The Greek businessman in the shipping industry Stefanos Kasselakis will enter the race to succeed former leader of the Greek political party Syriza Alexis Tsipras.

In recent weeks, in the race of the Syriza presidency, the name of Mr. Stefanos Kasselakis, who is active in the shipping industry, has been heard strongly.

A Greek citizen who resides in Miami, US, Stefanos Kasselakis’ name flooded social media over the weekend.

A self-made businessman active in shipping, multilingual and only 35 years old, announced today his candidacy for the presidency of Syriza with a 4:21 minute video in the social media.

In the video released, Mr. Kasselakis refers to himself, his life in shipping when he decided to take a loan in order to start his business, and describes the context of his positions and priorities for Syriza.

He talks about his self-made parents, his financial background, but also about what his own candidacy stands for.

“My mother, a dentist, worked day and night to support my father while he started his company. Eventually this company grew, and I found myself growing up in Ekali. Only this prosperity was ultimately superficial – as it was Greece’s. The parajudicial circuit hit my parents and took everything they had and didn’t have. So, at the age of 14 I found myself alone in America. Not for luxury but out of necessity,” he said.

In 2009, at the age of 21, Mr. Kasselakis in the midst of the financial crisis, found a job at Goldman Sachs and saw up close what capital is.

“Buying someone else’s labor cheaply. How much arrogance money brings. That’s why I left this job. I took out a loan on a personal guarantee, and three years later I managed to get into shipping. Risk management 24 hours a day.

“After a lot of sweating, I took a big financial breath. But there is another breath, much more important: It is the breath of freedom,” he said.

Having a rich academic CV and a successful career in the shipping industry, Kasselakis is considered a self-made businessman willing to enter the race with another four candidates to replace Tsipras in the leadership of Greece’s main opposition party.

In the social media with a new post in twitter yesterday Mr. Kasselakis gave answers regarding his business activities in shipping.

“The company I founded does not belong to Nomikos. I made it from scratch and made 70m profit for my investors. All vessels were sold according to the business plan, and tankers (and it’s so easy to find they were sold),” he said.

Stefanos Kasselakis was born in 1988 in Maroussi, a north Athens suburb, and since 2015 he has been active in the shipping sector.

He attended the Huntsman program of the University of Pennsylvania with a scholarship from Andreas Dracopoulos and received two degrees: B.Sc. in finance from the Wharton School of Business and B.A. in International Sciences from the College of Arts & Sciences.

Along with his studies, Mr. Kasselakis volunteered on the staff of then Senator and now US President, Joe Biden, for the 2008 Presidential Elections. He also worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.

“I am aware that I have no political party experience. My experience is in work, in social life. The candidacy I am now putting forward shows another path: From society and for society,” says Stefanos Kasselakis.