How Stelios gives back

Marie-Louise Bang, director of the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, is all about keeping things easy.

So is the man behind the Stelios Foundation – Stelios Haji-Ioannuu (or just Stelios, as he likes to be called). Born in Greece to Cypriot parents, he grew up to be a “serial entrepreneur” and in 1995 at the age of 28 founded the low-cost airline Easyjet.

He has now brought the ‘easy’ brand to the world of giving.

The Stelios Foundation, with offices in Cyprus, Greece, the UK and Monaco, “is a very different animal in the scope of foundations in Europe,” according to Bang.

She talked to Vita Europe about the foundation’s unique approach in Cyprus, a country deeply divided between the Turkish community in the North and the Greek in the South.

You began working in Cyprus fairly recently. What was your impression?

When we first came in, we were bombarded by a whole bunch of small NGOs who were asking us to sponsor their activities. They clearly hadn’t been communicating. It’s almost worth a visit to Cyprus – it is such a complicated environment. Especially in the North, which is not recognized by anyone except Turkey. The whole concept of civil society, it almost doesn’t exist.

What was your strategy?

We decided from the start that while our financial contributions were going to be limited – Stelios is not Bill Gates or Ted Turner – there was a lot we could do in terms of non-financial giving.

What does that entail?

The premise is, yes, we spend one million euros per year on gifts and overhead, but then a large part of our other giving is exponential by nature. It is inspirational and aspirational. We get Stelios out there speaking about entrepreneurship, education and environment. These are our basic pillars – we call them the three Es.

Can you explain the first pillar – entrepreneurship?

It’s Stelios’s way of giving back to society. He himself started as an entrepreneur and we believe that entrepreneurship is the key oil that greases the chains of progress, getting people to work for themselves and help themselves.

How do you promote entrepreneurship?

We always want to keep things ‘easy’ so we decided to simply set up a series of awards that raise awareness about entrepreneurship.

Why is this important in Cyprus?

Every year, we give five awards to teams of entrepreneurs from the North and South who work together for the benefit of the island and who show entrepreneurial promise.

We believe in the power of business to cut through what is ultimately a politically generated problem.

Who were the most recent winners?

Last year the winners included a group of potato farmers, a trilingual school teaching Greek, Turkish and English, a car rental company operating on both sides of the island to boost tourism, a group of economists working as consultants for businesses seeking to become bicommunal and a company manufacturing windows and door frames in the North and South.

That’s quite a variety!

An interesting mix of businesses get the award – they are not obvious, but the key for us is raising awareness, getting our message out and making a big splash. We work off the value of Stelios’s name. He is a real native son done well and is very recognized in Cyprus.

How can these activities help strengthen what you referred to as an almost inexistent civil society in Cyprus?

The impact we’ve had so far, beyond being one of the many organizations working on reconciliation, is being able to be direct, in your face and easy! We need to promote business as a catalyst for reunification. Entrepreneurship can be key in getting the two communities together and strengthening civil society throughout the island.

So you’ve already had some success?

I’ve heard a lot of commentary from people in civil society who say, “this is like a breath of fresh air”. They are used to conferences, sitting and talking, getting wrapped up in their verbiage. Now we come in and we just say, here, let’s do it! Let’s have some awards and raise awareness on the impact entrepreneurship can have.