Athina Onassis has taken a new step in the business world by joining the board of directors of the French supermarket chain Groupe Casino.
The granddaughter and heiress of Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, entered the French company earlier this year after changes in the composition of the Groupe Casino board of directors and an increase in the share capital.
The new board of directors will include Athina Onassis, Elisabeth Sandager, general manager of Helena Rubinstein (L’Oréal group), and Branislav Miškovič from Daniel Kretinsky. Nathalie Andrieux remains in her position in the Casino board of directors.
Athina Onassis, described as an “investor” in the chains’ web page, joined as an Independent Director. The heiress 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.
Other than its eponymous brands Casino Supermarkets and Géant Casino, the Group developed Monoprix, Franprix, Leader Price in France, but also Pao de Açúcar and Extra in Brazil and Exito and Carulla in Colombia.
Athena Onassis, who is also heiress to the French pharmaceutical group Roussel-Uclaf, is close to Daniel Kretinsky and her well-known name will be added to the list of the new board of directors members.
The Sole Heiress of the Onassis Estate
Athina Onassis, born January 29, 1985 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, is the sole heiress of Christina Onassis, daughter of Aristotle Onassis who inherited 55 percent of the Greek shipping magnate’s fortune. Her father is Thierry Roussel.
In November 1988, when she was three years old, her mother – who was reportedly addicted to drugs and alcohol – died at the age of 37 after a heart attack in Argentina. She thus became the sole heir to her mother’s assets, half of which were managed by a charitable foundation based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
Her father, Roussel, sued the “Onassis Foundation” to release the inheritance to him, but the courts decided against him because he was already divorcing Christina Onassis. The trust company Fides KPMG in Lucerne was commissioned to manage the Onassis assets from 1999 until Athina’s 18th birthday.
Athina Onassis grew up in sheltered circumstances with her father in France, Spain and Lucerne, Switzerland. Roussel managed to keep his daughter away from public eye.
In 1992, The New York Times cited a report from the Associated Press, naming Onassis one of the year’s new billionaires. Athina is often referred to as a “billionaire heiress” in the media, but the true extent of her wealth remains unknown. Some accounts claim that Onassis’ net worth is less than $1 billion.
There have been several estimates of her inheritance, including the island of Skorpios in Greece, which was later sold to trusts connected with Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought the island for $153 million.
Her exact net worth today remains a mystery. Estimates of Athina Onassis’s net worth by asset class:
- Real estate: $200-300 million
- Cash: $100-200 million
- Stocks and bonds: $100-200 million
- Horses and equestrian properties: $50-100 million
- Other assets: $50-100 million
Related: What is Athina Onassis’ Net Worth Today?
