Mr. George Pontikas

George Pontikas is President and CEO at Syngenta Hellas Single Member SACI. He began his career in 1990 at Ciba Geigy Hellas (Legacy company of Syngenta), as Seed Development Manager. In 1997 he became Director of the Seed Division and in 2011 Head of Sales of the company’s consolidated business and Managing Director since 2015.

In January 2020 along with the position of Head of Sales for Crop Protection Products he assumes the duties of President and Managing Director at Syngenta Hellas Single Member SACI as well as the position of Business Area Manager for the countries Greece, Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, Albania and Kosovo (BA Mediterranean).

He is President of the Hellenic Crop Protection Association (ESYF). He was President of the Greek Seed Trade Association (SEPY) from 2010 to 2016 and member of the Board of the International Seed Federation (ISF) from 2010 to 2013.

George Pontikas is agronomist with a master degree in rural economy, marketing & sociology, and a master degree in Business Administration (MBA).

Dr. George Vlahos

PhD from the Department Agricultural Economics and Rural Development of the Agricultural University of Athens, MSc in Agricultural Policy from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICh), MSc from the Department Agricultural Economics and Rural Development of the Agricultural University of Athens.

Dr. George Vlahos is an assistant professor in the Agricultural University of Athens and has collaborated on various research projects focusing on rural and agri-environmental policies. He is author of various articles on these subjects and has collaborated in books.

He is currently chairing the Board of Trustees of WWF Hellas.

Dr. Konstantinos Tsimpoukas

Tsimpoukas Konstantinos is Professor of the Laboratory of Agribusiness Management, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development in the Agricultural University of Athens. He is a graduate from the Agricultural University of Athens and has a M.Sc. from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier , D.E.A. and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics  of Montpellier III University, France.

He teaches Rural Economy & Policy, Introduction in Agricultural Economics, Farm Management and Economics of Animal Production at undergraduate level and Economics of Animal Production and Farm Management at postgraduate level. His research interests focus in techno-economic analysis of agricultural production systems and in decisions making at farm level. He participates in research projects (national and EU funded) as a coordinator and researcher in areas concerning economic analysis of agricultural production systems and economic viability at farm level.

Dr. Andreas J. Karamanos

Member of the Academy of Athens. Emeritus Professor of Crop Production, Agricultural University of Athens (A.U.A.) Former Rector and Vice-Rector of the A.U.A. Head of the Department of Crop Science and Chairman of the Faculty of Crop Science, A.U.A. Director of the Laboratory of Agronomy of the A.U.A. for more than 28 years. Secretary General at the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs of Greece (2004-2007). Member and Chairman of the Hellenic Agricultural Academy.

Chair of the Steering Committee of the Education for Sustainable Development of the United Nations Economic Council for Europe (UNECE), elected twice (2005 and 2008) by the Delegates of 58 countries and 10 International Organizations

Author of 8 books and monographs and of more than 100 papers in refereed journals, chapters in collective volumes and encyclopedias, and editor in Conference Proceedings. He is mainly interested in the study of environmental stresses on crop plants with emphasis on the water relations and the drought resistance of crops. Member of the Committee for the Study of the Impacts of Climate Change supported by the Bank of Greece and the Athens Academy and coordinator for the study of the climate change impacts on agriculture. Coordinator of the Agriculture and Food Chain Task Force of the Climate Change Initiative in The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East of the Republic of Cyprus. Doctor Honoris Causa of the Department of Agricultural Development, Democritus University of Thrace.

 

Mr. Filip Busz

Filip Busz is the Head of Unit in the Directorate in charge of the CAP Strategic Plans and Rural Development Policies and is responsible for Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development. He has worked since 2017, in different capacities, on rural development policy and its implementation in this Directorate-General. He first joined the European Commission in 2007 at the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Policy. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked at the Polish administration, occupying managerial positions in the departments dealing with the accession of Poland to the European Union and after the accession with the structural and cohesion funds. He earned a Master’s degree in law at the Warsaw University in 1991 and conducted post graduate studies in administration and European integration. He is a Polish national.

HE Susanna Terstal

Since September 2021 Susanna Terstal has been the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Greece. She has previously been ambassador to Iran (2015-2018) and Angola (2012-2015). From September 2018 until April 2021 she was the EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process. Before becoming an ambassador she was the Deputy Head of mission in Geneva.

Susanna joined the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994 and began her career in the legal directorate where she held different positions. Before working in the Ministry she worked in the private sector.

Susanna studied in the Netherlands, United States and Italy. She is a lawyer and has masters in Political Science, International Relations and Italian language and literature.

Mr. Savvas S. Balouktsis

Savvas S. Balouktsis was born in 1958 in Serres and he moved to Thessaloniki where he completed his studies. He holds a degree in Economics – University of Macedonia (ex-Graduate University of Industrial Studies). He speaks English. He is married and he has one son.

