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The dissertation examines the influence of founding family ownership on payout policy of Greek listed firms for the period 2008 - 2014. This examination is based on the hypotheses that the relationship between founding family ownership and dividend payments is not linear and that families receive higher dividends than prescribed by law in order to satisfy their income needs. The results of the analysis demonstrate that founding family ownership is predominant with more than 50% of the companies having as control- ling shareholder the founder or the heirs. It is, also, shown that firms controlled by the founding family , on average, pay less dividends than other firms which are controlled by another type of shareholder. The nonlinear relation of family ownership and dividends is confirmed by the results , but founding families’ higher taste for dividend payments is not. On the contrary, higher family ownership seems to be related to lower dividends than those required by law