Mr. George Kremlis

George Kremlis is the Chairman of the Greek Initiative at the UN level on protecting cultural and natural heritage from climate change impacts.

He is a member of the Board of the European Public Law Organisation and the Director of its Climate and Circular Economy Institute. He is also the Ambassador of the EPLO to Bulgaria.

He was until recently a member of the environmental and social advisory council of the EBRD.

He is currently the Chair of the Bureau of the Espoo Convention, Chair of the MOPs in 2019,  elected Chair for the MOPs in December 2020, and re-elected Chair for the period 2021-2023 and the period up to 2027.

He is the Chairman of the AmCham circular economy committee.

George Kremlis is the Honorary Director of the European Commission (EC) and has acted in this capacity as an Active Senior responsible for the circular economy in the islands. He was until recently special Advisor to the Greek Prime Minister on energy, climate, environment and circular economy issues. He is a doctor honoris causa of the Varna Free University.

Mr. Dimitris Lianos

Mr. Lianos is a Mining and Metallurgical Engineer with a Master of Science (MSc.) in regional development. He is a partner and Associate Managing Director of LKN ANALYSIS Ltd (Greece).

He has more than 32 years of professional experience in the design and evaluation of Cohesion Policy and Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Greece and Cyprus (for the latter since 2002). He is an expert in the design, management and evaluation of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) operational programmes in Greece and Cyprus. In addition, he has specialized knowledge and long-term experience in the design and evaluation of Rural Development Programmes for Greece and Cyprus under Pillar II of the Common Agricultural Policy. He has participated either as project manager or expert in evaluations (ex ante, on-going, ex post) of Rural Development Programmes in both countries.

He is the geographical expert for Greece and Cyprus in the context of the European Evaluation Helpdesk for Rural Development for the 2008-2020 period. He has also important experience in country-specific studies from his participation as national expert for Greece and Cyprus in EU-wide evaluation and other studies.

Currently, he is the coordinator on behalf of LKN ANALYSIS Ltd for the provision of scientific and technical support to the Ministry of Rural Development and Food (Greece) for the preparation of the CAP 2021-2027 Strategic Plan, which is implemented in collaboration with the Agricultural University of Athens.

Mr. Georgios Karakatsanis

Mr. George Karakatsanis is a Natural Resource Economist and Financial Engineer. He has long research, business, and consulting expertise as an economic designer for the optimization of fuel, non-fuel, agricultural, and biological resources for corporations and states. He is the Founder, Director, and Chief Economist of EVOTROPIA Ecological Finance Architectures which specializes in natural capital classification and valuation methods, advanced data analytics for geoeconomic and supply networks modeling, Machine Learning methods for Industrial Symbiosis and the structuring of ecological finance and investment instruments.

He is the scientific coordinator of several EU-funded and corporate research projects on natural resource economics, critical raw materials, soil bio-remediation, and Regenerative Agriculture. He is a graduate of Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), holding an MSc and PhD from National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) on natural capital econometrics. He has extensive professional experience in environmental banking, ecological investments, risk management, and business continuity. In the period 2014-2016, he collaborated with Technische Universität München (TUM), receiving a DAAD scholarship as a Guest Lecturer and Researcher in the international research program NEXUS Energy-Water-Food on the conflict resolution for the management of water resources in the Nile Basin, as well as a Guest Scientist in the Oscar von Miller Forum (OvMF), where he organized and conducted several workshops and lectures on the field of Natural Resource Economics for Engineers. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed works and more than 30 educational articles on natural resource economics.

Since 2014, he is a research affiliate of the Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Resources Utilization of the School of Civil Engineering of NTUA. Since 2020, he is the scientific advisor of the Association of the Greek Manufacturers of Packaging and Materials (AGMPM), Director of the Special Committee for Circular Economy and the Built Environment of the Sustainable Building Council Greece (SBC-GR) and a member of the Hellenic Solid Waste Management Association (HSWMA), while since 2023 he is a member of the Board of Directors of FILAIOS Olive Oil Club.

Dr. George Zalidis

George Zalidis graduated from the Agronomy Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with doctoral studies at the Department of Soil Science and postdoctoral studies in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering Department at the State University of Michigan US.

He has been the  Director of the Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Spectroscopy and Geographical Information Systems, and a member of the Laboratory of Applied Soil Sciences at the Department of Agriculture of the School of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is also the  Scientific Director of Interbalkan Environment Center (i-BEC) since 2007.

His research focuses on issues of quality and restoration of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the use of Earth observation data (space and terrestrial) in the  Societal Benefit Areas, the OECD indicators of sustainable development and the use of spectral data in the monitoring of agricultural ecosystems and natural terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

 

CURRENT POSITION

  • Professor of Pollution and Soil Degradation, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Land Reclamation Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, Laboratory of Applied Soil Science.
  • Director of the Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Spectroscopy and G.I.S., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture.
  • Member of the Laboratory of Applied Soil Science. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture.
  • Scientific Director, Interbalkan Environment Center (I-BEC)
  • Member, Hellenic Quality Assurance & Accreditation Agency (HQA) Council
  • Representative of the Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Rural Development and Food at the International Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) of GEO.

Mr. Xenophon Kappas

Since 2011 he is the General Director of “Captain Vassilis & Carmen Constantakopoulos” Foundation, promoting and supporting sustainable development in Greece. He has worked with various organisations from different positions gaining an extensive experience on issues of sustainable development and social cohesion. His previous professional experience was in similar positions in organisations and companies related to sustainable management and development. Since his youth he is active volunteer mainly the last years as Board member at national and international organisations with humanitarian and environmental focus.  His studies are on Business Administration and he holds MAs  on European Studies and Latin American Studies, specializing on politics and development.