing generalreconstructions.” Angeliades hasbuilt 182 restaurants in the NewYork Metro area. He said, “I soldthe majority of them to Greeks,I financed all of them and Inever went to court for any rea-son and I am saying this with asense of pride.” In 1990 he splitwith his cousin, establishing hisown company called M. A. An-geliades. It specializes in federaljobs such as libraries, courthouses, and schools. It also hasdone several New York MassTransit Authority reconstructionprojects, including the $96 mil-

lion Blinker train station struc-ture in Manhattan, which is dueto be completed by November2011. His other investments in-clude the recent purchase of 47Dairy Barn convenience storesin New York.

He is one of the originalfounders of Archangel MichaelChurch in Roslyn, Long Island.He is also a member of theAHEPA Gold Coast Chapter andLeadership 100.

He and his wife of over 30years, Libby, reside in Manhas-set, Long Island. They have fourdaughters and four granddaugh-ters.

50GEORGE J.TSUNIS &

FAMILY $72.5 MILLIONHOSPITALITY/REAL ESTATE

George J. Tsunis, 43, foundedChartwell Hotels, LLC in 2006,building on a family tradition ofhotel and restaurant ownership.The company has 900 employ-ees, currently owning and man-aging a total of twelve hotels,including the Intercontinental,Hilton and Marriot brands –inthe states of New York, NewHampshire, Pennsylvania andRhode Island. In 2010, the com-pany added a hotel and two of-fice buildings. The companyplans to add five more hotels in2011. Chartwell’s Holiday Inn inWilliamsport, Pennsylvaniaearned a “Newcomer of the Yearaward” from Holiday Inn in2007.

Chartwell Hotel’s chairmanand Chief Exective Officer, Mr.Tsunis, makes a point of visitingthe hotels as often as he can. “Idon’t think there is any substi-tute for going and visiting thehotels as a management tool.”He notes: “Like all Greeks, myfamily started out in the restau-rant business. And it’s all abouthospitality and taking care ofguests. We went from feedingthem, as coffee shop owners andrestaurateurs, to now providingovernight accommodations.”

Mr. Tsunis and his familybuild on the legacy of his father,the late James Tsunis, who to-gether with his cousin CharlesTsunis, began with coffee shops,before carved out a name forthemselves by building the Bon-wit Inn on Long Island in 1971,before investing in hotels andreal estate. George Tsunis alsooversees his family's real estateand restaurant holdings whichincludes shopping centers, officebuildings in the Northeast.

After studying at N.Y.U., Mr.Tsunis was trained as an attor-

ney at St. John's University inN.Y. He was a partner at LongIsland law firm Rivken RadlerLLP, working in real estate de-velopment, zoning and land use.Mr. Tsunis previously also was aSpecial Counsel to the Town ofHuntington, Senator AlfonseD'Amato's appointee on the U.S.Senate committee on Banking,Housing and Urban Affairs, andan attorney for the New YorkCity Council. He has worked oncampaigns including those ofGovernor George Pataki (1994)and Suffolk County ExecutiveRobert Gaffney (1999). He andhis wife, Olga, have a son,James, and daughter, Eleni.

Active in both his local com-munity and the Greek OrthodoxChurch, he was the youngestboard of director member ofLong Island’s Dowling College,his region’s American Red Crosschapter – and one of the mostyouthful Archons of the Ecu-menical Patriarchate’s Order ofSt. Andrew. He was named tothe National Council of the Ar-chons. He is also on the Board

of Trustees of Touro Law School.He often actively works behindthe scenes to promote the Hel-lenism and Orthodoxy’s interestsin the U.S. and is a foundingmember of the Faith endow-ment.


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coins from both living and de-ceased Medal of Honor recipi-ents, and John Rangos receiveda full set of those coins, whichis collectively invaluable be-cause it’s so rare. It’s only beendone three times (including Mr.Rangos),” he said.

CHALLENGE COINTRADITION

Challenge coins have becomea military tradition within thelast couple of decades, accord-ing to Colonel Jack Jacobs (U.S.Army, retired), the daytime mil-itary and national security ana-lyst for MSNBC who also re-ceived the Medal of Honor fordirecting air strikes on enemypositions in Vietnam and savingseveral allied lives in theprocess, with complete disre-gard for his own safety.

The CMOH Society adoptedthe tradition of challenge coins,which are considered very pres-tigious in military circles, Col.Jacobs told the National Herald.The coins are personalized foroutstanding service and extra-ordinary courage, and create atangible link between a personwho is in a command positionand someone who works underthat particular command.

