By Eileen McCluskey
Illustrations by Joseph Adolphe

Gazing out at the fields of his family's struggling farm in Greece in 1967, seventeen-year-old George Panitsidis wondered how he could help support his loved ones.

A decade later, in another town in Greece, twenty-six-year-old Anastasios Sabanis imagined his future. His family owned a modest vineyard, but Sabanis, who excelled in math, wanted to study engineering and see where that took him.

In 1988, a third young man from Greece, Petros Tsitsiricos, whose great-great-uncle had helped free northern Greece from Turkish occupation in the early 1900s, was considering how he might serve his homeland, too.

They all wound up at Northeastern.

The dreams of these men—and their experiences at Northeastern—ultimately led to careers of Olympian proportions. Panitsidis helped build one of the world's largest oil refineries. Sabanis makes wine and exports it around the globe. Tsitsiricos runs a popular test-prep business.

They're just 3 of the 240 NU Greek alumni who live in Greece, representing the second-highest concentration of international Northeastern graduates outside North America (France is first, with 267).

Northeastern officials are nurturing the university's already-strong ties with Greece. Over the decades, alumni events—ranging from informal networking gatherings to more structured meetings—have been hosted by the university or organized by Greek grads. In 2000, President Freeland visited with a group of trustees to accept an honorary degree from the American College of Greece.

Last October, Provost Ahmed Abdelal went to Greece with a delegation of senior faculty and staff to strengthen relationships with key educational institutions, such as the University of Athens, the Fulbright Foundation of Greece, and the National Hellenic Research Foundation. Partnerships under discussion include collaborative research, faculty and student exchanges, and curriculum development that would allow Northeastern undergraduates to earn full credit for a year of study at Greek universities.

The College of Arts and Sciences currently offers study-abroad opportunities in Greece. This year, seven students studied philosophy, history, art, and other humanities subjects at the American College of Thessaloniki.

So the route between Northeastern and Greece is well traveled. But what lures ambitious students like Panitsidis, Sabanis, and Tsitsiricos to Huntington Avenue?

And why do they still care so much about the university?

Read on.

George Panitsidis E'75, ME'80

As seventeen-year-old George Panitsidis struggled to learn English during his twelve-day 1967 sea voyage from Greece to Boston, he had big aspirations. Little else, though.

He and his parents, Eustathios and Ekaterini, eighteen-year-old brother Harry, and ten-year-old sister Sophie had left their small farm near a northern village called Kilada with only $500, which Eustathios had borrowed. Their eight acres of land "were not enough to feed the family," Panitsidis recalls. "Work and money were scarce, and the prospects for an education were very distant."

Thanks to local friends, they secured a small apartment in the South End. George bused tables at Kevin's Wharf, a seafood restaurant on Boston Harbor. Eustathios worked as a baker at Quinzani's Bakery, on Harrison Avenue. Ekaterini stitched men's shoes at a South Boston factory. The $500 loan was repaid within six months.

Keen on pursuing their educations, George and Harry immediately enrolled in classes for new immigrants. "We studied English in the mornings and worked in the afternoons," George says. Within a few months, both were enrolled in Boston's English High School.

From farming to oil farms

Fastforward to 2005. George Panitsidis and business partner Andreas Bardis share ownership of two companies they founded in 1990. Euromichaniki S.A. provides commercial construction; Conapro S.A. specializes in quality control for construction projects.

Through their companies, Panitsidis and Bardis served as project managers of a vast complex built in Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games. The facilities, which include apartment buildings, a shopping mall, and an office complex, housed 1,300 reporters during the games. They are now being retrofitted for sale and lease.

Panitsidis first met Bardis in 1976, while vacationing in Greece after finishing his undergraduate studies. He'd applied for a job as a construction engineer in Saudi Arabia with Petrola International. Bardis was the project manager. "The interview lasted less than half an hour, and I was offered the job," Panitsidis says.

By the time he was twenty-six, Panitsidis was helping to build an oil storage-tank farm. Two years later, he was promoted to project manager of ventures worth more than $1 billion.

In 1988, Panitsidis concluded the seven-year, $8 billion construction of a huge oil refinery along Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast. The Rabigh Refinery includes a 20 millionÆbarrel storage-tank farm and a 5,000-person housing community. Currently producing 400,000 barrels per day, Rabigh is one of the world's largest oil refineries.

Panitsidis's enthusiasm for construction was whetted before he entered Northeastern, when he helped a small contractor build houses. "I didn't know anything about engineering," he says with a quiet laugh. "But when I saw construction projects—building things where there was nothing, watching the structures take shape, battling with nature—this interested me. I also wanted to get away from farming—I did not like it.

