The Cyprus-born executive rose through Atlantic Bank, helped launch Olympian Bank, and used his financial experience to support businesses, younger bankers, and Cypriot-American institutions.
As Greek and Cypriot immigrants built businesses and community institutions across New York, Chris George Lazarides helped bring banking closer to the communities they were creating.
During three decades at Atlantic Bank of New York, he helped expand the institution’s presence in Greek-American neighborhoods, including the branch on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. The Pancyprian Association of America credited him with helping establish local branches at a time when many business owners were seeking financing, commercial accounts, and guidance as their companies developed.
Philip Christopher, president of the Pancyprian Association, remembered Lazarides as a mentor to younger Greek Americans pursuing careers in banking.
Lazarides was born on June 15, 1935, in Lefkoniko, Cyprus, the only child of George and Theano Lazarides. He grew up among cousins and later recalled village life through stories of his grandfather, who owned a tavern and, Lazarides insisted, made the finest yogurt in Cyprus.
During a school trip to Greece, Lazarides had what he later considered his first business experience. At a stop in Beirut, he used his pocket money to negotiate the purchase of a watch.
The same trip also introduced him briefly to a young woman named Kiki, who lived in another part of Cyprus. He assumed they would not meet again.
After graduating from the Lyceum of Larnaca, Lazarides left Cyprus at 18 and arrived in New York in August 1953. He traveled alone to the Bronx, where he met his father at a coffee shop and began building a life in the United States.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College in 1957 and a Master of Science from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in 1958. He later graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University in 1970.
New York also brought him back into contact with Kiki. Their relationship developed after the unexpected reunion, and they married on December 28, 1958, at Saint Demetrios Church in Astoria.
That same year, Lazarides began at Atlantic Bank as a trainee in its International Department. He rose through the institution to become senior executive vice president.
Lazarides helped small businesses secure financing and grow, including some that later entered the public markets. Through that work, he became a trusted adviser to Greek-American business owners navigating expansion and investment.
In 1988, after three decades at Atlantic Bank, Lazarides became president and chief executive of Olympian Bank while the new institution was being organized. The Bay Ridge bank formally opened in May 1989.
The position placed him at the head of a new community bank and allowed him to apply the experience he had gained working with immigrant entrepreneurs and established businesses.
In 1992, Lazarides joined Audiovox Corporation as vice president and director of international operations.
Audiovox was among the companies he had helped finance during his banking career. His new role took him throughout the Far East, fulfilling an ambition he had carried since his youth. He remained with the company until retiring in 2005.
Alongside his business career, Lazarides used his financial experience in organizations supporting Cyprus and the Greek-American community.
He was a founding board member and first treasurer of both the Cyprus Relief Fund and the Cyprus Children’s Fund. He also served as a founding board member of the Cyprus-U.S. Chamber of Commerce and as a founding member and treasurer of the American Cyprus Congress, originally known as the Cyprus Cultural Society.
His other roles included trustee of the Pancyprian Association of America and former treasurer of its Freedom Award Committee.
Those appointments placed Lazarides in positions of financial responsibility across relief, advocacy, and community organizations.
The Pancyprian Association said Lazarides worked with Eugene Rossides in connection with the establishment of the American Hellenic Institute and later the American Cyprus Congress.
In 2009, the Cyprus-U.S. Chamber of Commerce recognized Lazarides with its Distinguished Merit Award.
His daughter, Theana Iordanou, introduced him at the award dinner. After listening to her describe his career and community service, Lazarides joked that he had spent the introduction wondering whom she was talking about.
Relatives also remembered him as intellectually curious, observant, and interested in the people around him. He read fiction and nonfiction, followed financial markets and world affairs, and remained comfortable with new technology.
In retirement, he would ask waiters, waitresses, and strangers their names and try to learn something about their lives.
Lazarides and Kiki spent much of their retirement in Florida, where they renewed old friendships and made new ones. Mattituck, on Long Island’s North Fork, remained the family’s summer gathering place, as it had since 1966. Near the Long Island Sound, Lazarides planted and tended fig trees.
Their marriage lasted 67 years, and their family eventually included two children, seven grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.
Lazarides passed away on July 8, 2026, at 91.
His influence extended beyond the positions he held. It could be seen in the branch expansion he helped lead, the businesses he advised, the community organizations he helped guide, and the younger bankers he encouraged into the profession.
His career showed how banking could serve not only as a business, but also as part of the infrastructure of an immigrant community finding its place in New York.