Shipping billionaire’s family office CIO exits in pay drama

The chief investment officer of a family office for one of the world’s biggest shipping fortunes was ousted before he was due to qualify for a six-figure windfall.

Denis Blank was dismissed as CIO of Greek billionaire Maria Angelicoussis’s private investment firm earlier this year, leaving the London-based role a week or so before he was to receive a performance-linked bonus, according to five people with knowledge of the matter.

Blank, 45, was due a bonus on top of an annual salary of about £1 million ($1.3 million) after making several successful investments for Nicrone, the family office for the Angelicoussis Shipping Group, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. 

Blank was removed as a Nicrone director in July, registry filings show. On the same day, Simon Castle, who oversees UK firms for the Angelicoussis Group, was named to that position. Three months later, Laura Lavers, a 42-year-old former partner at David Fear’s Thunderbird Partners hedge fund, was also appointed a Nicrone UK director. She was already an investment committee member of the family office, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Blank didn’t respond to requests for comment, while a representative for Angelicoussis, who has a net worth of $5.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, declined to comment.

Lavers, who attended the University of Cambridge with Angelicoussis, also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Angelicoussis, 41, is Greece’s richest shipping billionaire and chief executive officer of the closely held maritime firm bearing her name. She inherited the Athens-based company, now in its third generation, from her father John, who died in 2021 at age 72. She saw her fortune swell as freight rates surged during the pandemic.

Her family office is a rare example of one catering to a female billionaire. She’s Greece’s second-richest person after banking heiress Vicky Safra and among 66 women in Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.

Read More: Why Billionaires Have Family Offices and What They Do: QuickTake

Nicrone was established in Cyprus in 2022, filings show. Blank started working for the family office that year after holding senior roles at Groupe Bruxelles Lambert’s alternative-assets platform and Bill Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Nicrone’s London-based branch was set up in May with Blank appointed as director that month. 

Blank focused on private markets during his time at Nicrone and made about 10 investments that led to gains of more than 100% for the family office’s portfolio, the people said. He was told his contract was being terminated through a video call with Maria Angelicoussis after she changed her thinking about the family office, the people said.