“It started sometime after Iretired from the Army in 1987.General officers would havethese special coins struck, andthey would carry the coins outonto the field. If they thought adeserving soldier was doing aparticularly good job, theywould give him a coin as a mat-ter of recognition. That startedto spread, and every unit nowhas its own unique challengecoin. So the idea eventuallycame up that Medal of Honorrecipients should have challengecoins, too, so each recipient hashis own challenge coin,” saidCol. Jacobs, who is also ofGreek-Jewish ancestry.

Unlike other challenge coins,which are specific to entireunits, Col. Jacobs explained,each Medal of Honor recipienthas a challenge coin with a de-sign that’s unique to him or her.

“Medal of Honor recipientshave a number of copies theycan give out to whomsoeverthey choose, and they handthem out to deserving individu-als individually from time totime. They’re individuallystruck, and John Rangos got onefrom each of us. He got a col-lection of all of them. He re-ceived coins not only from allthe living recipients, but alsofrom the families of all recipientswho were still alive when thistradition of striking challengecoins for Medal of Honor recip-ients started, and have sincepassed away,” he said.

Mr. Rangos received the coinbox because of what he hasdone for the CMOH Society, ac-cording to Gen. Kehoe: He hasconcretely and consistently sup-ported the Society’s public out-reach activities for which, inmany cases, recipients had re-ceived no compensation – oreven had their expenses cov-ered.

While Congress chartered theCMOH Society to include all theliving Medal of Honor recipi-ents, he said, federal fundinghas never been appropriated forit. As a result, he explained,while the Society existed as achartered institution, it basicallyfunctioned as a sort of club –until Mr. Rangos got involved.

“There was a time when re-cipients would be invited tospeak, and they would go – theyalmost never say no – but theywould pay for it out of their ownpockets. That led John Rangosto help the Society start a Foun-dation that would support theSociety’s activities and programs

which, in turn, are important togetting its message out to thecountry and its citizens, partic-ularly our youth,” he said.GENESIS AND SYNERGY“John Rangos is the genesis

of the Foundation, which hasevolved to support a number ofprograms at the Society’s behestto help people embrace theideals of courage, sacrifice andselflessness – all of which areembodied in the Medal of Honor– so that they can develop char-acter and be better citizens.We’re downstream from thatpoint a little over ten years now,and people are getting on inyears, so the Society wanted tohonor Mr. Rangos and thankhim for everything he’s doneover the years,” Gen. Kehoeadded.

Col. Jacobs echoed and ex-panded upon Gen. Kehoe’s sen-timents, emphasizing that theCMOH Foundation would noteven exist without Mr. Rangos’staunch support.

Mr. Rangos made it a top pri-ority to establish the Medal ofHonor Foundation, Col. Jacobsexplained. Mr. Rangos recog-nized that, because no federalfunds were allocated to theCMOH Society, the Medal ofHonor’s message of courage, ser-vice and sacrifice, which are vi-tal to the country and its history,would never reach the public ina substantive way.

“John Rangos is the man whofounded the Medal of HonorFoundation, which can nowcarry the values of the Medal ofHonor Society in perpetuity. Ifit wasn’t for his vision to supportMedal of Honor recipients, theFoundation wouldn’t exist, and

sustaining the ideals of serviceand sacrifice that are part of theSociety’s legacy would be amuch more difficult task,” hesaid.

“The bottom line is, if itweren’t for John Rangos, therewouldn’t be a Medal of HonorFoundation, which does a lotmore now than merely support-ing the activities of the Medalof Honor Society and helping re-cipients go out there and givespeeches from time to time,” headded.

For example, Col. Jacobssaid, the CMOH Society hashelped develop a civics curricu-lum in conjunction with theschool district in Erie, Pennsyl-vania, which has already beenadopted by the PennsylvaniaState Senate as the archetypefor all 490-plus school districtsin Pennsylvania (similar legisla-tion is currently being consid-ered in California, Texas andFlorida).

The proposed legislation, ini-tiated by the CMOH Society, hasbeen brought before severalstate legislatures though thesupport of the CMOH Founda-tion, with additional supportfrom the General Electric Foun-dation.

“Texas and California are get-ting ready to do the same thing.It’s all for teaching the thingswe should have learned aboutpatriotism, civic responsibility,service, sacrifice and commit-ment that have not been taughtas much as they should havebeen. This all sprang from JohnRangos’ original idea,” Col. Ja-cobs said.

“If it wasn’t for the Medal ofHonor Foundation, which exists

because of John Rangos, therewouldn’t be this curriculum, andthere wouldn’t be a Foundationto help school districts developthis curriculum. Because of JohnRangos’ efforts to establish a vi-able foundation, teachers andschool districts everywhere willbe able to use it as a formula,and it’s actually going to spreadfrom state to state,” he said.

The synergy between theCMOH Foundation and othergroups make these things possi-ble, Col. Jacobs added, and thatsynergy grew out of Mr. Rangos’notion and vision to support theMedal of Honor Society.PRESERVING THE LEGACY

Mr. Rangos himself said hefelt very humbly honored whenhe received the coin box a cou-ple of months ago, and said thegesture caught him by completesurprise.

