John-Ioannis Kent Entrepreneur.

John is an entrepreneur, with a track record of successes in many industries. From the beginning of his professional career in 1994, he has participated and invested in various business industries, always aiming to combine innovation, creativity and inspiration, providing capital gains to shareholders and the public. His fascination with the complexity of human thought and social choices, motivated him to opt for extensive studies in industrial psychology, which has since constituted the foundation of every business decision in his career.

Without coming from a financially privileged background, John built his career entirely through personal work, perseverance and entrepreneurial vision. This self-made trajectory became fundamental to his business philosophy: to see every obstacle as an opportunity and every idea as a potential innovation.

His first professional endeavours lead him to leave Greece early on, taking a position in London, which was to be his professional base for many years.

His great interest in the continuously developing Tourism industry meant that he closely followed and was inspired by the needs of the 60,000 Greek students in the UK. Feeling the pulse of international developments and recognising that the industry was fraught with out-dated procedures, in 1995 he created the Greek Flight Club, the first global reservations website, which was a resounding success. The success of greekflightclub.co.uk and gfc.co.uk resulted in their acquisition in 1997 by manosholidays.com (subsequently ThomasCook).

After the sale of his innovative website, he took over as General Manager of Gemstone Travel Ltd, a major air ticket reservations website. Gemstone Travel quickly developed a broad and flexible holiday packages department, ranking the company, already from its first year of operation under John’s leadership, 2nd in the tourism industry and 16th in all categories, according to the UK Sunday Times and Fast Track 100 (the fastest growing companies in the United Kingdom). This earned the company a rare and honorary distinction awarded by Queen Elizabeth herself. The company was also awarded the same distinction the following year as well.

The series of continuous major successes in the strategic Tourism industry and John’s hands-on innovative stance, impressed Richard Branson, owner of Virgin who, in 1999, wanted to meet him and work with him in organizing and managing the company’s newly-established travel sector, Virgin.com. In the first year of operation, with John at the helm, Virgin.com generated €100 million in revenue. As an innovator and visionary, he soon felt constrained by the structured professional environment, and sought new business challenges with room for even greater creativeness.

In 2001 he launched Travelbargains.co.uk, one of the largest holiday call-centres worldwide, and then medhotels.com in 2002, literally changing the way in which Europeans decide, book and enjoy their holidays. Specifically, he dared to separate the established, classic holiday packages into their constituents: air tickets, accommodation and transportation, offering flexibility and freedom of choice to consumers. It should be noted that until that point, the entire tourism industry operated on the basis of that classic practice. After John introduced the new system, he changed the dynamics of holiday packages on the UK market and worldwide, giving people a new experience in terms of enjoyment and consumption of travel and hotel amenities. Within 4 years, medhotels.com had an EBITDA of £0.6million., £1.6million, £8million, and £15million, respectively per year, and received 17 acquisition proposals.

It was eventually acquired by lastminute.com - a company listed on NASDAQ and on FTSE - and John Kent became UK Managing Director and Global Hotels Director of the LM group, and played a decisive role during the negotiations in 2005, when Sabre Holdings USA acquired lastminute.com.

In 2006, he established youtravel.com, in which Barclay’s Ventures made its first historic investment in a start-up company recognising and rewarding its dynamics and prospects. The company’s valuation on its first day of operation exceeded 15 million pounds sterling. John’s dynamic progress in the strategic sector of tourism businesses, with high value earnings over many years, elicited intense interest from academia and he received many important offers.

So, in 2007 he became a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey’s Business School, in 2008, Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University, which also honoured him by naming the new Research Centre in Tourism “The John Kent Institute in Tourism” in 2009. This new Institute supports a large number of Ph.Ds in the area of tourism research. Specialising, and with considerable experience, in the tourism industry,

John Kent expanded his investment activity and created the Aquis Hotels & Resorts chain, operating 14 hotels in Greece.

At the same time, he became a member of the Investments Committee of Encore Capital LLC offering his strategic insight into the travel industry.

Meanwhile, he participated in one of the largest ever privatisations in the hotel industry in Europe, involving the iconic Astir Vouliagmenis hotel, where he, until recently, acted as Principal in Jermyn Street Real Estate Fund IVLP, under the umbrella of AGC Equity Partners.

In July 2016, having identified the opportunity for development and creativity in the area of cultural events and in show business in Greece, he established Theatrikes Skines S.A. Since then, Theatrikes Skines S.A. has undertaken the management of the historic Pallas Theatre in the heart of Athens — a landmark venue that combines unique architectural heritage with state-of-the-art production capabilities. Over the past nine years, the company has produced and hosted more than 500 theatrical, musical and cultural events, consistently earning recognition for the high artistic merit and exceptional production values of its work. The Pallas Theatre has evolved beyond the traditional notion of a theatre, operating as a multifunctional cultural hub that hosts major events of the city — from large-scale theatrical productions and concerts, to conferences, premieres and special artistic happenings. During the 2024–2025 season alone, the venue welcomed over 300,000 spectators, confirming its role as one of the most dynamic and influential cultural spaces in Greece. Its productions and hosted events have attracted widespread acclaim from critics, artists and audiences alike, often setting new benchmarks for the Greek performing arts scene and contributing to a renewed era of creativity and optimism in entertainment.

• In 2008, he became an honorary member of the Institute of Directors in the United Kingdom.
• In the same year, he was nominated for the “Man of the Year” award by the British STATUS Magazine.
• In 2010, Bournemouth University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration, in recognition of his contribution to the tourism industry.