I formally retired from the business world in 2005 and have now concentrated my efforts on my charitable work. I formed the KARATHANASSIS FOUNDATION in 1984 while working in Africa. The foundation is a family run organisation and is currently being jointly managed by myself and my daughter, Alicia.

The foundation’s main office is in the UK although we do set up offices with local partners in the countries where we have permanent aid distribution operations.

In all the years I worked in Africa my company had the basic philosophy of “giving something back” to the people who live in the countries we were working in.

It is unacceptable that billions of dollars of aid are given to the poorest of countries, mostly on the African continent and the people themselves only see very small proportion of this aid. Most of it, up to 60% in many cases, is spent on administration and a lot of what’s left is stolen by corrupt businessmen and government officials. The corruption of some of the largest aid agencies and NGO’s is out of control and in many cases, they are as guilty as anyone in diverting aid from the very people they are sent to help. I have personally visited many African countries that have received millions of dollars in aid and which have seen little or no change at all.