“I was very surprised thatMedal of Honor recipients alsowanted to thank me the sameweekend they were givingBoone Pickens the 2010 PatriotAward. I was just so touched bythat. It was a very emotionalmoment for me. I wasn’t expect-ing it, at all, and I was honestlyjust dumbfounded when theydid that. I felt so honored andhumbled that our heroesthought of me,” he told the Na-tional Herald with clear emotionin his voice.

Asked why he has had sucha keen interest in the CMOH So-ciety and Foundation, Mr. Ran-gos emphasized his desire tohelp preserve the Medal ofHonor’s legacy and keep the sto-ries of recipients alive for suc-ceeding generations.

The history of valor and pa-triotism that the CMOH Societyendeavors to preserve for futuregenerations is essentially the sto-ries of the recipients themselves,he told the Herald.

“This isn’t just mythology. Wehave real heroes who made areal difference on the battlefieldto help this country preservefreedom everywhere. There areso many stories that deserve tobe heralded for posterity, andwe must let the American peo-ple know how important that is.That’s why preserving our his-torical records for succeedinggenerations is imperative. Peo-ple need to know why thesepeople received the Medal ofHonor, and what their contribu-tions and sacrifices were,” Mr.Rangos said.

“These men are real heroes.They are the stars and stripeson the American flag. If it wasn’tfor them, we wouldn’t be ableto enjoy the freedom we enjoytoday. We have liberty because

of their selfless service and sac-rifice. It’s imperative that wekeep a record of their stories.It’s vital to our country’s inter-ests to keep future generationsinformed about this,” he said.

“Freedom is not free. Itcomes at a great cost, and theblood of our heroes has paid forit on every continent. We mustpreserve our historical recordsfor succeeding generations. Peo-ple need to know why thesepeople received the Medal ofHonor, and what their contribu-tions and sacrifices were. Acountry’s greatness is measuredby how much it honors, respectsand cherishes its heroes. If wefail to honor our heroes properly– if we don’t keep a properarchive about their actions andachievements – this importantpart of American history couldbe lost to future generations,”he added.

Mr. Rangos’ interest in theCMOH Society evolved as a re-sult of contact with people likethe late James Elliott Williams(1930-99), the most decoratedsailor in U.S. Navy history; thelate Captain Michael J. Estocin(1931-67), a boyhood friend inTurtle Creek, Pennsylvania whoreceived the Medal of Honorposthumously for his actions inVietnam; and the late Gen.Westmoreland (1914-2005 –though not a Medal of Honorrecipient himself, Gen. West-moreland was commander ofAmerican military operations inVietnam in 1964-68).

But the main backdrop of Mr.Rangos’ keen interest in preserv-ing and perpetuating the Medalof Honor’s historical legacy isthe towering figure of ElliottWilliams, who received theMedal of Honor for his actionson Vietnam’s Mekong River in1966. His Medal of Honor cita-tion states that, “Under the lead-ership of BM1 Williams, whodemonstrated unusual profes-sional skill and indomitablecourage throughout the 3-hourbattle, the patrol accounted forthe destruction or loss of 65 en-emy boats, and inflicted numer-ous casualties on enemy person-nel. His extraordinary heroismand exemplary fighting spirit inthe face of grave risks inspiredthe efforts of his men to defeata larger enemy force, and are inkeeping with the finest tradi-tions of the U.S. Naval Service.”

Williams, who also had anArleigh Burke-class destroyernamed after him posthumouslyin 2002, invited Mr. Rangos toattend the 1986 Patriot AwardGala in Myrtle Beach, South Car-olina.

“I knew all about the Medalof Honor, but I might never haveknown about the Medal ofHonor Society if it wasn’t for El-liott Williams. He invited me toSouth Carolina when Gen. West-moreland was honored with thePatriot Award,” Mr. Rangos said.

“Elliott stayed with me inFlorida for a couple of days, andhe was genuinely distressedabout where the records onMedal of Honor recipients wereall being kept. He told me thoserecords were scattered all overthe place, and said if that situa-tion wasn’t corrected, then allthe history behind the Medal ofHonor wouldn’t be intact forAmerica’s future,” he said.

“Elliott pointed out that,pretty soon, Medal of Honor re-cipients are all going to passaway, and no one is going toknow about the history behindthe heavy price America paid forour freedom after these heroesare gone. And as I learned morefrom Elliott, I naturally becamemore interested,” he said.

“When I learned that Medalof Honor recipients had to paytheir own expenses to attendfunctions they were invited to,

John G. Rangos Sr Keeps Medal of Honor Heroism and History AliveContinued from page 5

even visited a racetrack inAthens and enjoyed it.

