Dakis Joannou

About

Dakis Joannou, civil engineer and architect by training, was born in Nicosia, Cyprus on December 30, 1939. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in 1962, his Master’s from Columbia University in 1964 and a Doctorate in Architecture from the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, in 1967.

Dakis Joannou’s core business is civil engineering and construction. He heads J&P, a group of privately held international building, civil engineering and energy companies with activities in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeastern Europe. He is also active in the hospitality sector, with holdings in the Inter-Continental Hotel in Athens and through Yes! Hotels, a chain of small hotels whose flagships are the Semiramis Hotel, designed by Karim Rashid, and the NEW Hotel, designed by Humberto and Fernando Campana. Joannou is furthermore involved in a wide range of other entrepreneurial activities holding directorships in several companies.

Dakis Joannou is a major collector of European and American contemporary art and the founder of the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art which was established in Geneva in 1983. Works from his collection have been presented in several museums and art instructions worldwide, including the exhibitions “Urs Fischer – False Friends” at the Museum of Art and History of Geneva in 2016; “Skin Fruit” at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York in 2010; “Dream & Trauma” at the Kunsthalle Wien and MUMOK in Vienna in 2007; and “Translation” at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2005. Joannou is a member of the Board of Trustees of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, a member of the Committee on Painting and Sculpture of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and serves on the International Directors’ Council of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York and of the Tate International Council, London.

Joannou is actively involved in many not-for-profit organizations with a wide range of social activities. He is a founding donor of the Christos Stelios Ioannou Foundation, a center for the mentally handicapped, and the Saint Christopher Home for mentally ill adults, both in Nicosia, Cyprus. His family’s recent support to the University of Oxford with the establishment of the Stelios Ioannou School for Research in Classical and Byzantine Studies, has honoured him with his appointment to the Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors of the university. He is also a supporter of the University of Cyprus donating, in memory of his late father, the Stelios Ioannou Learning Resource Centre which is being designed by internationally renowned architect Jean Nouvel and which, upon its completion, will benefit the academic community and local society with its rich collection and technological innovation.

Photo© Catherine Panchout