Anastasios Paul Leventis CBE, OFR

Anastasios Paul Leventis was born in Ghana on 19th May 1941. He was educated in England and in France. After completing his education, he joined the Leventis Group in Nigeria, where he became involved in all aspects of its business operations and served as a Director of Leventis Group International and Nigerian Company Boards.

Since its inception, Anastasios P. Leventis has been a Trustee of the Board of the A. G. Leventis Foundation and has served as its Chairman since 2003.

As well as his business interests, Anastasios P. Leventis has championed nature conservation and sustainable development throughout his life and, in this capacity, he is: a Founder Trustee of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation; Honorary Vice-President of BirdLife International; Founder of BirdLife Cyprus, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; Trustee of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust; a Board Member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative; for seven years, he was a Trustee of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria. He has supported biodiversity conservation in many countries and encouraged research and education in this field.

Anastasios P. Leventis holds an honorary Professorship at the Mariupol University of the Humanities, Ukraine, an Honorary Fellowship from King’s College London, an honorary Doctorate from the University of Athens, an honorary Doctorate from the University of Exeter, as well as honorary Doctorates from the University of Jos and the Agricultural University of Abeokuta, both in Nigeria. He was accredited Honorary Commissioner for the Republic of Cyprus to Nigeria by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus on 04 April 1990.

He was honoured with the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of 2004. As well as this, he was awarded Order of “Madarski Konnik” by the President of Bulgaria in 2004, the Order of the Golden Age by the Government of Bulgaria and the Ukrainian Order “For Merit”. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic, Nigeria in 2002. In 2014, he was conferred with the honour of “Grande Ufficiale della Stella d’Italia” by the Government of Italy, and appointed Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2018.

Anastasios P. Leventis married Myriam Blok in 1975, and they have three children and six grandchildren.