ON WINGS OF ORIOLES Closer to home, Mr. Angelos

admits that things haven’t beeneasy for the Baltimore Orioles,who haven’t made it to the play-offs since 1997. He says: “It’sbeen a tough stretch. It’s beentough for the team in the lastfew years.” He attributes theEastern Division AmericanLeague team’s difficulties to adisparity in pay scales. He pointsout that the other two teams intheir division, from larger met-ropolitan areas than Baltimore,the New York Yankees andBoston Red Sox, spend muchmore on fielding their teams. Hecompares the $160-$220 millionthese competitors pay for theirplayers to the Orioles’ $80 -$90million, noting: “So what reallyis an athletic contest ultimatelybecomes a money contest.”

He points out that his son,

John Angelos, handles anothermajor Orioles asset, the multi-million Mid-Atlantic Sports Net-work, which broadcasts Oriolesand Washington Nationalsgames and now has six millionsubscribers. Launched in 2005,he says the network “is doingvery well.” Mr. Angelos adds:“There is a great interest inbaseball and thousands of peo-ple tune in every night to watchthe games of both teams.”

He promises for the next sea-son, referring to a certain NewYork team in his league, the fol-lowing: “We’re going to givethem a run for their money thisyear. The team has been substan-tially improved. We’re lookingforward to a very successful sea-son. You never know what canhappen, like all sports, luck playsa big role.” With a little luck onthe field, the son of Karpathosmay generate some good newsfor Orioles fans in 2011.

[email protected]

Angelos on Fighting theGood Fight and Playing

Continued from page 2

His involvement with theCMOH Society and Founda-tion aside, Mr. Rangos’ patri-otism and contributions toAmerican society have notbeen lost on the country’s mil-itary establishment. He wasinvited to be the main speakerat the Reserve Officers Asso-ciation’s national conventionin Pittsburgh a few years afterhe received the Patriot Award.

Addressing the convention,Mr. Rangos sympathized withthe military establishment’splight with respect to the waythe press typically portrayedthe Vietnam War.

“There was a lot of pressthat was very critical of thewar in Vietnam in those days– and there’s still a lot of me-dia hostility toward it – but Ithink history will show that itwasn’t a complete waste oftime. I told Gen. Westmore-land, ‘I know the media is justtearing you apart, General,but I don’t think they fully un-derstand the significance ofthis war. We didn’t go thereto conquer any country. Wewent there to stop commu-nism from spreading all overthe Pacific basin,’ ” he said.

Mr. Rangos spoke to morethan 400 senior military offi-cers (mostly generals and ma-jors) that weekend. Severalgenerals asked him for a copyof his speech afterwards, andtold him they felt his viewsand patriotism ought to bepresented at the U.S. ArmyWar College in Carlisle, Penn-sylvania.

“After the Beijing Insur-rection and the tearing downof the Berlin Wall, commu-nists finally understood thatAmerica is going to keep re-sisting communism tena-ciously. When a country gal-vanizes the way America didagainst communism, that’swhen governments solidifythemselves,” Mr. Rangospointed out.

“We had trouble in SouthKorea, the Philippines and Tai-wan. Indonesia was once runby a communist leader(Sukarno), and for variousreasons, it flipped. Democracyworks better there now thanit does in most predominantlyMuslim countries today. Thai-land and even India were alsothreatened by communism atthe time, so we accomplisheda great deal in Vietnam thatpeople don’t realize or haveforgotten, or otherwise neverhad a chance to learn aboutfrom a military perspective,”he added.

Mr. Rangos’ patriotism, in-tegrity and contributions toAmerican society brought himadditional attention from thecountry’s military establish-ment. Gen. James H. Doolitle(1896-1993), who receivedthe Medal of Honor for heroicactions against the Japanesein Word War II, asked Mr.Rangos to march in the DesertStorm Victory Parade in NewYork after operations weresuccessfully concluded in theFirst Gulf War of 1991.

Mr. Rangos initially de-clined the invitation to marchwith the country’s military he-roes, but Gen. Doolittle in-sisted because he valued Mr.Rangos’ dedication to environ-mental management and in-terest in preserving militaryhistory, so Mr. Rangos re-lented.

“It’s still too much for meto talk about. I really didn’tfeel I deserved to be there, butGen. Doolittle was very firmabout it, and in the end, I justcouldn’t say no to him,” Mr.Rangos said.

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(L-R) Medal of Honor Recipient Mike Thornton, John Gr. Rangos and Joe Foran, sponsor of theCongressional Medal of Honor Society’s annual Patriot Award Gala, during the Society’s annualPatriot Award Gala last fall. Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens was the 2010 honoree.

