The John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation has been around since its establishment in 2005. The foundation was set up to continue and honour the public benefit work of former Greek entrepreneur John S. Latsis. Latsis was a successful Greek businessman who made a name for him and his family in the shipping industry. Upon earning his success he decided to give back to the community that did so much for him throughout his life. This started with the John S. Latsis Ileians΄ Scholarships Foundation in 1967. This initial foundation was set up to support students originating from Latsis’s home county of Ileia. It gave scholarships to undergraduate programmes throughout Greece and also helped postgraduate students at universities in Greece and abroad. The scholarship foundation lasted until 2011.
Helping Community
Latsis continued to create other programmes that helped the surrounding communities while also creating initiatives abroad like the Fondation Latsis Internationale in Geneva, Switzerland that encourages and supports scientific research in various fields. Latsis also took it upon himself to help out the Greek community in times of tragedy like the earthquakes in Kalamata in 1986 when he lodged victims on his cruise ships for two years.
The Latsis family, including Latsis’s son and foundation supervisory board member Spiro Latsis, decided to honour these charitable works by creating the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation to make sure the communities received the support and help they deserved even in the absence of Latsis.
Support and Funding
Currently, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation works in two ways. One way is by creating and maintaining programmes like its scientific research initiatives while the second way is by funding third-party programmes and organisations the Spiro Latsis and the rest of the supervisory board members deem worthy of support and funding. This includes annual Christmas concerts, moot court competitions, and the partial funding of paediatric clinics.
Spiro Latsis and His Father’s Legacy
Spiro Latsis is one of four members of the Latsis Foundation’s supervisory board that is made up of Latsis family members. The board looks to continue the legacy of John S. Latsis and the good work that he was known for. Spiro Latsis not only took over his father’s established businesses but also took the initiative to handle the family’s finances when his father passed in 2003. This now includes helping the rest of the supervisory board decide on the allocation of the foundation’s funds. There is lots of information about Spiro Latsis and his personal net wealth online.
Spiro Latsis was born in Athens, Greece in 1946. He is well-educated having earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics from the London School of Economics. From there he went on to earn his Master’s in Logic and the Scientific Method and a Doctorate in Philosophy also from the London School of Economics. He has successfully maintained his father’s businesses while using his own business savvy to create his own enterprises including becoming the largest shareholder of Eurobank in 2012 after transferring an estimated $300 million in stock into the company. As of March 2013 he was considered by Forbes magazine to be the wealthiest man in Greece. He currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland with wife Margaret. The couple has three children together.