Kyriakides Plaza-Miami Dade College

Inducted into the Miami Dade College "Hall of Fame"

Here is the speech:

Anastasios “Takis” Kyriakides

One could say that everything Anastasios “Takis” Kyriakides touches turns to gold. Throughout his career, he has founded numerous companies and turned many of them into multi-million dollar powerhouses.

As the founder and Chairman of the Lexicon Corporation, he introduced the world’s first handheld language translator in 1978. The LK3000 was an immediate success and Lexicon became a publicly-traded company, later acquired by Nixdorf A.G. of Germany.

Kyriakides went on to found Mylex Corporation where he once again served as the company’s chairman and then led the organization to become a successful, publicly-traded company. Mylex, the producer of the world’s first alpha-numeric optical scan reader, was acquired by IBM.

He also went on to found Tower Bank N.A.; NowTrade Corp., an online brokerage firm; and Internet Stock Market Corp, which manages public relations and investor relations for public companies. He was the founder of Regency Cruise Line, which, at its height was the eighth largest passenger cruise line in the world and also the worlds first publicly traded passenger cruise line.

Today he is the Chairman and CEO of Interlink Global Corporation, which provides telecom communications and satellite solutions to foreign governments as well as corporate and residential clients throughout South America.

Kyriakides attributes his success to his “Angelos” (angels), primarily his uncle, who stressed the importance of education. He believes strongly that his education at MDC prepared him for his career and has been, for that reason, an active supporter of MDC for many years. In 1986 he was named MDC Alumni of the Year, and served as a member of the board of directors of the foundation. On April 10^th, 1987, he received the City of Miami Proclamation declaring April 10^th 1987, Kyriakides Day. One of his fondest memories over his long relationship with MDC was the naming of Kyriakides Plaza at Wolfson campus. Recently a Teaching Chair was named in his honor for the 2008 school term.

“MDC was one of the biggest stepping stones of my life. It gave me the knowledge and direction to accomplish everything I did in my career.”

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Anastasios "Takis" Kyriakides

Anastasios N. Kyriakides is President and CEO of NET TALK.COM, INC. (www.netTALK.com). Mr. Kyriakides received a Bachelor of Science degree in business from Florida International University in 1975; in 1977, he received a degree in investment banking from the American Institute of Banking. From 1979 to the present, Mr. Kyriakides has consulted for numerous companies in the areas of shipping, travel, banking, and electronics. His cruise ship career started with Carnival Cruise line out of the Port of Miami, and continued to a successful start up with Tropicana Cruises; one of the first gaming ships out of the Port of Miami. In 1994, Mr. Kyriakides became the Chairman of Montgomery Ward Travel, a company created to provide full travel services to eight million Montgomery Ward customers and credit card holders; he served in this capacity from 1994 to 1996. Mr. Kyriakides had previously organized the successful start-up of Seawind Cruise Line in 1990; there, he was the founder, and later, the Chairman, CEO, and Secretary until 1994. In 1984 Mr. Kyriakides founded Regency Cruise Line, the world’s first publicly traded company in passenger shipping, and served as its Chairman and Secretary until 1987. In 1983, Mr. Kyriakides founded the Mylex Corporation to develop and produce the world’s first hand-held optical scanner and VGA card for personal computers. As the President and Chairman, Mr. Kyriakides guided Mylex from its beginning as a private company to its becoming a public company traded on the NASDAQ under the stock symbol MYLX until it was acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM (NYSE: IBM). In 1983, Mr. Kyriakides was the founder and Chairman of Tower Bank NA, a full service commercial bank, with three offices, headquartered in Dade County, Florida.
In 1980, Mr. Kyriakides, was the founder of Delcor Idustries of Hollywood, Florida, an electronics manufacturing facility, assembling OEM products for various electronics companies including IBM mainframe and gable division employing over 150 skilled employees. In 1979, he was the founder and Chairman of Lexicon Corporation, the worlds first hand held electronic language translator the LK3000 that translated into 12 different languages. This company, publicly traded on the NASDAQ, under the symbol LEXI, was ultimately acquired by Nixdorf Computers of Germany.

-->For more information on Mr. Kyriakides, please download his full bio: high-resolution pdf (101 mb) ; low-resolution pdf (9.5 mb)

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