"It was like a dream for me, to go to NU," he continues. "I knew the co-op program would be very helpful. Also, all the people I met in the school for new immigrants talked about how great NU is."

And, luckily, the campus was close to his work. In 1970, Panitsidis had jumped at a chance to lease a Citgo station on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge. The previous lessee "did no automobile repair work, even though there was space for it," Panitsidis says. "So Citgo did not want him to keep leasing from them.

"I put up all my savings, plus borrowed $8,000 from my father," he says. "I then had to furnish the station's repair section with tools and equipment—but I was short of money."

"Why should they trust me?"

Determined but nervous, Panitsidis went to a bank to apply for a $15,000 loan. Despite having no experience with loans, he says, he told the manager "in plain words who I was and what I was planning to do." The application required a guarantor. Anxiously, Panitsidis filled in the only logical choice: his father. "When I left the bank, I was thinking, Who am I, and why should they trust me with their money?"

A few days later, the bank manager called with the good news. "I was so amazed, I did not even ask the conditions or the interest rate," says Panitsidis, chuckling.

The student's grueling schedule started at 6:00 every morning. First came classes and studying. Then he'd head to the Citgo station, where he often worked until midnight. "It was a very difficult time," he says. "But it was also exciting to run the business, because my main clients were students from Harvard and MIT. I took good care of their Peugeots, Renaults, and some very expensive Jaguars and Mercedes."

Panitsidis's career success allowed him to replace his parents' dilapidated Kilada farmhouse with a modern new home in 1986. Eustathios and Ekaterini lived there until Eustathios's death in 2004, at eighty-two.

Now Ekaterini lives in Athens with George (though she summers in Kilada, to stay close to village friends). "I am very pleased to be able to help my family," Panitsidis says.

He also enjoys helping his alma mater, which he credits for his financial success. In fact, Panitsidis has helped fund Northeastern's Seismic Recording Station, run by Mishac Yegian, distinguished professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

"Greece lies in a highly seismic area," Panitsidis says. "So funding Mishac's research may bring us closer to preventing destruction. And at the same time, it helps NU."

Anastasios Sabanis E’77, ME’78

When you think, think big. Otherwise, don't think at all."

It's how Anastasios Sabanis sums up his approach to life, describing both his whirlwind matriculation through Northeastern and, today, his three blossoming vineyard businesses.

Sabanis was twenty-six when he came to the United States in 1976. He had his heart set on Northeastern because, he says, "NU has a strong name and a good reputation in Greece, especially for its College of Engineering."

He's never forgotten how encouraged he felt during his first conversation with a faculty member—John Rossettos—even before he'd been accepted at Northeastern. "I told him, ïIf you accept me to NU, you will not lose,'" Sabanis says with a laugh.

Rossettos, still a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at Northeastern, hasn't forgotten Sabanis, either. "I remember Anastasios," he says. "His math skills must have been impressive, or I wouldn't have recalled him after all this time."

Indeed, one of Sabanis's brightest memories from his college days—aside from fishing expeditions in Hyannisport—was when he scored 100 percent on a math exam required of all engineering students. "The second-highest mark was below 70," Sabanis recollects. "I felt really good because I was called into the math department and congratulated."

Engineering wine

True to his life motto, Sabanis finished his master's degree in nine months rather than the usual two years. "This was difficult," he admits. "I had to take up to six or seven courses per quarter to achieve my goal."

When he returned home to Greece, he worked briefly in the construction industry, but soon found his way back to Sabanis Wines, the vineyards that have been in his family for a century.

Sabanis says he enjoys "the economy of the factory, the machines, the grapes—everything. Wine is like a baby. You grow it, you see it develop, you enjoy it. It's good work."

Though the vineyards may appear an unlikely vocation for an engineer, Sabanis sees a natural fit. "The great thing about an engineering education," he says, "is you learn to think in structured and methodical ways. I believe an engineer can face and successfully tackle any problem."

Rossettos couldn't agree more. "I've always encouraged students to study engineering," he says, "even if later on they work in law, business, or—in Anastasios's case—the winemaking industry."

Today, Sabanis runs a trio of winemaking concerns: Ino SA, Evoiki SA, and Sabanis Wines.

Wealth of ambition

The family's vineyards, based in Avlida, yield whites, reds, and sparkling wines. Since Sabanis took over the business in the late 1970s, he's added five varieties of grapes for the red wines, six varieties for the whites.

