Page 16 - Next Generation 2015 - Digtial Issue
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Next Generation Europe
Ideally, shipping investments trust in highly experienced, industry team effort.” And the brothers count the
would be spread across at least three leading professionals while at the same cumulative influence of those previous
completely different sectors, which may time retaining the most experienced five generations as part of the team.
imply an interest in returning to the dry members of the team to provide
bulk sector as well. mentorship and counsel, in a conscious “Our most important objective is
mirroring of the faith Capt Lemos to preserve our reputation and last to
Andonis and Filippos are, by invested in them. another generation and we aspire to pass
all accounts, best friends as well as the business on with the reputation that
brothers, and it is a spirit that they “Ultimately, we are the principals. our father created still intact,” they say.
have tried to spread throughout the But the more one learns, the more one
group where they have put their learns that one knows nothing. It’s a “We are involved in a marathon, not
a sprint.”
The keen horsewoman and daughter of Star Bulk founder Petros
Pappas has inherited family appetite for hard work
Greece
Milena Pappas
AMONG the traits Milena Pappas appears Star Bulk, which is already on the New She officially joined one of the
to have inherited from father Petros York Stock Exchange. family companies in 2007, after receiving
Pappas are an appetite for hard work and a Master of Science degree in shipping,
a love of competition. Ms Pappas finds herself part of trade and finance from Cass University,
one of the hardest-working teams in the London, and has been an integral part of
Pappas senior, the founder of the industry. the group since then.
Oceanbulk group and currently chief
executive of Star Bulk Carriers, the largest “My father is a very positive person,” Ms Pappas served as a director
dry bulk owner publicly listed in the US, she says. “He enjoys doing business with of Star Bulk from 2009 to last year,
competed in the skeet shooting event at friends and people he appreciates and when mergers saw the dry bulk owner
the Moscow Olympics in 1980, where Star values. He never saw shipping as ‘work’ supersized and the board restructured.
Bulk chairman Spyros Capralos was an and this is the mentality he passed on to
Olympian water polo player. me as well. Currently she has the title of ‘S&P
and projects manager’, but admits she
Milena, 30, is a keen horse rider “As a group, we have longstanding is involved in virtually all aspects of the
and has been part of the Greek ladies’ business relationships and co-operation business, especially in the dry bulk and
national team for several years, with numerous companies that go back container sectors.
competing in national and international 30-plus years. Shipping is a people
equestrian events. Her biography as a business, where a favour given is a favour
horsewoman notes, however, “when returned, and showing understanding
work permits”. and co-operation can go a long way.”
Having virtually exited shipping Ever since she can remember,
in the mid-2000s, the family was her father would talk to her about the
instrumental in establishing Star Bulk, business and ask her opinion, “just to
initially as a blank cheque company and, get me thinking and sharpen my critical
in the past few years, it has re-invested judgment”.
aggressively through joint ventures with
Oaktree Capital and other funds. However, Ms Pappas was not
truly smitten by shipping until a first
It includes a newbuilding internship spent with C Transport
containership fleet and a fleet of product Maritime in Monaco, after graduating
tankers, both of which are earmarked for from Cornell University with a Bachelor
public listings at some stage. A huge fleet of Arts degree. The three-week
of bulkers has already been folded into assignment turned into the whole
summer.
16 | Lloyd’s List Next Generation 2015 | www.lloydslist.com