In 1982, he started his professional career in the CONTELLIS’ Group of Companies, where after a successful career and serving in between for many years as the General Manager of Group’s subsidiary company, TERRA S.A., he completed his career in 2018 having the position of the Group’s General Manager. In the same year, he moved to G. HIGAS S.A (GEORGOTECHNIKI) Company, which is among the top 5 agricultural machinery companies in Greece. Today, he is a member of the Board of Directors and holds the position of Vice President in the Company.

He has a long presence in social and public activity. He had been a member of the Board of Directors of Manufacturers of Agricultural Machinery Association (EKAGEM) for many years. In the period 2000- 2002, as the President of the Association, he also served the position of the President of the respective European Association (CEMA).

In 2005 he was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Machinery Importers’ Representatives’ Association (MIRA). Since 2013 and for 4 consecutive terms, he holds the position of the President of the Association.

Dr. Evdokimos I. Konstantinidis

Dr. Evdokimos I. Konstantinidis is the Chairperson of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) with more than 170 members worldwide and coordinator of the Health and Wellbeing Living Labs Working Group. He is currently coordinating the Research Infrastructure H2020 project, VITALISE – aiming to harmonize the procedures and ICT tools of the Health and Wellbeing Living Labs towards creating an open ecosystem for the European researchers. He is the leader of the Assistive Technologies and Silver Science Research Group in the Medical Physics and Digital Innovation Lab, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received the Diploma in electronic engineering from the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, in 2004, and the Ph.D. degree in the Laboratory of Medical Physics of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 2015. He is currently the coordinator of the RAISE Horizon Europe funded project on services for the European Open Science Cloud, towards a crowdsource network for data processing. In 2020, as a result of the H2020 funded project named CAPTAIN H2020 (technically coordinated by him), he co-founded CAPTAIN-COACH, one of the first 10 spin-offs of AUTH.

His research interests lie predominately in the area of living labs methodologies combined with agile aspects in the Health and Wellbeing domain as well as design of tools used as interventions for elderly in the field of exergaming, indoor monitoring and e-coaching. He supported the establishment of the Thessaloniki Action for Health and Wellbeing Living Lab (ThessAHALL) which in 2016 became an adherent member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) and he is working towards living labs sustainability model based on access to private funding. He has been principal investigator for a couple of national and international funded projects and has authored more than 70 publications in various international peer-reviewed journals and conferences (h-index: 18, ~ 2259 citations), and he co-chaired the OLLD2019 Conference in Thessaloniki.

Mr. Dimitris Rousseas

As an Agricultural Engineer, Dimitris has got an eye for Improvement. 28 years in business development, this trait has been the driving force of a career dominated by a year-on-year increase of the sales of agricultural inputs, and the development of teams of unshaken loyalty.

In a market dominated by volatility and change in line with nature, he has invested in building robust networks and commercial relationships globally. Heavily involved in new product design and development himself, he is extremely confident to propagate the final products to a Greek-and not only- wide network of clients.

In his current position as Commercial Excellence-Fertilizers & Seeds Director in ADAMA HELLAS, he is responsible not only for the sustainable development of the Business but also for the introduction of ADAMA Commercial Excellence innovative practices and tools to ADAMA HELLAS, in order to optimize the company’s GM & GP, steering business to success through upward and downward economic cycles.

Dimitris is based on 3 key things: a. data analysis b. clear strategy c. a focus on a win-win mentality all around.

Elected as President of the BOD of the Hellenic Fertilizers Association for the biennium 2022-24, and Vice President of CYCLOS SA (company under the aegis of the Hellenic CP Association) for the triennium 2023-26, he enjoys widespread acceptance from peers across the country and keeps a hand on the pulse of the industry thus affecting change for the greater benefit.

Professor Dan G. Blumberg

Prof. Dan G. Blumberg is the Vice President for Regional and Industrial Development, and Incumbent of the Simon Family Chair in Remote Sensing at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and as of July 2022 Prof. Blumberg was appointed by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology as Chairman of the Israel Space Agency (ISA).

Prior to his current position and appointment, Prof. Blumberg served as the Vice-President and Dean for Research and Development. He received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University (1993) where he studied and worked in the Planetary Geology Group and focused on aeolian processes and microwave radar remote sensing to study arid zone environments and planetary geology.

Prof. Blumberg was a Co-I on the SRL (Spaceborne Radar Laboratory) mission, SRTM mission and other space missions. Prof. Blumberg has been working for the past 20 years on the analysis of multi-parameter remote sensing data including radar, hyperspectral, multi-spectral and GPR data; he published numerous papers in the areas of windblown geomorphology and target and anomaly detection.

Prof. Blumberg combined field studies with the use of remote sensing data; he recently led with IAI the development and successful launch of a Nanosatellite, BGUsat – a 3U cubesat with a shortwave infrared imager onboard.

Prof. Blumberg has been a leader in the development of the IT and cyber eco-system in Beer-Sheva, he brought over 40 multinational companies, 70 startups and almost 300 new engineers to the advanced technologies park in Beer-Sheva.

Prof. Blumberg is also a member of a national committee designed to leverage the AI industry and research in Israel; he is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.