Pericles Panagopoulos is the kind of man, to whom nothing in life was offered gratis. Self-made, dynamic and indefatigable, he worked arduously all his life for everything he has until today achieved.
He was born in a nursing home in the renowned Patmou Street, in Koliatsou Square. He spent the first 14 years of his life in Kaftajoglou Street. He grew up during the war era and had a hard childhood.
In 1907 his father immigrated to America. From Platy, in Messinia, he reached Patra and from there he traveled in a boat, 90m long -like the ones that nowadays follow the itinerary from Methana to Poros- where he stayed for a whole 20 years. He returned just before the big crisis in the USA. With the money he had earned, he built hotel VETO in the center of Athens, in Lycourgou Street. However, during the war era, GESTAPO commandeered the hotel in order to accommodate its officers. "In 1942, the period of Greece's occupation, my father, who was "restless", did things the Germans did not fancy. They caught him and battered him badly. After a 5 months confinement in bed, he did not make it".
Pericles Panagopoulos, just a small kid then, felt like his whole world was collapsing. Along with his mother and his two half-brothers from his father's first marriage, they tried to put their lives in order. Those were hard years and people were bedeviled with tuberculosis. Unfortunately, in 1944 he lost his elder brother to this sickness.
His mother was from Constantinople. She studied and taught in Zappeio for 15 years, during those schools' great bloom. Then she came to Greece, where she met and married his father, who was a widower at that time. Her loss was great when he died - She pulled up all her strength and managed to survive for her children's sake. "Every time I visit Constantinople I go to Zappeio. For the only heirloom my mother has left me, is a photograph of hers standing on the building's steps".
To his good fortune, a remote kinsman of his, was our national benefactor Eugenius Eugenidis. With no offspring of his own, he took up Pericles' education, who was then 14 years old. Hence they left Greece that was then in ruins and moved to Switzerland, in an entirely different environment - In Switzerland Eugenidis had based his business. Pericles was chosen as a most promising youngster, who could become useful to society.
He did not let down his uncle as he finished the School of Leonteios with excellent marks. Even though he only had a poor command of the French language, he succeeded in finishing high school with flying colors and he was the only Greek student in the school. "I studied Economics in a Commercial School. I learnt useful things that helped me in the course of my life. In 1953 I returned to Greece and attended courses in trigonometry, physics, and chemistry, which I had not been taught there. Then I was examined by a state committee and was awarded my high school certificate with a score of 18. My daughter had it framed".
Even though Eugenidis had a few ships of his own he also managed many more foreign ones. He sent young Pericles to his business' department in London and threw him in deep water. He worked in the morning and went to school in the evening. His programme was exhausting. In the summer he embarked on the ships and traveled beside the mariners, so as to learn the job first hand. He first visited South America when he was 15 years old as a member of the crew. "Imagine that at that times people did not travel by ships on vacation, but as immigrants. So I found myself in Middle East in times of war and I was in Jerusalem, when King Abdullah of Jordan was assassinated. It was unbelievable! My life is full of such adventures".
Eugenidis' death, on April 1954, was an important point in his life. It was then that he felt he did not fit in with the environment. Nothing was binding him any more with his uncle's company. He had to take some decisions concerning his life and his career. He needn't think. He gave up school and dedicated himself to his work.
Those were hard years, for his mother depended on him and his half brother was managing the hotel, one part of which they had inherited. Therefore he had to engage, professionally and in order to earn his livelihood, in what he had learnt to do. In the beginning of 1955 the department in England shuts down and he goes for a three months training to Geneva, where he ends up staying for 10 whole years. There, he meets a beautiful young girl, Bruna, who in a few years becomes his wife. He has tow children with her.
In 1960 he returns to Greece to serve in the army. That period is important, since he is alone and his has plenty of time to himself. He sees it as an opportunity to catch a breath away from work and to redefine his priorities. "I thought I would be on vacation, since I never had such a luxury. The reality in the army made me see the truth. So I found myself in Grevena and Vermio serving my country. That was a very important experience for me then".
In 1962 he marries Bruna and moves in London. There he becomes head of the sales and reservations department in Eugenidis' Company for the transatlantic ships that follow the itinerary: France - England - Canada - Quebec - Montreal. In 1963 this line closes down. He moves back to Geneva with the three women of his life - his mother, his wife and his newborn daughter. There he engages in the superintendence of a transatlantic ship that was being built at the time in a shipyard near Tergesti. His contribution proved essential, since the ups and down in the shipyard's ownership status quo - it went from state ownership to private ownership - threatened the construction with delays.
In 1965 he resigns from the company because he feels that nothing suits his interests. He does not feel welcome there anymore. He makes this decision rapidly. He comes to Athens and starts looking for a job. He goes from door to door and seeks for friends promising co-operation. What he finds is doors shut and filled positions - "Come back later", "leave us CV", "a friend of mine is looking for someone like you to work for him" and likewise; that is what he heard in a daily basis. What is more, one of them told him once to go back again the next day, because he wanted to impress some foreigners. In the end, and fortunately not much later, he found a promising and well-paid job in the company sun line (;). His next step was to bring his family with him.
