George Michael Logothetis (Greek: Τζορτζ Μάικλ Λογοθέτης; born 18 January 1975) is a Greek-American businessman. He was born into a Greek shipping family. Logothetis grew up in London and has lived in New York City since 2004."2014 the year of Greek growth?". Fox Business. 22 January 2014.Musafer, Shanaz. "Family values help Greek shipping business go global". BBC News. 7 July 2013. He is a US citizen.Wright, Robert. "Families will keep shipping buoyant, says Greek tycoon". Financial Times. 14 July 2013.
Logothetis is the executive chairman of Libra Group,Libra Group Names Manos Kouligkas CEO; George Logothetis Executive Chairman" Kokkinidis, Tasos, Greek Reporter. July 21, 2022. Accessed April 13, 2023. a diversified international privately owned company that he founded in 2003. As of 2023, Libra Group owns and operates 15 subsidiary companies around the world, mainly in six industries: aerospace, renewable energy, hospitality, real estate, diversified investments, and maritime.Libra Group – Official website. Retrieved 11 January 2017."Company Overview of Libra Holdings Ltd." Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
Early life and education George Logothetis was born on 18 January 1975 in London to Greek parents, and he grew up there.George Michael Logothetis . CompaniesintheUK.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2014. He was educated at Highgate School from 1987 to 1993.Hughes, Patrick; Davies, Ian F. (eds). Highgate School Register 1833–1988. (7th edition) p. 433.
As a very young child he contracted meningitis, a disease which threatened his life and thereafter created debilitating health problems which left him bed-ridden for many days at a time, several times a year, until he had an operation at the age of 36 which cured the condition.Varvitsiotis, Eleni "George Logothetis: Above all, Greece is the border of the West" (Greek). Kathimerini 14 February 2016.2015 Oxi Day Foundation Gala Keynote Speech – George Logothetis (3:10–6:30). Oxi Day Foundation. 5 November 2015. He has stated that living with a compromised immune system for so long gave him an enormous appreciation of life and an ability to find inspiration in the face of difficulties.Logothetis, George. "The Opportunity in Adversity" (7:45–12:00). Beyond Conference. 2016.
He is the eldest of four sons of Greek shipping businessman Michael G. Logothetis, and his brothers are Constantine, Nicholas, and Leon.Rothman, Andrea. "Libra Buys AgustaWestland Helicopters to Start Leasing Business". Bloomberg News. 12 February 2012. His father started a small shipping business, Lomar Shipping, in 1976.Lomar Shipping Limited – Profile at Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 March 2017. George was exposed to the business from a very early age, and as a teenager he also spent summers abroad learning the details of the trade.
Logothetis began his business career immediately after high school and did not complete a university degree. In 2013, on the merits of his numerous accomplishments and philanthropies, he received an honorary doctorate from the American College of Greece.Papapostolou, Anastasios. "Deree Commencement: 500 Graduates and a Moving Speech by Libra CEO". Greek Reporter. 5 July 2013.Pappas, Gregory C. "Vision Without Implementation Is Just a Hallucination: The Amazing Case of George Logothetis". HuffPost. 12 July 2013.
Career Logothetis started working at his father's shipping company, Lomar Shipping, in 1993 at the age of 18.George M. Logothetis – Profile at Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 March 2017. By 1995 he was CEO of the company. Over the next ten years, he enlarged the fleet from less than five to more than 55 ships.
Logothetis's philosophy from the start was to work hard, and then take three to five months off every five years to reflect about the next five years."Why this CEO takes 5 months off" (video). Fortune. 17 April 2015. During these hiatuses, he avoids work emails and phone calls, believing that "ideas need space to be born".Christodoulou, Kostis. "George Logothetis: the 39-year-old expat businessman that even Onassis would envy" (Greek). News 247. 16 March 2014. On his first sabbatical, he travelled around Asia, and on his second, he did some university studies in New York City.
During his three-month sabbatical in New York, the idea of diversification came to him. In 2003 Logothetis, with his brother Constantine, created and founded Libra Group, based in New York and London, to diversify and expand his company.
Between 2004 and 2007, during a boom in the shipping business, Libra Group sold off most of Lomar's ships.Saul, Jonathan. "Interview – Conglomerate Libra sees investors returning to Greece". Reuters. 7 March 2013. With the profit from the ship sales, the new company purchased a fleet of airplanes, which were at a cyclical low, and set up an aircraft leasing division, Lease Corporation International. Logothetis repeated this successful "buy-low, sell-high" formula of going counter to prevailing market trends several times in the ensuing decade, building a large diversified multinational conglomerate out of what was once a small shipping company.
"The idea behind Libra was to diversify away from shipping to create a global group, using the top lieutenants we had worked with in the preceding years", Logothetis told Reuters in 2013. He told Fortune he "took all the great people from our shipping business, and sent them around the world to start companies. We ended up with a ship's captain running a $200 million real estate company and a Russian fruit seller who runs six biogas plants in Latvia.""George Logothetis: The best advice I ever got". Fortune. 25 October 2012. He later reiterated to BBC News how he expanded and diversified the company: "'We designed a framework of all the places in the world that we wanted to have an office and representation in. Next to each place we put the name of a person that we knew – a family member, a friend or an employee.' These people were sent out to different locations and given the chance to learn new businesses."
