Captain Panagiotis Tsakos
Founder, Τsakos Group of Companies
Captain Panagiotis Nikolas Tsakos was born in Kardamyla, Chios, from a seafaring family with a long shipping tradition. He began his career embarking on small vessels during the summers of his student years and began his seafaring career as a deck boy, becoming a Captain after serving at sea for fifteen years. Together with his family, Capt. Tsakos founded Tsakos Shipping & Trading S.A. in 1970 and then proceeded, along with them, to establish a number of shipping companies, with Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd emerging as the first Greek shipping company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), led by his son Nikolas Tsakos. Capt. Tsakos places paramount importance in seamanship and the human factor, attributes which he considers to be the most valuable assets and driving force of the Tsakos Group. He considers that the greatest concern of Greek shipping should be to encourage Greek youngsters to love, rejoice and serve the sea, thus enriching not only themselves materially, but also in knowledge, experience and culture, whereby continuing the long maritime tradition of the country and ensuring that Greece remains the world’s shipping leader. The establishment and operation of the Occupational Pension Fund of the Tsakos Group in 2018 serves these purposes and aims to take care the sailors, their families and all employees of the Tsakos Group, both Greeks and foreigners, highlighting and rewarding the collective effort.