Col. Jack H. Jacobs (U.S. Army, retired) aboard the USSTheodore Roosevelt in December 2005. Jacobs received theMedal of Honor for his gallantry and actions in Vietnam. Cur-rently a military analyst for MSNBC News, he is also of Greek-Jewish heritage, and says the Congressional Medal of HonorFoundation “wouldn’t exist” without the efforts of prominentGreek American John G. Rangos, Sr.

it really bothered me. A lot ofthese heroes are just averageAmericans in the sense that theycan’t afford to fly all over thecountry; stay at hotels; and paytheir own way to make speechesothers are asking them tomake,” he said.

“Whenever a Medal of Honorrecipient visits a school, hechanges many young lives. Withall of the sacrifices these heroeshave made, they can’t be ex-pected to have to pay for theirown expenses. I just couldn’t be-lieve they had to pay their ownway. That’s why I asked to at-tend the Society’s next generalmeeting in Indianapolis. I toldElliott my solution, which Ieventually brought before theboard,” he added.

Mr. Rangos’ solution was toform the CMOH Foundation inorder to help the CMOH Societyperpetuate Medal of Honor re-cipients’ collective legacy. In thatregard, the John G. Rangos Sr.Family Charitable Foundationhas been a tremendous reservoirof support for the CMOH Foun-dation. No one knows exactlyhow much funding the RangosFoundation has provided theCMOH Foundation over theyears – Mr. Rangos declined todisclose a specific amount – butconservative estimates run inthe millions, and Rangos Foun-dation funds definitely helpedthe CMOH Foundation becomemore firmly established as a self-sustaining organization, partic-ularly in its early years.

Mr. Rangos also served as thefirst chairman of the CMOHFoundation’s board of directors– CMOH Society members unan-imously elected him from thestart – and he helped turn it intoone of the most vibrant founda-tions in the country.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONMr. Rangos noted that the

CMOH Foundation now boastsone of the finest boards in thecountry, replete with Fortune500 company leaders, and in-cludes his son Alex, who is him-self a recipient of the CMOH So-ciety’s prestigious DistinguishedCitizen Award (received by NewYork City Police CommissionerRay Kelly last year).

“One person alone can notbuild an organization, and I’mso happy that my son Alex fol-lowed in my footsteps with theMedal of Honor Foundation.There are three particular waysa person can help – himself, histime and his financial resources– and Alex has offered all threeof those,” Mr. Rangos said.

“I’m extremely proud of himbecause he helped other leadersmake the Medal of Honor Foun-dation a highly successful orga-nization. Alex proved to be amajor player during some criti-cal times,” he said.

“And once the country’s cor-porate leaders became aware ofthe Medal of Honor Foundationand its mission, they joined inand helped it achieve solid fi-nancial footing,” Mr. Rangosadded.

Among the 35 board mem-bers serving on the CMOH Foun-dation are Dick Grasso, formerchairman of the New York StockExchange; W. ThomasMatthews, former president &CEO of Citi Smith Barney;Steven R. Loranger, chairman &CEO of ITT Industries; RobertStevens, chairman & CEO ofLockheed Martin; and BrianWilliams, anchor and managingeditor of NBC Nightly News; as

well as a number of Medal ofHonor recipients, who constitutealmost half the board member-ship (to view the entire list ofboard members, visit the web atwww.CMOHfoundation.org).

Alex Rangos was very reti-cent about accepting or receiv-ing any credit. He simply con-siders himself just one of manypeople involved, he said, notingthat in addition to the annualPatriot Award Gala each fall, theCMOH Society now enjoys sev-eral major fundraising eventsannually, such as its Closing Bell& Circle of Honor Dinner eachspring in New York at NYSE, un-derscoring that the Stock Ex-change has been very generousto the Foundation over an ex-tended period of time.

Col. Jacobs said the Rangosfamily’s steadfast support hasbeen vital to the CMOH Society’scontinued existence and increas-ing success.

“The Medal of Honor Foun-dation has grown dramatically,and it’s all because of their per-severance and support. It iswhat it is today: an organizationestablished to perpetuate the

lofty notions of the Medal ofHonor in an environment wherewe’re not going to have anyMedal of Honor recipients after

a while. Statistically, except forSergeant Giunta, there won’t beany living Medal of Honor re-cipients in another dozen years

or so. Everyone else is a littletoo old right now,” he said.

“So if anyone is deserving ofrecognition by the Medal ofHonor Society – and by the na-tion – it’s John Rangos. TheMedal of Honor Foundation washis idea,” Col. Jacobs added.

Gen. Kehoe agreed, stressingthat Mr. Rangos’ commitment toenhancing the Medal of Honor’slegacy is consistent with the hu-mility of recipients themselves,and is key to helping ordinarycitizens realize that they, too,can be heroes in their own ways.

