Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2011 | Page 38

P O W E R

P L A Y E R S

By DeBBie SelinSky

Coming to America
South African native builds a new life in Atlanta

P

ierre Panos, a South African
native of Greek descent, leaves
little to chance.
When the violence in his
country became too dangerous in the
early 1990s, Panos—a former Coopers

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Multi-unit Franchisee iS S ue ii, 2011

& Lybrand accountant who’d followed
his father into the restaurant and real
estate industries—wanted to emigrate
to a country where he and his family could be safe and settle for good.
“Think of what my parents had

gone through to get to a new world.
They’d chosen South Africa because
there was a great economic boom in
the 1970s with gold, but because of
the crime and violence, we had to
leave,” says Panos. “We wanted to go