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.”