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Spiros Latsis, the son of the legendary Captain Yiannis Latsis, is still the richest Greek according to the annual ranking of world’s billionaires, compiled annually by Forbes magazine. With his $ 4.8 billion the owner of EFG International, EFG Eurobank, Lambda Development and Hellenic Petroleum is ranked 219^th in the prestigious list. Spiros Latsis succeeded to his father’s shipping empire, but has made interesting investments in the banking sector, which not only have kept but also multiplied the wealth of the family. In the period before the global financial crisis his assets grew to $11 billion. They had dropped to 5.3 billion last year under the pressure from capital markets and as assessed by Forbes, this year under the supervision of Spiros Latsis the assets are worth $4.8 billion.

Besides the above mentioned companies, the richest Greek is the owner of companies offering  planes and yachts for rent – PrivatAir and PrivatSea. As GRReporter already wrote, the Latsis family became the most influential investor on the Athens Stock Exchange in 2009 with their €2.6 billion. Spiros Latsis is a London School of Economics graduate and a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University, USA. He and his wife Margaret live in Switzerland, far from worldly noise.

The second Greek, who has found a place in the Forbes list of world’s billionaires is Philip Niarchos who is ranked 459^th this year with his $2.5 billion. Philip is the eldest son of the founder of the second major Greek shipping family Stavros Niarchos and he has even managed to increase his wealth in these difficult times. As noted by the famous American magazine, Philip’s assets are estimated at $2 billion last year. He is a well-known collector of paintings and the owner of the famous self-portrait of Van Gogh with the cut ear as well as the self-portraits of Picasso and Jean-Michel Basque. A portrait of Marilyn Monroe signed by Andy Warhol is in his collection and his own portrait also painted by Warhol.

Philip Niarchos was elected a member of the Managing Board of MoMA, the New York Museum of Modern Art, for his support of contemporary art. As GRReporter already wrote, Philip Niarchos is 57^th in the list of the richest people of the United Kingdom with £750 million.

Both Spiros Latsis and Philip Niarchos continue to honour their fathers’ traditions in entrepreneurship. Of the three families that created the myth of Greek shipping tycoons only a representative of the Onassis family is missing. Unfortunately, Aristotle Onassis could not happen to have a successor of financial acumen.