Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur”. Although most people still associate his name with easyJet, the pioneer of European low-budget flying, which he founded, he resigned as its chairman in 2002, and has been a nonexecutive director since 2005, preferring to concentrate on his increasingly diverse portfolio of other “easy” businesses. This could all be about to change.

Sir Stelios, who is 41, reasserted his power over the airline yesterday, transferring his sister’s stake into his own holding company and demanding two new nonexecutive directors hand-picked by him – or else he will oust the 69-year-old incumbent chairman, Sir Colin Chandler.

The Cyprus-born billionaire, who is single, was educated at the Doukas High School in Athens and the London School of Economics before gaining a MSc in Shipping, Trade and Finance from Cass Business School at City University, London. At that stage, it looked like good training to take over the family shipping business, Troodos Shipping. Instead, he used funds from his millionaire father to first set up his own shipping business, Stelmar Shipping, at the age of 25, and then to start easyJet with £5 million in 1995, aged just 28. His older brother Polys, who has a stake in Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, stayed in shipping.

EasyJet was at the forefront of a new era in travel, which may now be drawing to a close. The no-frills concept meant that low-income and middle-income people could fly off for a long weekend in another European city at very little cost – and they flew in droves. This model is now threatened by volatile oil prices and growing publicity about air travel’s cost to the environment.

When easyJet was floated in 2000, Sir Stelios ensured that he could keep the “easy” brand for the rest of a planned “easy” empire. He also made sure that his family retained a controlling stake in the airline, something that the other members of the board may now be regretting. He has been extremely protective of the “easy” brand, taking legal action against a rival EasyMobile and EasyPizza.

Sir Stelios’s other “easy” ventures, including easyHotel, easyInternetcafe and easyCruise, have had mixed success and their sheer number suggests that he has found it difficult to get his teeth into anything since taking a step back from easyJet.

Knighted in 2006, he holds a British passport but lives in Monaco. He is sponsoring 200 scholarships over ten years at the LSE and City University.