Athina Onassis, the last surviving descendant of Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, has taken a new step in the business world as she joined the board of directors of Casino, Guichard-Perrachon, the historical player in the retail industry in France since 1898.
Her entry last March into French retail giant Casino Group is her new business venture.
Laurent Pietraszewski, a former Member of Parliament and then Secretary of State, is the chairman of the board of Casino, with Athina Onassis, among others, as an independent director.
Athina Onassis, described as an investor in the company’s web page, joined as an Independent Director.
The heiress and the only child of Aristotle’s daughter Christina Onassis is also a professional athlete who has been competing in show jumping for over 20 years.
She has competed at the highest levels in the world’s most prestigious competitions.
In 2007, Athina Onassis founded the Athina Onassis Horse Show, an annual international show jumping event (since 2007, held in Brazil and since 2014, in Saint-Tropez, France) featuring the world’s best show jumpers.
She has also been running professional stables in Valkenswaard, the Netherlands, since 2010.
Onassis has lived in Switzerland, Brazil and the United States and currently lives in Belgium. Her mother tongue is French, she is fluent in English and Portuguese and has good command of Swedish.
The granddaughter of the Greek tycoon keeps a very closed profile regarding her life in general and especially her personal life.
Since she was a child and especially when she came of age, she became the Athina of silence, as her father Thierry Roussel managed to keep his daughter away from public eye.
Athina is often referred to as a “billionaire heiress” in the media, but the true extent of her wealth remains unknown.
As local media in Greece and foreign publications point out, no one can know Athina’s real fortune, except herself and her advisers.