The big outset of his career
Since he is a restless spirit, he seeks for new challenges. Pericles Panagopoulos is not the kind of person, who will stay in a job because he is well paid. He researches the market and waits for the right moment to do his own transgression. So in 1971 he finds those who will finance him and establishes a cruise ship company, Royal Cruise Line, on the condition that in the future he will buy out their share. He managed to do this soon, since his business went rather well. He obtained the majority of the shares by loaning from banks. Royal Cruise Line soon reached the top and was ranked among the best cruise companies in the world. Meanwhile, he expands his fleet buying a transatlantic ship from Eugenidis' company and reshaping it into a cruise ship. The works at Perama and Shipyard last for three months, a record at that time, and reach a cost of 25 million dollars! The company's employers at Piraeus exceed the number of 1500, while the office he holds in San Francisco occupies 234 people. It is the only Greek Company and the 32nd best in the area.
His children, after completing their studies in America, also work there. With cruises all over the world he wins the lion's share and his company becomes greatly reputed. Being a man of great insight into the future, after a series of events he perceives that the market is not lucrative and on the 30th of November 1989 he sells the company to Norwegians closing a very good deal.
For one and a half-year he was unemployed and he did not like that at all. Even though the amount of money he gained by the sell was not at all negligible, he felt that all the things he had taken great pains for and achieved with many hardships did not exist. And what is more, he wouldn't have a family business to leave as heritage to his children.
He could not escape his fate of being a businessman and an indefatigable sea worker. The dynamic businessman returns this time with commercial cargo ships - of dry cargo, something familiar from his past, since he retained stocks in companies managing such ships. He was soon found having his own cargo ships and his company was one of the best in the sector.
Pericles Panagopoulos invests in the Cylinder Mills of Attica buying out the company's shares. In this way he enters dynamically the stock market. Later on this company is renamed in Attica Enterprises, in which he is also president. Meanwhile he buys the first ships, Super fast 1 and 2. He succeeds in reducing the time needed for the itinerary between Greece and Italy in less than 24 hours. Their future is brightly outlined. The one ship follows the other and his company is one of the most powerful in the navigation sector. Superfast Ferries, which manages ships of Attica Enterprises - the company has entered Athens Stock Market - owns the younger and faster and moreover rapidly expanding fleet! Since its foundation, he constantly fixes in the programme new, super modern ships and expands his activities not only in Greece, but also in Europe thus succeeding in becoming the first Greek company in passenger shipping that is expanding in the whole of Europe. He activates exclusively in international markets, mainly in Adriatic and the Baltic Sea. "Our objective was and still is to establish Attica Enterprises as a European Association in passenger shipping with a modern fleet and services of high standards for the passenger."
In 1999 he buys out an important percentage of STRINZIS company and enters dynamically the market in Aegean with 5 brand new Blue Star Ferries. The new dynamic fleet of Blue Star Ferries achieves huge commercial success in the line of Cyclades and is considered ideal for the Aegean. "The Blue Star Ferries objective is continuing the renewal of its fleet and establishing a new situation in sea transportation and the standard of offered services. The success, which so far all newly-built Bleu Star Ferries have achieved, is very encouraging for our whole effort".
His children stand by him and follow in their father's steps, each of them undertaking a different sector. Their co-operation is excellent, which is essential for the good and successful process of the companies they are managing.
Catherine Panagopoulou, a dynamic woman and charismatic personality, is his second wife. An ambassadress of "Ευ Αγωνίζεσθε" in the European Council, she is the person with whom he shares everything and who supports all his choices. He speaks for her with the best words and feels fortunate having her in his life. Apart from being a happy husband, Pericles Panagopoulos is also a happy - grandfather. He has three grandchildren from his daughter, who is a municipal counselor in Vouliagmeni's Municipality.
"Spare Time? I am not used to having spare time. I have been working all my life. I come daily in the office and this is a habit I will never give up. What pleases me is when we go to Miconos in the summer and we enjoy our time by the sea. We have a traditional house above the port, with no pools, grass and superfluous luxuries".
As for his relationship with money? "Money is the means of business making. It is not an end in itself. It is a product by which objectives are achieved. It helps you improve your life with things that unfortunately you yourself do not have time to enjoy. However, the people close to you enjoy them".
Pericles Panagopoulos is President of Attica Enterprises and President in the Association of Passenger Ships' Owners. "My election in the office of President of the Association of Passenger Ships" Owners gives me great honor. The responsibilities I have undertaken are many and I hope I will be worthy of them. My goal is to pursue -if possible- the creation of the necessary conditions and prerequisites for an upgrading of the quality of our navigable material and the offered services, because I believe that poor quality damages severely the image of passenger shipping and so forth Greek tourism. This upgrading is not our only aim, since for the improvement of the ships and the offered services right and safe ports, modern reception and passenger serving facilities are also required".
Thanks to his long-lived and continual progress he paved a new way in the travel world. His main characteristics are responsibility and credibility. His life philosophy: "Keep your mind working day and night and always be in continual restlessness and vigilance".
Was enterprising in his nature or did it grow within the years? One way or the other Pericles Panagopoulos manifestly proved that he is a dynamic and indefatigable sea worker.
By: N. Peter Kramer
