Stavros Spyrou Niarchos was a billionaireGreek shipping tycoon. Starting in 1952, he had the world's biggest supertankers built for his fleet. Propelled by both the Suez Crisis and an increasing demand for oil, he and rival Aristotle Onassis became giants in global petroleum shipping. Niarchos was also a noted thoroughbredhorse breeder and racer, several times the leading owner and number one on the French breed list.
Early life
Stavros was born in Athens to a wealthy family, son of Spyros Niarchos and his wife, Eugenie Koumantaros, a rich heiress. His great-great-grandfather, Philippos Niarchos, a Greek shipping agent in Valletta, had married a daughter from a noble family in Malta, whose younger offspring had moved to Greece to base themselves in a merchant business from Malta. His parents were naturalized Americans who had owned a department store in Buffalo, New York before returning to Greece, three months prior to his birth. They returned to Buffalo for a brief time and the young Stavros attended the Nardin Academygrammar school. They returned permanently to Greece and Stavros studied in the city's best private school before starting university. He studied law at the University of Athens, after which he went to work for his maternal uncles in the Koumantaros family's grain business. During this period, he became involved in shipping by convincing his uncles their firm would be more profitable if it owned its own ships.
Shipping career
Niarchos was a naval officer in World War II, during which time part of the trade fleet he had developed with his uncle was destroyed. He used about two million dollars in insurance settlement to build a new fleet. His most famous asset was the yacht Atlantis, currently known as Issham al Baher after having been gifted to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. He then founded Niarchos Ltd., an international shipping company that at one time operated more than 80 tankers worldwide. He and Aristotle Onassis were great shipping rivals. In 1952, high-capacity oil supertankers were built for the competing Niarchos and Onassis fleets, who both claimed to own the largest tanker in the world. In 1955, Vickers Armstrongs Shipbuilders Ltd launched the . Then the world's largest supertanker, it was named after Niarchos' second son, Spyros, born earlier that year. In 1956, the Suez Canal Crisis considerably increased the demand for the type of large-tonnage ships that Niarchos owned. Business flourished and he became a billionaire.
Personal life
Marriages
Niarchos was married five times:
To Helen Sporides in 1930, a daughter of Admiral Constantine Sporides, lasted one year.
To Melpomene Capparis in 1939, a widow of a Greek diplomat, whom he divorced in 1947.
To Charlotte Ford in 1966, daughter of tycoon automaker Henry Ford II, in Mexico. Their daughter Elena Anne Ford was born six months later. When the marriage ended in divorce the following year Niarchos returned to his former wife, Eugenia. No remarriage was necessary, since the couple's 1965 Mexican divorce had not been recognized by Greek law.
To Athina Spencer-Churchill, his third wife Eugenia's sister, in 1971. Then the Marchioness of Blandford, Athina had been the first wife of Aristotle Onassis. She died of an overdose in 1974.
By his third wife, Eugenia Livanos, whom he never divorced under Greek law:
*Maria Isabella Niarchos, a breeder of thoroughbreds. Married to Stephane Gouazé. Mother of two children: Artur Gouazé and Maia Gouazé
*Philippos, also known as Philippe Niarchos, art collector. Married in 1984 to his third wife Victoria Guinness, who is the younger daughter of Patrick Benjamin Guinness and Baroness Dolores von Fürstenberg-Hedringen. They had four children together: Stavros Niarchos, Eugenie Niarchos, Theodorakis Niarchos, Electra Niarchos.
*Konstantin, or Constantine Niarchos ; married firstly 1987 Princess Alessandra Borghese, no issue; married secondly the Brazilian artist Sylvia Martins, no issue. He was the first Greek to scale Mt. Everest. At his death of a massive cocaine overdose in 1999, The Independent reported he had been left one billion dollars as his share of his late father's estate.
By his fourth wife; Charlotte Ford:
*Elena Ford married firstly 1991 to Stanley Jozef Olender, married secondly 1996 Joseph Daniel Rippolone, with issue.
Death
Niarchos died in 1996, in Zurich. He is buried in the family tomb in the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery in Lausanne. At his death, his fortune was estimated to be worth $12 billion. When Niarchos died, he left 20% his fortune to a charitable trust to be established in his name and the other part to his three sons and daughter Maria by his marriage to Greek shipping heiress Eugenia Livanos, a nephew, and a great nephew. He notably excluded Elena Ford his daughter by his ex-wife Charlotte from his will. She sued the estate in both Swiss and Greek courts for her 1/10th share estimated to be worth £700 million.
