Evangelos Marinakis is the only son of Crete-born shipowner and Greek parliamentarian, Miltiadis Marinakis. Miltiadis Marinakis founded Vanimar, and owned a fleet of ships. Irini Marinaki née Karakatsani, Evangelos Marinakis’s mother, is descended from the prestigious Ypsilantis family.
Evangelos Marinakis is an alumni of the American International University, London, where he studied International Business Administration and International Relations, earning a BA and MSc respectively. On graduating, Mr Marinakis followed his father into the global shipping industry, founding the Capital Maritime & Trading Corp, a company he built from ground up. Today, the Capital Maritime Group remains under the stewardship and control of the Marinakis family, operating a 70-strong fleet of vessels, including container ships and tankers.
Mr Marinakis continues to preside over the Capital Maritime & Trading Corp as chairman. He is also serves on the board of several other prestigious companies, including:
- One Channel (Owner)
- Alter Ego Media SA (Owner)
- Abisso Holdings Limited (Owner)
- Capital Product Partners LP (Major Shareholder)
In 2017, Evangelos Marinakis was honoured at a special awards ceremony organised by Lloyds List. At the event, which was staged in Athens, his ‘dynamic deal-making’ and active contributions to global shipping, philanthropy, media, and sports were recognised with a Greek Shipping Personality of the Year award. In 2018, Evangelos Marinakis ranked 59th in the Lloyds List 100 Most Influential People in the Shipping Industry.
An impassioned Olympiacos FC supporter, Evangelos Marinakis acquired a majority share in the team in 2010. Throughout his seven-year tenure as club president, he helped lead the club to victory in seven consecutive championships.
Evangelos Marinakis purchased Nottingham Forest FC in 2017, gaining the approval of the English Football League to his far-reaching plans to retore the club to its former glory. These plans included creation of the largest football stadium in the East Midlands, creating a facility with world-class facilities as part of the redevelopment of Nottingham Forest’s historic grounds.
In May 2014, Evangelos Marinakis was elected as a member of Piraeus City Council, running for the independent Piraeus Winner alliance. He cofounded the party, joining forces with Piraeus Mayor and Olympiacos Vice President, Yannis Moralis. The party focussed on improving the standard of living in the city, as well as upgrading infrastructure and putting Piraeus on the map as an up-and-coming tourist destination.
Throughout his career, Mr Marinakis has leveraged his position as a leading figure in the global shipping industry to exert a positive social impact. In the city of Piraeus, he pledged his own personal finances to fund redevelopment, fuelling creation of new jobs and businesses in the city. In the wake of the Greek financial crisis, Evangelos Marinakis donated more than €168,000 to Greece Debt Free, a charity website created with the objective of eliminating the Greek debt.
In 2012, Evangelos Marinakis established a partnership between UNICEF and Olympiacos FC, funding paediatric immunisation programs across the developing world.
Under Mr Marinakis’s stewardship, the Capital Maritime & Trading Corp has been recognised with several awards for its efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of the shipping industry, including winning the Port of Long Beach’s Green Environmental Achievement Award in 2014, 2015, and 2018.
