Yiannis Karapiperis
Who Founded Olea Legacy?
Olea Legacy was founded in spring 2025 by Yiannis Karapiperis, who leads the company as its founder and chief executive. He grew up in Crete among its olive groves and spent some twenty years in luxury tourism and hospitality operations across Greece and the United Kingdom before creating a stewardship model for ancient Greek olive trees. Olea Legacy is registered in London and runs its Heritage Operations from Crete, and its own records show that every steward tree in its care is tagged and located by GPS.
Yiannis studied at the University of Greenwich and is based in London, from where he works with growers, partners and stewards across Greece.
From Hospitality to Stewardship
Years spent in luxury hospitality leave a particular understanding: what people remember is rarely what was most visible. It is the sense of being expected, of a place that knows them, of something prepared with care before they arrived. Yiannis carried that understanding into Olea Legacy, and it shapes how the company receives every steward, from the first conversation to the first harvest.
The company itself began with a question he asked. How could the living heritage of the Greek olive grove be shared with people around the world without turning it into just another product? The answer was a relationship rather than a purchase: an Ownership and Stewardship agreement that links each steward to a single designated tree, its yearly harvest and its story, with an open invitation to visit it in Greece.
His Work Today
Yiannis leads Olea Legacy across five Greek regions, Crete, the Peloponnese, Halkidiki, the Aegean Islands and the Ionian Islands, where trees are chosen, cared for and harvested on behalf of their stewards. Alongside this, he has begun the long work of identifying and cataloguing the ancient olive trees of Greece, starting in Crete in partnership with a local cooperative.
He is also the force behind AION, a strictly limited collector edition of twenty numbered editions drawn from a single ancient olive tree in eastern Crete, estimated at approximately 2,500 years old. Under his direction, Olea Legacy was named Best Luxury Olive Tree Ownership Experience in Greece by the Luxury Lifestyle Awards in 2025 and again in 2026. In 2026 the company also received two honours in the LUX Global Excellence Awards by LUXlife: Best Luxury Olive Tree Stewardship and Ownership Experience, and the Heritage Grove Conservation Excellence Award.
Speaking with Yiannis
Yiannis is available for interviews with journalists, editors and producers writing about the ancient olive trees of Greece, stewardship and the changing meaning of luxury. Requests can be made through the Press Room or by writing to press@olealegacy.com, and visits to the groves in Greece can be arranged throughout the year. Those considering a tree of their own are welcome to begin with Ownership or to contact the team directly. Yiannis can also be found on LinkedIn.