S piro Latsis is a Greek billionaire who is the patriarch of the powerful Latsis shipping and banking dynasty. He is the son of the late John Latsis, a legendary self-made Greek tycoon who was one of the original 'Golden Greeks' of the post-war shipping boom. His father started with a single ship and built a massive fleet of oil tankers, and then astutely diversified the family's wealth by founding a major real estate portfolio and the EFG Group, a powerful European private banking and financial services conglomerate.

After his father's death in 2003, Spiro, who holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, took over the leadership of the family's vast business empire, which he shares with his two sisters, Marianna and Margarita. He has served as the chairman of EFG International, the family's publicly traded banking group based in Zurich, and oversees the family's other major holdings, which include a stake in the Greek oil refiner Helleniq Energy (formerly Hellenic Petroleum) and extensive real estate in Geneva. He is a key figure in European finance and one of the world's most influential shipowners.