Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou - who prefers to be known as Stelios - is a serial entrepreneur best known for creating easyJet in 1995 at the age of 28. In 2000, he floated easyJet on the London Stock Exchange and the company now has grown into one of Europe's leading airlines with 170 aircraft flying over 400 routes between 103 airports in 26 countries. Approximately 45 million people a year fly with easyJet, enjoying more value for less! 

Stelios is the son of a very successful Greek shipowner, the late Loucas Haji-Ioannou, who provided the seed capital for Stelios' independent business career, which started when he created a shipping company - Stelmar - at the age of 25., Stelios floated Stelmar on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001 and the company was successfully sold to a rival in 2005, creating significant shareholder value.

Today, Stelios remains the biggest single shareholder of easyJet PLC and a non-executive director. Before the company's IPO in 2000 - and true to his beliefs in serial entrepreneurship - he consolidated the ownership of the easy brand into his private company, easyGroup, and launched several easy-branded businesses. The group currently includes easyCar (car rental), easyHotel (budget hotels), easyBus (airport transfers), easyOffice (low-cost, serviced office rental for small businesses), easyPizza and easyCruise - all dedicated to offering more value for less to millions of consumers. 

In 2006, at the age of 39, Stelios received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for services to entrepreneurship. Since then, Sir Stelios has expanded his dedication to making a difference to society by launching a number of philanthropic initiatives supporting entrepreneurship, higher education and environmental sustainability.

Stelios has pledged 200 scholarships over 10 years to the London School of Economics and Cass Business School in London - his almae mater - supporting young, exceptional scholars who want to make a difference in their chosen fields. Similarly - in partnership with Leonard Cheshire Disability in the UK - Stelios created the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year in the UK given to exceptional entrepreneurs who have overcome significant physical and perceptual limitations in starting their businesses.  Most recently, after many years of commitment to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Stelios has been nominated as a member of the WWF-UK's Council of Ambassadors - a distinguished and influential group of senior volunteers to the Fund.   Additionally, in 2009 Stelios was nominated the Honorary General Consul for the Republic of Cyprus in the Principality of Monaco.

In Cyprus, the birthplace of his parents, Stelios co-founded CYMEPA in 1992 - an association dedicated to preserving the marine environment.  The Stelios Philanthropic Foundation has also recently launched the Stelios Award for Business Cooperation in Cyprus, aimed at fostering trust and bi-communal business cooperation between entrepreneurs in the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities.  In his own birthplace, Greece, he continues his commitment to environmental protection, having supported the Pendeli Reforestation project north of Athens. Additionally, in Greece, he strives to further inspire entrepreneurship through the Stelios Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Greece - a 50,000EU prize given to an outstanding business start-up spear-headed by an entrepreneur under 40 years old.

In forwarding Stelios' commitment to entrepreneurship and the environment, the Foundation is hosting the Stelios Award for Young Clean-Tech Entrepreneur in conjunction with the 3rd annual Clean Equity Monaco held in the Principality in early March.  Similarly, in Monaco the Foundation has pledged to support the Monaco Blue Initiative - a conference dedicated to the preservation of the marine environment and scheduled during the 2010 centenary of Monaco's renowned Oceanographic Museum.

More likely to be on an aircraft than in an office, Stelios  is 42 years old and lives in Monaco.