Pericles S. Panagopoulos was born in Athens and studied in Greece, Switzerland and England. He studied at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce Lausanne, in the Canton of Vaud, and then in London, where he studied Shipping and Shipping Law at the City of London College. Besides Greek, his native language, he speaks English, French and Italian. He started his career in shipping at a very young age and worked in both cargo and passenger shipping. In 1971, after several years of working in the passenger shipping business, he founded Royal Cruise Line (RCL) with the purpose of engaging in luxury cruises. RCL built and operated such well known cruise ships as the Golden Odyssey, the Royal Odyssey and the Crown Odyssey, all under the Greek flag and with Greek crews only. Royal Cruise Line was repeatedly named one of the best cruise Lines in the world.

At the end of 1989, after a very successful performance which lasted for about two decades, P. Panagopulos sold Royal Cruise Line to Norwegian interests. In 1992 he took control of an Athens listed Stock Exchange Company, which he renamed Attica Enterprises, now Attica Group. In 1993, Attica Enterprises founded a subsidiary, Superfast Ferries Maritime S.A., operating state of the art, luxury, newly built, passenger-car ferries between Greece and Italy and becoming instantly the undisputed market leader. Soon after that Superfast Ferries expanded its services to the North of Europe namely between Germany and Finland and between Scotland and Belgium thus becoming the first Greek Company to engage in quality transportation in North European waters with newbuilt, state of the art passenger / car ferries. Since late 1999, Attica Group further expanded in coastal island shipping by creating Blue Star Ferries. Attica was voted "Best Passenger Line of the Year" in Lloyd's List Greek Shipping Awards.

In October 2007, Pericles Panagopulos sold his interest in Attica Group to the Marfin Investment Group S.A., while he maintained his activities in shipping through Magna Marine Inc, a management company of dry bulk cargo ships, which he founded in 1990. Magna Marine is active in Panamax and Supramax tonnage.

From January 2003 until January 2009, Pericles Panagopulos was the elected President of the Association of Greek Passenger Shipping Companies. He holds the title of Honary President of the Association.

He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, and a member of the Board of Directors of Banks, Insurance Companies and Professional Associations.

Pericles Panagopulos along with the shipping companies he established in the course of his career has received several major Greek and International awards, honors and distinctions including the Award for a Self-made Businessman from the Athens Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Lloyd's List for his lifelong quality contribution to shipping, the "Eucrates" Prize and many other awards and accolades.