“John Rangos is a humbleman. He developed his passionfor the Medal of Honor Founda-tion because of what these menhad done to fight for and pre-serve our freedoms, even thoughthe recipients themselves – whoare all very humble – would tellyou they were just doing theirjob, and aren’t chasing any gloryfor themselves,” he said.

“John Rangos’ tangible con-cern was to help recipientsmake an impact on the Ameri-can people’s consciousness, par-ticularly on our youth, so thatpeople realize at some point in

their lives when they’re facing acritical situation – and it doesn’thave to be in combat – we allhave the ability to reach deepdown inside and find thecourage we need to deal withsomething very difficult, or tothink of others ahead of our-selves,” he said.

“Those are the characteristicsthat embody and are associatedwith the Medal of Honor, whichwe all must cherish. Recipientsjust happen to do it under themost extraordinary circum-stances. Most of us don’t facelife-and-death circumstanceslike they did, where theyreached deep down inside andfound the ability to contendwith incredible adversity tomake a difference on the battle-field,” he said.

“But in principle, if you canget people to actually thinkabout things in those terms oncein a while, they might realizethat, if recipients could do it un-der the most horrific of circum-stances, others ought to be ableto deal with something less ad-verse. It just takes the courageto try,” Gen. Kehoe added.


Rangos, Pastand Present

EARLY YEARSMr. Rangos is a decorated veteran of

the Korean War. Born in Steubenville,Ohio in the summer of 1929, he grewup during the Great Depression with hismother Anna and maternal grandfatherCostas Svokos, a sea captain from Chios,in northern West Virginia. Years afterher passing, Mr. Rangos still cites hismother as his source of strength andbeacon of faith.

Growing up, Mr. Rangos also spenthis summers with his father Constanti-nos (Gus) in Fredericksburg, Virginia.The Chios-born Gus Rangos left the is-land as a young boy and grew up inMacedonia, where the Rangos familyhas deep historical roots. He came tothis country in his mid-twenties, andwas a very successful restaurateur, whohad eventually purchased the mansiononce owned by Robert E. Lee, the greatConfederate Civil War general.

As a child, Mr. Rangos was keenlyaware of changes sweeping through hiscommunity, as the hardships of the De-pression gave way to the difficulties ofWorld War II. The men in his commu-nity shipped off to war overseas, whilethe women worked at local factories tosupport them, so from a young age, hetook great pride in the collaboration andsacrifice he witnessed firsthand amongthe citizenry.

As a young man, Mr. Rangos at-tended the Houston School of Business.He interrupted his education to join theActive Air Force Reserves in Pittsburgh.Declining a first lieutenant commissionin the Air Force Reserves (due to thesix-year commitment it required), heopted for the Army, which he served du-tifully in 1951-54.

During his military service, he at-tended the U.S. Signal & Communica-tions School at Fort Gordon in Augusta,Georgia. After completing courses in ad-vanced communications, he entered acombat signal team in the Far East.3

Mr. Rangos returned to civilian lifewith high honors, to include the Na-tional Defense Medal, United NationsMedal, Korean Campaign Medal, and aPresidential Unit Citation from Presi-dent Truman and South Korean Presi-dent Syngman Rhee.

POLITICSHighly patriotic from a young age,

Mr. Rangos is also deeply concernedabout the function of government at alllevels. His active involvement in the po-litical arena led to lifelong friendshipswith luminaries like President John F.Kennedy and the late Senator Hugh D.Scott of Pennsylvania, regardless of can-didates’ political affiliation or views.

Throughout the years, Mr. Rangos’preferred candidates consistently turnedto him for counsel and support. He sup-ported JFK’s successful bid for the Pres-idency in 1960, working for theKennedy Campaign in Pennsylvania,Maryland and West Virginia, and serv-ing as an advisor. He was a trusted ad-visor to his close friend, the legendarySenator Scott, and served as an advisorto David Lawrence, mayor of Pittsburghin 1946-59 and governor of Pennsylva-nia in 1959-63. He was also a delegatefor the State of Pennsylvania at the 1976Democratic National Convention in NewYork.

Mr. Rangos served as a delegate forthe 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, which ul-timately did not participate because theUnited States boycotted the MoscowOlympics. In this position, Mr. Rangosoffered words of comfort to disap-pointed American athletes, assuringthem that the U.S. boycott was neces-sary to offset Soviet aggression inAfghanistan at the time. Not participat-ing in the Moscow Games was a potentway to express American dissatisfaction

with communism, he told the athletes.“I know this is a very difficult thing

for all of you to swallow right now – es-pecially after all your training and hardwork – but our team shouldn’t go toMoscow. It’s not because we want todishonor the Russian people. It’s be-cause the Soviet Union needs a wakeupcall, and we need to tell Russia thatenough is enough,” he said, citing the1936 Olympics in Germany as an ex-ample. By participating in the BerlinGames, he explained, America sent thewrong signal to Hitler, who incited theSecond World War just three years later.

