By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Titos Komninos has passed away. He was 81. Anadolu Efes and the Hellenic Basketball Federation announced his death and shared condolences on Wednesday.
Per Efes: “We are deeply saddened upon hearing the passing of Mr. Christos Komninos, former Board Member of our club, a former executive of FIBA and Athens 2004 Olympic Games Organizing Committee, and one of the legendary names of European basketball.
The memories you left for our club and European basketball will continue to live with us and we will never forget you, Tito Abi.
Our deepest condolences.”
Per HBF: “President Vangelis Liolios and board members of the Hellenic Basketball Federation were informed with a feeling of deep sadness of the death of Titos (Christos) Komninos, at the age of 81.
He was a successful business executive, but also a great friend of basketball, active and heavily involved.
He was a member of FIBA’s financial committees for many years, duly representing the Federation and closely following world basketball events, having gained international recognition.
The Board of Directors of the Hellenic Basketball Federation expresses its deepest condolences to his family.”
Komninos was born in Istanbul, in 1943. He studied chemical engineering and graduated from the Istanbul Technical University. In 1972, he joined the Hellenic Bottling Company, moved to the Ireland subsidiary as managing director between 1987 and 1990, and became managing director of the Greek department from 1995 to 2000. From 2000 until 2004, he was chairman and CEO of the Papastratos Cigarette Manufacturing Company and moved on to become executive vice chairman of Shelman S.A. and Elmar S.A. From 2011 to 2014, he was chairman of the BoD of Hellenic Petroleum SA.
He was fluent in English, French, Italian, and Turkish.
He was survived by his wife and two daughters.