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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and family

Knighted for “services to entrepreneurship” last year, Haji-Ioannou, 40, continues to hustle for new ventures. EasyHotel, part of his easyGroup, expects to open about 60 budget hotels in the next few years. The first easyOffice, offering flexible space to rent, opens in London shortly. In all there are 17 brands including easyCruise and easyMoney. Haji-Ioannou, determined to be the next Sir Richard Branson (qv), says his favourite business is “the next one”. The products have had mixed success. The 80,000 customers of easyMobile lost their service after Haji-Ioannou fell out with the firm’s Danish partner. But he remains best known as the pioneer of cheap flights through easyJet. His is not a rags to riches story — his father, Loucas, is a Greek-Cypriot shipping tycoon. The young Stelios grew up in Athens and entered the family business after graduating from the London School of Economics, but wanted to prove he could start up on his own. “I got the idea for easyJet when I was stuck in London and realised that a 10-day package holiday cost the same as a BA flight. It helped that I could raise £30m from my father,” he says. Courting publicity has been part of his approach. When rival low-cost airline Go was launched, he boarded its inaugural flight in an orange boiler suit handing out easyJet tickets. Yet he gives little away about himself. He does not have a UK home, spending time in Monaco and Athens. He turned 40 on Valentine’s Day still a bachelor, though he is unlikely to be short of offers. EasyJet aside, Haji-Ioannou's ventures have consumed large amounts of cash. He has raised funds through easyJet share sales totalling £106m: in the year to September 2006, its profits rose 56% to £129m and he has ordered 52 new Airbus aircraft in a £1.2 billion expansion plan. The Haji-Ioannou family stake in easyJet is worth £1,170m, having risen on takeover speculation and the solid results. The family shipping company Stelmar netted the Haji-Ioannous £94m when it was sold. With property and other assets, we value the family at £1.29 billion.