Though he hopes his only child, John, will one day join the family business, he won't dictate his career. The young man has earned an MBA and a law degree at the American College of Greece and may continue his education in America, at either Harvard or Northeastern. "John knows so much about the world," his father says with obvious pride.

Sabanis runs Evoiki and Ino with close friend Manolis Skouloudis. Evoiki produces rectified concentrated must (a sugary syrup derived from grapes), concentrated grape juice, and a variety of wines.

Ino makes eighty-seven wines, using grapes from Greece's traditional wine-producing regions, such as Macedonia and Peloponnesus. The company website boasts of Ino's "ultramodern" wine factory, with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. Its export business includes most countries in the European Union, along with the United States, Australia, and Japan.

Clearly, Sabanis's maxim has paid off handsomely. It never hurts to think big, he says: "If you want to open a small shop by yourself, you'll have to work all day.

"So why don't you open a supermarket? You'll work the same amount."

Petros Tsitsiricos MBA'90

From an early age, Petros Tsitsiricos knew he wanted to help others. "Since I was a young person, my friends and classmates saw me as a counselor for their problems," he says, "and I felt like their tutor."

This descendant of Pavlos Melas, a historical figure revered by many Greeks as a Macedonian freedom fighter, much preferred the latter role. "Counselors analyze and help solve people's problems," Tsitsiricos says. "Educators give people the tools to solve their own problems."

Eventually, Tsitsiricos linked his interest in education to his drive to give back to his country, and formed Network Educational Services and Consulting. Through Network, a test-preparation business much like Kaplan, he helps his fellow citizens find their way to the best universities in the world.

"If Greeks want a useful and productive education," Tsitsiricos says, "they should go abroad, especially to English-speaking institutions, American or British." Why? For one reason, he explains, such schools encourage "collaborative team projects, in which students work together doing research—even if that means staying up overnight with pizza and Coke.

"That may sound trivial to someone who's grown up in the United States," he says, "but very rarely do people participate in such projects in Greek schools."

Keying in on Northeastern

Tsitsiricos grew up in Athens, where his father worked as the director of research and development for a power utility and his mother was a pharmacist. Petros and younger brother Marios, now a cardiologist at the Red Cross Hospital in Athens, attended the prestigious Athens College High School.

After earning an undergraduate degree in economics from the Athens School of Economics and Business Science, Tsitsiricos chose Northeastern for his MBA studies, bypassing such schools as the University of California, Irvine, and the Manchester Business School, in England. "Class sizes were much smaller at NU," he says. "Also, one of my high school classmates was already at NU, and he told me great things about the university."

The teacher in Tsitsiricos quickly surfaced at Northeastern. He noticed many of his classmates didn't know much about personal computers, which were still relatively new. So he and a friend, German student Thomas Updike, pooled their high-tech knowledge and created the MBA Computer Club. "We gave out our personal telephone numbers," Tsitsiricos says, "so any students could call us with their computer questions."

Meanwhile, Tsitsiricos got a teaching assistantship, which won him a tuition waiver. "I felt not only encouraged, but also rewarded by the university for my efforts in school," he says. "This gave me a proud feeling, and made my family proud."

Multiple choices

Today, Tsitsiricos is proud of Network, which he founded in 1993. The company offers preparatory courses for standardized tests, such as the European GCE

A-Levels and the internationally recognized GRE, GMAT, and SAT. It also runs a college-prep course that, when successfully completed, guarantees admission to undergraduate studies in Britain.

By 2004, Network's annual revenues had grown nearly sevenfold, from $136,000 to $900,000.

Tsitsiricos is laying claim to a rich untapped market. "In Europe, Greece has the largest number of master's and PhD holders relative to the population," he explains. His graduate education, he says, developed his business acuity. "NU gave me the opportunity to calculate and confront the risk factors."

But it wasn't just the potential for financial success that inspired him. "I also felt good about the business," he says. "We have all heard of scandals in other industries. But we don't see, say,

X university or Y school involved in major scandals or corruption cases. Education is a clean, honest industry."

Now, to broaden his compatriots' chances for an excellent education abroad, he's offering to establish a new Northeastern alumni group in Greece.

In fact, Tsitsiricos has pledged the use of Network offices for gatherings and recruiting activities until, he says with characteristic enthusiasm, "we are lucky enough to get our own dedicated facility."

Eileen McCluskey, MBA'86, is a freelance writer. Her feature on biology professor Carol Warner's egg, embryo, and stem-cell research appeared in the January issue.