Aristotle Onassis Shipping magnate and international businessman Date of Birth: 15.01.1906 Country: Greece

1. Aristotle Onassis: Shipping Magnate and International Businessman
2. Early Life and Career
3. Shipping Empire
4. Later Years and Personal Life

Aristotle Onassis: Shipping Magnate and International Businessman

Aristotle (Socrates) Onassis was born on January 15, 1906, in Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkey, and passed away on March 15, 1975, in Paris. He was a shipping magnate and international businessman who built a fleet of supertankers and cargo ships larger than the navies of many countries.

Early Life and Career

Despite coming from a wealthy family of tobacco dealers, the Onassis family lost almost all their fortune in 1922 when Smyrna, then a Greek city, was captured by the Turks. Fleeing from Greece, the family sent Onassis to South America in search of a better future.

In Buenos Aires, Onassis became a night port dispatcher and, with the help of family friends, started a tobacco import business during the day. He increased the use of imported Eastern tobacco in Argentina from 10% to 35% and earned $100,000 in two years from a 5% commission on tobacco trade. The Greek government noticed Onassis and offered him a trade agreement with Argentina in 1928, subsequently appointing him as consul general. His business activities expanded to include cigarette production and other consumer goods. By the age of 25, Onassis had made his first million dollars.

Shipping Empire

In 1932, Onassis purchased his first six cargo ships from a Canadian firm for $120,000. He used two of these ships until larger vessels became available and then acquired more. Onassis built his first tanker in 1938 and had acquired two even larger ones by the start of World War II. His empire grew, and his fleet expanded throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In the mid-1950s, he bought 17 new tankers in just one year. In 1953, he also paid $1 million for a controlling stake in the Société des Bains de Mer, which owned casinos in Monte Carlo, theaters, hotels, and other properties.

Later Years and Personal Life

From 1957 to 1974, Onassis owned and operated Olympic Airways, the Greek national airline, which was granted to him by the Greek government. His first marriage, in 1946, was to Athina Livanos, the daughter of shipping magnate Stavros Livanos. They divorced in 1960. Onassis was long associated with opera diva Maria Callas. In 1968, he married Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, the widow of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. His lavish yacht, named "Christina" after his daughter, was referred to by some as a "floating palace" and served as his permanent residence for several years.

At the time of his death, his estate was estimated to be worth over $500 million.