In 2006, Libra Group started expanding beyond aviation. Its new major ventures included real estate, hospitality, and renewable energy.Brady, Diane. "Executive on Greece: 'What Everyone Needs Now Is Certainty'". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 19 June 2012.
In December 2009, after ship values slumped in the wake of the financial crisis, Logothetis again entered the shipping business and purchased Allocean and its fleet of 26 ships."Lomar Shipping Makes Super Deal". Capital.gr. 8 December 2009."Logothetis family marks return to shipping with $325m buy". TradeWinds. 3 June 2010. From December 2009 through December 2014, the company purchased a total of 91 vessels.Saul, Jonathan. "Conglomerate Libra ramps up container ship buying, bets on upturn". Reuters. 11 December 2014.
Libra Group has also expanded beyond its core businesses of maritime, aerospace, real estate, hospitality, and renewable energy, to include a variety of diversified investments such as media, rare earth minerals, and sleep products.Saul, Jonathan. "Interview – Libra Group invests in Greece as economy turns up". Reuters. 19 March 2014. Between 2008 and 2014, the company purchased $7 billion to $7.5 billion of assets globally. As of 2023, Libra Group owns and operates 15 subsidiary companies around the world.
In January 2022, in Pisante v Logothetis, the High Court of Justice found George Logothetis and Libra liable to Swindon Holdings. The court entered judgment against Logothetis for damages to be assessed, with a payment of US$6.25 million plus interest.
In 2024, Libra Group announced that the Group had exited the container shipping market after selling close to 100 vessels for more than $2 billion over several years to focus on innovation and sustainability as new drivers of growth.
In 2023, Libra formed a new aerospace subsidiary (SLI) to tap into the projected $1 trillion space economy. Libra Group aimed to become the world's first space leasing company offering satellites, spaceports, and other infrastructure. Libra is setting up a station in the Alaskan Arctic, vital for polar orbits to monitor climate change. In April 2024, SLI purchased a second ground station in Piteå, Sweden. Since its founding, SLI expanded its portfolio to include traditional aviation and advanced air mobility assets.
Logothetis has been an advocate for and an investor in Greece during the Greek financial crisis. As a result of the crisis, he has become a sought-after business leader for his opinions on investing in Greece and in Greek assets, products, and industries. In June 2012, following prime minister Antonis Samaras's election, he emphasized that the promise of governmental stability was bringing back business confidence and individual confidence in Greece, and noted Libra Group's numerous recent and projected Greek investments and businesses. In March 2013, he cited Samaras's coalition government's relieving the Greek eurozone crisis as a reason investors were returning to, and should continue to return to, Greece. In late 2013, he sounded a cautionary note concerning the "buying frenzy" occurring in the slump-ridden shipping sector.Saul, Jonathan. "Funds buy shipping loans from capital-conscious banks". Reuters. 18 December 2013. Speaking to a reporter in January 2014 at Davos, he encouraged businesspersons to see the opportunity available in Greece, and stated that he felt that 2014 would be "the year of Greek growth".Papapostolou, Anastasios. "George Logothetis from Davos: '2014 is the Year of Greek Growth'". Greek Reporter. 26 January 2014. He reiterated his optimism in March 2014, noting that Libra Group had invested $500 million in Greece since 2012.
Outreach and philanthropies Logothetis has been publicly active in outreach and philanthropy, particularly in the wake of the Greek financial crisis.Lussier, Robert N.; Corman, Joel M.; Kimball, David. Entrepreneurial New Venture Skills. Routledge, 2014. p. 64. At a dinner meeting of 14 Greek Americans seeking to improve the lives of their countrymen, he conceived a plan for an internship program under the auspices of Libra Group, in conjunction with the Greek America Foundation and the American College of Greece, placing young Greeks and Greek Americans in Libra Group and its subsidiaries 26 locations across the world, giving them hope and opportunity. This project became Libra Internship Program, which launched in 2011.Papapostolou, Anastasios."Libra Group Announces Internship Program with Greek America Foundation". Greek Reporter. 3 July 2011.Seiradaki, Emmanouela. "Libra Group & The American College of Greece Launch Unique International Internship Program". Greek Reporter. 29 September 2011.Papapostolou, Anastasios. "10 Greeks of Diaspora that Left Their Mark in 2011". Greek Reporter. 31 December 2011. Initially focused solely on Greek and Greek diaspora students,Papapostolou, Anastasios. "2014 Libra Program: Get Your Dream Internship!". Greek Reporter. 17 January 2014.George Logothetis – Chairman and CEO, Libra Group. CSR in Greece. CSRinGreece.gr. 2013. As of 2024 the program provides internships for up to 100 students from over 50 countries per year at Libra Group and its subsidiaries, and includes placements for students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.Libra Group Internships. LibraInternship.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017."Miami Dade College Joins Forces with Libra Group to Offer Unique International Internship Opportunities". Miami Dade College. 3 November 2014.