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Geert Wilms studied Horticulture at Wageningen University and Business Administration at Open University. For more than 20 years Geert has been director of Agricultural Innovation Brabant (LIB), and he is consultant at Royal Haskoning DHV.
LIB is a partnership of Province North-Brabant and farmers organization ZLTO. Each year more than 30 innovative projects are initiated and supported, with the participation of hundreds of (agricultural) businesses. Several workshops are organized and guided. Geert is directly accountable to the President of ZLTO and regional Minister of agriculture in North-Brabant. One project he started and is very proud of: “Smart irrigation in agriculture; 3.000 farmers participating with 60.000 hectares, and 25% gain of efficiency in water use”.
Geert Wilms also is a speaker, discussion leader and initiator of cooperation in different regions in Europe. He is/was involved in more than 15 European funded projects, for example Water management, Water conservation, Agrispin, Eurodairy, EU-PIG and STRING.
Ambassador Michael B. Christides has been the Secretary General of the Permanent International Secretariat (PERMIS) of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey.
Born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1949, Ambassador Christides joined the Hellenic MFA in 1976 as first in his Class and served with distinction until his retirement in August 2014. Among other assignments he served as Ambassador of Greece to Bulgaria, to Turkey and to Argentina and held senior posts in the Hellenic MFA as Political Director for South East Europe, as Director General for International Organizations, International Security & Cooperation and as Director General for International Economic Relations.
Ambassador Christides has spent more than 20 years dealing with S.E. European and Balkan issues. He acquired a broad knowledge of the political and economic realities there and established a wide network of high-level political, business, academic and media contacts. He speaks fluent English, German, French, Italian and moderately good Spanish.
Dr. Antonis Skordilis, Biologist EKPA is the founder and CEO of ECOSCAPES, a pioneering company in the field of landscape architecture and urban planning in Athens. In 1992 he completed his PhD in Mediterranean Plant Ecophysiology and Ecosystem Management, while also training at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in London in Landscape Ecology. As a visiting professor in the “Sustainable Development” postgraduate program at the Harokopion University of Athens until 2020, he has participated in the preparation of a large number of Greek and International Academic and Applied Environmental studies and has supervised a large number of postgraduate theses.
As the founder of ECOSCAPES (2013) (with a staff of 35 people, including 6 MLA Landscape Architects) and co-founder of GREENWAYS LTD (1997-2012) he has completed as a supervisor over 450 landscape architecture studies in Greece and abroad. His work includes planning and landscape architecture projects in public green spaces, hotel units, business premises, University Campuses, private gardens, planted roofs, restoration of biodiversity in sensitive ecosystems, etc.
In each of his studies, Dr. Antonis Skordilis aims to harmonize the surrounding space with the architecture of the buildings and the natural environment, having the human experience as a priority. He creates timeless gardens of high aesthetics, always respecting the environmental values of the natural environment, thinking about their future prosperity.
He has a passion for nature and plants and combines scientific knowledge with experience and innovative thinking to ensure the sustainability of gardens even in the most difficult conditions, where the need to conserve water, wind and salinity are limiting factors. As a botanist, he has a deep knowledge of the unique Mediterranean flora and has introduced many indigenous plant species of significant aesthetic value to his gardens.
David Lamb is Team Leader of the CAP Implementation Contact Point, part of the EU CAP Network.
David has over 20 years’ of experience which started in food & drink sector of manufacturing and marketing in 1997. From 2003, David then led the Food & Drink Team within Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), managing their specialist advisory & consultancy activity. In 2012 he helped create and then managed the Think Local programme – the Scottish Government’s first local food and drink development programme. He has also worked on European and International projects on rural entrepreneurship, market research, agritourism and on cooperation in agriculture. Since 2014 he has been based in Brussels leading networking across Member States, developing links with EU level stakeholder organizations and supporting the development and implementation of CAP Strategic Plans and developing peer to peer exchanges. David is an experienced facilitator, lecturer and trainer.
Alexandros Daniilidis is Managing Director of Athenian Brewery, since January 2018.
He started his career at Athenian Brewery in 1992 from Sales Division. In 2002 he joined the Management Team as Sales Manager Wholesale-Horeca. In 2008 he became Sales Director Greece and in 2010 Commercial Director.
In the period 2012 – 2017 became Managing Director Heineken Serbia, leading the company to the top of the market, tripling both turnover and sales volume and achieving high profitability growth.
He studied Economics at the University of Piraeus.
His research interests cover a broad range of topics in Marine Sciences: marine geology, seabed methane seepages, marine pollution, marine habitat mapping and marine geoarchaeology. He serves as director of Interdepartmental Postgraduate Programs in “Environmental Sciences” and in “Oceanography”. He has supervised 11 PhD theses to completion and currently supervises 6 PhDs. He has also supervised more than 60 master’s theses. Currently, he is Dean of School of Natural Sciences of the University of Patras.
He is/was coordinator and/or principal researcher of more than 100 National, International, and EU-funded research projects. He has extensive experience with organizing and leading oceanographic campaigns in Aegean and Ionian Archipelagos and in the Mediterranean Sea (Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, France). He has also conducted many projects on marine and offshore construction (pipelines, power and telecommunication cables, harbours, oil platforms, wind farms), marine habitat mapping, seabed fluid flows, active faults and submarine landslides and marine geoarchaeology. He has published more than 150 articles in International Refereed Journals with more than 6,000 citations (h-index: 33-41) and more than 130 research papers in Book chapters and International Conferences in the field of Marine Science and Technology.
Nikos Charalambides, studied Physics, Meteorology-Oceanology and General Oceanography in Athens and Paris.
Since 1985 actively, involved in nature conservation. Joined Greenpeace as ocean ecology campaigner. Later, he became coordinator of the campaigns department. Since 2002, he is the Executive Director of Greenpeace in Greece.
Actively following the debate on energy-climate change for more than 20 years, focusing on solutions work and on social justice. Also working in the direction of Green Development/ Green New Deal, focusing on the need to find solutions that will get us out of the multi crisis (climate, financial and social) while showcasing concrete examples. Extra interest on identifying synergies between humanitarian and environmental challenges.
He has been Board Member in various bodies such as the National Organization for Recycling, the Climate Action Network – Europe and member in various Committees such as the National Committee for Energy Planning.
Writer of several books and numerous articles on environmental protection, the role of civil society and NGOs, climate change, corporate responsibility, green development and sustainability.