George Procopiou recently made one of his frequent tours of Mount Olympus, Greece’s highest mountain, in a well-oiled group of trusted hiking partners that includes a former prime minister.

The sprightly 74-year-old may have felt his step a little lighter this year, in the knowledge that his four daughters are in a good position to assume a leading role in the shipping empire he created.

Thirty@30 Years: about this series

This story is one of 30 profiles in a special edition of our TW+ magazine.

To celebrate TradeWinds’ 30th birthday, TW+ is not looking back, but forward, with a Thirty@30 focus on the important people and issues extending out to 2050.

TradeWinds reporters have profiled 30 personalities who have shown traits that we think mean they will influence the directions the shipping industry takes, maybe not quite as far forward as the next 30 years, but certainly over the next decade.

Read all the profiles when TW+ is published on 16 October.

In an emotional speech in February, Procopiou announced he was giving his offspring a controlling stake in the group. Putting his children in the driver’s seat would allow them to enjoy the gratification and recognition he himself has earned while building his empire, he explained.

The announcement was the culmination of a gradual and well-prepared succession process that has been in the making for years. Procopiou’s four daughters already occupy senior positions within the group and are familiar with its inner workings.

The eldest daughter, Eliza, has been involved with the company since 1997. She has been active in multiple parts of the business, from the finance side to the spot chartering of tankers and the operation of bulkers.

Eliza is also active in real estate, the business in which the family had its first successes and in which it maintains a considerable footprint. “Real estate is our profession and shipping is our hobby,” George Procopiou said this year.

A vice president of the Yacht Club of Greece, Eliza Procopiou and husband Nicolas Chrissakis have great seagoing experience as yachting captains.

Chrissakis is head of information technology at the Procopiou group, in charge of software and hardware infrastructure, communications and in-house-created shipping applications and solutions.

Ioanna, the second-oldest daughter, is the most high-profile member of the quartet. A regular panellist at shipping conferences, she is increasingly becoming the group’s voice on maritime policy issues — a subject on which her father has never minced words.

Actively involved

An alumna of Harvard Business School, and of England’s Bath University in electrical and electronic engineering and City University London in shipping trade and finance, Ioanna joined Dynacom Tankers Management, the group’s main tanker company, in 2003.

After working her way up to head Dynacom’s S&P and projects department, she formed Prominence Maritime, a company managing six bulkers. She also supervises the activities of family company Sea Traders, which manages more than 30 bulkers.

Ioanna is vice-chairwoman of the North P&I club, as well as a board member of the Union of Greek Shipowners and the Cyprus Union of Shipowners.

Marina, the second-youngest Procopiou daughter, has been actively involved in the family business since 2004 and is handling tanker projects and long-term business for Dynacom. Husband Tony Lauritzen heads the group’s gas carrier company, Dynagas, and is chief executive of US-listed Dynagas LNG Partners.

Outside shipping, Marina is active in real estate projects in Greece and abroad.

The youngest of the siblings, Marielena, is passionately involved in finance and insurance matters and is a member of the board of directors of the Standard Club.

The 25-year-old has become a regular sight at maritime law seminars in Athens and Piraeus, unobtrusively but attentively listening to speakers and scribbling notes in a pad spread out on her knees.

Her father has groomed Marielena for the role she is to play, taking her along to shipping conferences to hobnob with shipping grandees such Kitack Lim, secretary general of the International Maritime Organization.

Marielena is married to Konstantinos Lampsias, who heads Dynacom’s S&P department.

The four sisters are spread around the group where they can use their skills alongside their spouses. It gives the Procopiou group a deep, rounded corporate structure that can serve it well in the years to come.