Antanas Guoga

Antanas Guoga was born on the 17th December 1973, in Kaunas (Lithuania). He spent his childhood in his hometown and in the district of Alytus (Kalesninkai village). At the age of 11 he emigrated to Australia with his mother. Antanas lived in Melbourne, where he graduated from high-school and had various jobs, from repairing sewing machines to washing cars. At the age of 20, he began employment at the investment branch of the “Citibank” in Hong Kong. His key responsibility was business development and management of high net worth client portfolios. His proactive attitude and dedicated work ethic helped him accumulate his initial capital and after moving back to Australia he started investing into various businesses. In Australia, Antanas successfully invested in an online media enterprise as well as a life insurance and mortgage lending service provider, which sparked his interest in the information technology stream. In Lithuania, Antanas invested in real estate and online ventures including “TonyResort” leisure park in Anupriškės (Trakai district) and online sports and leisure shops “TonySports” and “TonyStreets” in Kaunas. The companies he had invested in have created more than five hundred new jobs and more than three hundred in Lithuania alone. Antanas Guoga is an active philanthropist. Since 2007 he donated more than 1 million Lithuanian Litas (LTL) to a national TV show, dedicated to helping the less fortunate (“Bėdų turgus”). He is also one of the major benefactors of the “Food Bank” (“Maisto bankas”) initiative. Antanas has a keen interest in sports and has contributed several million LTL to support various sports in Lithuania: basketball, rowing, volleyball and others. In 2011, Antanas Guoga received the Global Lithuanian of the Year Award. In the same year he became a winner of the “Lighthouse of Business” (“Verslo švyturys”) Award. From 2010 to 2012, Antanas Guoga was Head of the Lithuanian National Basketball Team. He was also the Olympic Attaché for the Lithuanian National Team at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Since 2011 he is Vice-President of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, in 2014 he was elected Vice-President of the Lithuanian Rowing Federation. Antanas Guoga is also well known for his poker career, from which he retired at the beginning of 2014 and had success worldwide including events in Austria, France, Russia, the USA and the UK. His first achievements in poker encouraged his active charitable work. For example, in 2006 Antanas Guoga contributed half a million Australian Dollars to a Melbourne based cancer fund and counselling organisation. In 2007 he donated 200,000 US Dollars to the 80th Boarding School in Moscow. In 2014, Antanas Guoga successfully run for the European Parliament and received more than 97 thousand votes.