Shipowner George Economou was named Greek Shipping Personality of the Year for 2019 and former Eletson director Gregory B. Hadjieleftheriadis was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Athens on Friday, 6 December at the 16th annual Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards.
Nikolas Martinos and George Youroukos were among other major names who won individual awards while the night began with awards for M/Maritime, Latsco Shipping and Levante Ferries as, respectively, Dry Cargo Company, Tanker Company and Passenger Line of the Year.
A large attendance of more than 1,100 Greek and international shipping personalities gathered at the Athenaeum InterContinental Hotel for the 2019 event, organised by Lloyd’s List, the international maritime information provider that was established as a newspaper in 1734.
They hailed the brightest performers for 2019, including some of the industry’s best-known personalities and companies, and enjoyed an exciting event programme that reflected the many and diverse challenges the shipping industry is currently facing.
ClassNK, a longtime supporter of the event, was once again overall lead sponsor of the Greek Shipping Awards.
Greece’s minister of Shipping and Island Policy, Yiannis Plakiotakis, opened the ceremonies with a video message to the audience and Informa Managing Editor Richard Meade presented a donation on behalf of the event organisers to ‘Argo’, the charity supporting children with special needs in the families of Greek seafarers.
Guests enjoyed a pre-dinner welcome reception hosted by Erma First while China Classification Society offered the traditional champagne toast to the health of Greek shipping.
The annual awards recognise achievement and meritorious activity in the Greek shipping industry and promote Greece as a maritime centre. Winners are chosen by an independent panel of judges representing a broad cross-section of the Greek shipping industry.
The 2019 Greek Shipping Awards event was co-hosted by award-winning ERT broadcaster Andriana Paraskevopoulou together with Lloyd’s List correspondent in Greece Nigel Lowry.
The 2019 Winners
George Economou was voted 2019 Greek Shipping Personality of the Year.
Lloyd’s List’s Greek Shipping Newsmaker of the Year Award went to George Youroukos of Technomar Shipping and Poseidon Containers, that has recently merged with Global Ship Lease.
Gregory B. Hadjieleftheriadis was awarded the Lloyd’s List / Propeller Club Lifetime Achievement Award for a 50-year career.
Nikolas Martinos won the New Generation Shipping Award, open to personalities of no more than 40 years of age.
Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou, the president of Wista International, the trade association for women in shipping, was elected International Personality of the Year, the only Award open exclusively to non-Greeks.
The recipient of the Dry Cargo Company of the Year Award for 2018 was M/Maritime.
As Tanker Company of the Year the panel chose Latsco Shipping, the main shipping entity of the Latsis Group.
The judges chose Levante Ferries as Passenger Line of the Year.
Xclusiv Shipbrokers won the Shipbroker of the Year Award.
The Greek Shipping Financier of the Year Award went to Piraeus Bank.
SeaBright was awarded the Technical Achievement Award.
The Hellenic Coast Guard won The Safety Award.
Probunkers won The Sustainability Award.
The Municipality of Piraeus was recipient of this year’s prestigious Piraeus International Centre Award.
The Seafarer of the Year Award was won by Capt. Dimitrios Spanoudakis, Master of the Avin International tanker ‘Kriti Jade’, for rescuing 57 migrants abandoned in the Ionian Sea in July this year.
Dept of Maritime Studies, University of Piraeus was winner of the 2019 Education or Training Award.
The Ship of the Year Award went to the “WorldChampion Jet”, the fastest vessel in the fleet of Seajets.
The Lloyd’s List Intelligence Big Data Award was presented to DeepSea Technologies.