PHILANTHROPYIn recent years, Mr. Rangos has con-

centrated his efforts on philanthropy.He currently heads the John G. RangosSr. Family Charitable Foundation, whichhas donated millions to help advancemedical and scientific research at majorinstitutions like Johns Hopkins,Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne Univer-sities, and Children’s Hospital of Pitts-burgh at the University of PittsburghMedical Center.

In April 2008, Johns Hopkins inau-gurated the John G. Rangos Sr. Life Sci-ences Building, for which the RangosFoundation has donated $13 million. InOctober 2008, CHP inaugurated thenew John G. Rangos Sr. Research Centerat UPMC in Lawrenceville, for whichthe Rangos Foundation has provided $8million in grants, in addition to the $3

million gift the Rangos Foundationgranted for the original Rangos Re-search Center in 1993, when Children’sHospital was still located in the Pitts-burgh suburb of Oakland.

In September 2010, Children’s hon-ored him for his longstanding devotionand dedication in helping CHP becomeone of the world’s finest pediatric carecenters by mounting his portrait in itsmain reception area (the portrait waspainted by Presidential portrait artistBenjamin McCready). That evening, Mr.Rangos also announced that he was con-tributing another $1 million gift to thehospital from his unitrust fund.

Through his charitable foundation,Mr. Rangos has also funded the Omni-max Theater at the Carnegie ScienceCenter, the Rangos-Massimo Trucco Di-abetes Laboratory at CHP, the RangosSchool of Health & Sciences atDuquesne University, the Rangos Hallat Carnegie Mellon University, and theRangos Family Foundation Building atSaint Vladimir’s Orthodox TheologicalSeminary.

A dedicated member of the OrthodoxChurch, Mr. Rangos is an Archon of theEcumenical Patriarchate in Constantino-ple, and is the founding chairman andhonorary lifetime president of Interna-tional Orthodox Christian Charities,which has become one of the most ef-fective humanitarian agencies in theworld.

The Rangos Foundation has alsogiven millions to the CongressionalMedal of Honor Foundation, which sup-ports the CMOH Society’s activities andpublic outreach, ensuring that the his-torical legacy of America’s military he-roes is preserved in perpetuity for suc-ceeding generations (see main story).

Mr. Rangos supports, advises, andhas been honored by a number of thiscountry’s major charities and organiza-tions, to include the Leukemia Society,the Juvenile Diabetes Association, theALS Association (amyotrophic lateralsclerosis; a.k.a., “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”),and the Boy Scouts of America.

He has also been honored by manyof the Greek American community’s toporganizations: e.g., AHEPA, HellenicAmerican Chamber of Commerce, andSociety for the Preservation of GreekHeritage. Most recently, he was a grandmarshal of the 2006 annual Greek Inde-pendence Day Parade in New York, andthe American Hellenic Institute honoredhim during its 34th annual Hellenic Her-itage Achievement & National PublicService Awards in March 2009 for hisphilanthropy and business success.

John G. Rangos Sr., right, with his son Alex and daughter Jenica. Mr. Rangosfounded the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation to support the CMOHSociety’s public outreach and activities. Following in his father’s footsteps,Alex Rangos is a member of the CMOH Foundation’s board of directors.

(L-R) Medal of Honor Recipient Mike Thornton, John G. Rangosand Gen. Tommy Franks (U.S. Army), retired commander of theUnited States Central Command, during the Congressional Medalof Honor Society’s 2010 Patriot Award Gala in Dallas this pastOctober. Mr. Rangos received the prestigious award in 1991.

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By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

For creative and produc-tive people, retirementdoesn’t mean workingless, but rather, it allows

them to work on the things theylove. The dynamic but relaxedDr. P. Roy Vagelos perfectly il-lustrates that phenomenon. Onthe other hand, he never sawhis work as work.

He retired from pharmaceu-ticals leader Merck in 1995...

and soon became Chairman ofthe Board of the biopharmaceu-tical firm Regeneron, but hisphilanthropic interests, whichhe undertakes jointly with hisvibrant wife Diana, dominatehis life now. They are both care-ful with their donations, devot-ing much time to the explo-ration of opportunities to give.

In 2010 the couple gave $50million for the Columbia Med-ical School Center for a newmedical and graduate educationbuilding, and they saw the com-

pletion of an undergraduate laband the establishment of an en-dowed professorship in the pro-gram in molecular life sciencesat the University of Pennsylva-nia.

Dr. Vagelos’ exploration in-cludes scientific research. Hismajor current interests includeenvironmental issues and alter-native sources of energy. At themoment, he is looking into bio-mass as an alternative energysource and wants to see “Whatcan be done to grow our way

out of this energy mess.” Dr.Vagelos is also examining windenergy, coal with sequestrationof carbon dioxide, growing cornfor ethanol, and the energyvalue of cellulosic ethanol fromgrasses. He recently consultedwith the president of the Na-tional Research Council to ob-tain more information.

