Michael Psaros, a businessman, investor and philanthropist, together with his family, made a $60,000 gift to a New York-based non-profit organization called the Greek America Foundation which offers various events and programs aimed at promoting Greek heritage and ideals in North America
Psaros made his gift to fund the foundation’s annual summer volunteer program on the island of Chios — from where his own ancestors hail — with the intention to continue funding the program in perpetuity.
Since 2019, the foundation has sent dozens of young adults from North America to Chios to volunteer alongside local non-profits serving unaccompanied refugee minors and abandoned and disenfranchised children. This summer, another dozen will travel to the island to continue this work.
The Chios program is one of many that the Greek America Foundation has hosted in Greece over the past five years. The program falls under the foundation’s Greek America Corps, which aims to send young Americans and Canadians to support vulnerable populations in Greece while immersing themselves in the country’s culture and society.
Psaros, a West Virginia native whose grandparents immigrated to the United States from Chios, is a co-founder and managing partner of KPS Capital Partners, LP, and a member of its investment and management committees. He received his bachelor’s degree in finance from Georgetown University and attended Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.
Psaros attached a personalized letter along with his donation, calling it a “blessing” to be able to give back to his ancestral island.
“This is such a blessing! The grandson of two immigrants from Chios, giving back to Chios! God bless these young people!” he wrote.
His donation came with only one request: That the volunteers light a candle in the church of his family’s village, Olympoi, where his great-grandfather Stamatis was the parish priest.
Psaros’ $60,000 gift comes just weeks after he and his family donated $11 million to create The Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown University.
The center will be a free resource for journalists, policymakers, students, businesspeople or anyone seeking unbiased, non-partisan information about complex issues pertaining to the United States.
Psaros serves on the board of directors of Georgetown University and also serves as the vice chairman of the executive board of advisors of the university’s McDonough School of Business.
In 2013, Psaros and his wife Robin created “The Michael and Robin Psaros Endowed Chair in Business Administration” at the McDonough School. The Psaros family also created the “Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Endowed Orthodox Chaplaincy, Endowed by the Michael Psaros Family” in 2021.
Psaros is an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Order of St. Andrew, where he serves on its National Council. He is a founding member of FAITH: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism; serves on the board of trustees of The Leadership 100 – Advancing Hellenism and Orthodoxy in America, and the executive board of The Hellenic Initiative.
Psaros is the vice chairman of Friends of St. Nicholas, the organization responsible for constructing the new St. Nicholas National Shrine at Ground Zero.
He previously served as the treasurer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and currently serves on its executive committee. He is the recipient of numerous awards from Greek and Orthodox organizations nationwide.
