Evangelos Marinakis backs maritime education with Massachusetts project

Evangelos Marinakis is a familiar figure to soccer fans through Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos, but his latest American project focuses on developing talent beyond the field.

The shipping businessman helped fund a new STEM center at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where students will receive practical training in science, engineering and marine technology.

Dedicated on Oct. 14, Miltiadis Marinakis Hall is named after his late father. Marinakis attended the ceremony alongside academy President Francis X. McDonald.

How does the project connect to the Marinakis family?

The center brings together two parts of the family’s story: its maritime roots and a belief in education. Miltiadis Marinakis worked as a mechanical engineer, with a career spanning oil rigs, tankers and dry cargo vessels.

For his son, founder and chairman of Capital Maritime & Trading Corp., supporting the academy is both a personal tribute and an investment in future maritime professionals.

“My father, Miltiadis Marinakis, devoted his life to the sea,” Marinakis said. “He firmly believed in the power of education and in the limitless potential of young people.”

There is also a soccer connection to the building’s setting. Its position on campus offers views of both the academy’s training ship, Patriot State, and its soccer field, a combination McDonald highlighted during the dedication.

What will students find inside?

The approximately 43,000-square-foot center includes a fabrication lab, maker space, electronics lab, operations and controls lab, and dedicated biology, physics and chemistry laboratories.

Every academy student will take classes in the building, regardless of their major.

The facility is also the academy’s first net-zero energy-ready building and the first connected to its new geothermal heat loop.

“This new building, this remarkable living laboratory, marks a transformational moment for this great university,” McDonald said. “It is 100 percent STEM, nothing but hands-on labs, invention space and roll-up-your-sleeves learning.”

What does Marinakis hope to achieve?

Marinakis, who received an honorary degree from the academy in 2024, said the investment addresses a need for advanced skills across global shipping.

“Our sponsorship for the creation of the STEM Center at MMA aims at addressing a vital need: to transform the shipping industry,” he said.

“And this transformation is achieved through higher education, the advancement of innovation, and scientific and technological excellence. It is a sponsorship made at MMA, but it concerns global shipping.”

He closed his message to students with an ambition for the generations who will use the center.

“My greatest wish is that, within these walls, generations of students will be inspired to dream big, work hard, and push the boundaries of what is possible.”