The eternally curious Dr.Vagelos demonstrated thatwhen he thinks about how heand his wife can have an impacton the world, he does not viewit only through the perspectiveof a scientist. He stays in touchwith current events and theirhistoric roots. Responding toTNH’s question about the situa-tion in Egypt, he noted that byremaining dependant on oil, es-pecially its Middle East sources,we had to support dictators likeHosni Mubarak. “We have beensupporting a dictator that ishated by the people. It’s a terri-ble position for the U.S. to be inand shows how weak our for-eign policy is.” In a discussionof possible successors, he ques-tions the conventional wisdomthat the Moslem Brotherhoodconsists entirely of extremists.

Another major and ongoingproject of the Vageloses is theplight of medical students, whoare graduating with debts aver-aging $150,000. Some 16 per-cent of them have debt over$200,000. Dr. Vagelos is veryconcerned with what that doesto their ability to select the placewhere they would like to dotheir life work. He wonderswhether debts at that level willallow people to choose to workin pediatrics, or research or fam-ily medicine. The answer, hesays, is no. He explains withsome agitation, his normallysubdued emotions rising to thelevel of his concern, “You haveto go into dermatology, neuro-surgery, cardiac surgery or aspecialty that does a lot of pro-cedures,” which he notes “aresometimes overdone.”

He finds this situation to bedebilitating for the medicalschools and it’s something he isworking on full scale at Colum-bia, which has special programsto encourage people to con-tribute to the endowment forscholarships. He would like topersuade them to adopt the pol-icy of the University of Pennsyl-vania, where, as he told TNHfour years ago, they eliminated

all student loans and had ad-mission on a “need blind” basis;now every student there who isaccepted gets just scholarships.

The equally energetic and al-truistic Mrs. Vagelos is workingprincipally at her alma materBarnard. “That’s her love andthat’s where she is concentratingher efforts,” Dr. Vagelos toldTNH. “She spends a great dealof time there, spending largeparts of some days there.”Scholarships are also her mainfocus. He spoke with great prideabout the building they helpedcreate, The Diana Center, whichis loved by faculty and studentsalike. It’s an art center that alsounifies a number of campus fa-cilities. The Diana, as it is called,is a “green” building that haswon a Progressive ArchitectureAward, the AIA New York State"Award of Excellence" and the"Best in New York State" award.Mrs. Vagelos is very happyabout it (she donated about onethird of its cost). It is anotherexample of making a differencein people’s lives.

Art is a great part of theVagelos family too. Mrs. Vagelosis an art collector and theirgrand daughter, a college fresh-man, is “an artist in the bud.”

Dr. Vagelos says: “She is a ter-rific young artist.” The amplewindows of their Manhattanapartment – they spend most oftheir time in their New Jerseyhome but they need to also bein their beloved Manhattan - af-ford spectacular views of Cen-tral Park, but the walls providehomes for their fine paintingsand sculptures.

Dr. Vagelos also told TNH thestory of his relationship with Re-generon. The biopharmaceuticalfirm was founded in 1988 topursue neurological research,seeking drugs that would helppeople suffering from degener-ative neurological disorders. Dr.Vagelos explained, “But despitethe extreme need, the sciencewas not yet sufficiently ad-vanced.” He would be instru-mental in leading them in otherdirections. Together with Regen-eron founder and leading re-search scientist, Greek AmericanGeorge Yankopoulos, Dr. Vage-los moved the firm into new ar-eas that are now bearing fruitin the development of newdrugs for victims of eye disor-ders such as age-related maculardegeneration and the eye dam-age from diabetes, certain can-cers, rheumatoid arthritis andhigh blood cholesterol.

Yankopoulos is both thesource of many of the ideas andthe driving force in the researchwork, playing a role very similarto that of Dr. Vagelos when hejoined Merck. He metYankopoulos through friends ofhis, all Nobel laureates, whoserved on the Regeneron board.When he was preparing to retirefrom Merck, they called Dr.Vagelos and asked if he wouldbe interested in joining theboard. He said he wanted tovisit the company, which wasquite small at the time, and talkwith the key people. He recalls:“I was so taken by George as ascientific leader that I thoughtit would be fun to interact withhim.” Dr. Vagelos has beenchairman of the Board since1995.

Inspiring the next generationof scientists is a part of Dr. Vage-los’ life. As we spoke he waspreparing for a trip to Philadel-phia, where he would give a talkto students about research, at-tempting to pass on a torch thatburns very brightly indeed.

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After Merck: Dr. P. Roy Vagelos Continues Exploring, Giving

Dr. Vagelos continues to be inspired by new research.

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