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Dr. Chris Cavalaris

Dr. Chris Cavalaris is an Agricultural Engineer working as a Laboratory Teaching Staff at the Department of Agriculture, Crop Production & Rural Environment – University of Thessaly, Greece. His expertise covers the subject of Sustainable Farm Mechanization including the topics of Conservation agriculture, Precision agriculture, Biomass and biofuels, Optimum farm machinery management, and proper use of Pesticide application equipment. He has been engaged for over 25 years in numerous research projects and has over 80 publications in international and national peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences and has participated in 24 international, national and private scientific projects having been the scientific responsible for 7 of them. Recently he has been working with agricultural UAVs related to remote sensing and product applications, owning also an EASA-approved UAV license. He is the President of the Hellenic Association for Promotion of Conservation Agriculture – HACA and has served as a board member of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) and a board member of the Hellenic Society of Agricultural Engineers.

Mr. George Kremlis

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

He is a member of the Board of the European Public Law Organization and chairs its climate and circular economy Institute.

He is also a member of the environmental and social advisory council of the EBRD and also 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.

He is also the Chairman of the AmCham circular economy committee.

George Kremlis is Honorary Director of the European Commission (EC) and has acted in this capacity as Active Senior responsible for circular economy in the islands.

He was until recently special Advisor to the Greek Prime Minister on energy, climate, environment and circular economy issues.

Dr. Demetrios Kouretas

Dr. Kouretas has a BSc in Pharmacy from University of Patras (Greece) 1985, PhD in Biochemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 1989 (Greece) and Post-doc at Harvard Medical School from 1990-1992. Dr. Kouretas has been staff member in the University of Thessaly since 1996 and from 2007 is Professor of ‘Animal Physiology – Toxicology’ at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the University of Thessaly (Greece).  He has co-authored 220 articles in peer-reviewed journals and about 100 invited lectures in national and international conferences. According to Google scholar Dr. Kouretas’ publications have been cited 10000 times and their ‘h-index’ is 55. In 2017 has been elected member of the European Commission Committee (Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging risks, SCHEER) and the same year (2017) President of the Hellenic Society of Toxicology and Director of the National Master Program in Toxicology.

He has founded the spin-off company FoodOxys aimed at developing bio functional nutrition. He is Associate Editor in the ‘Food & Chemical Toxicology’ (from 2015), ‘Toxicology Reports’ (from 2017) journals of Elsevier and Academic Editor in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (from 2017) and Antioxidants (from 2018).

Mr. Panagiotis Chatzinikolaou

Former senior executive of the General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Ministry of Development and Investment.

A graduate of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), also holding a master’s degree in Computer Science and Technology of Telecommunications and Networks of the University of Thessaly. A member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.

As a permanent civil servant, he has served in a plethora of positions, such as Head of Department, Department Manager and as an Executive, acquiring skills in policy development and funding of Research and Technological Development and Innovation Research programmes and activities.

In the past he has been responsible for the development of policies on Research and Innovation at the national level but also in various thematic areas such as the sectors of Agri-Food, energy, etc., all while implementing a number of research and innovation actions with the academic community and the production sectors.

He has been a representative in committees of EU framework programs and in various thematic committees, in the design of the great Mediterranean program PRIMA, while also having participated in the Administrations of many Greek public organizations such as the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES), Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET), the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) and, the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF).

In the past and in the years from 1986 to 1995, he was active in marine research working at HCMR, where he participated in a number of research projects, publishing many research results.

In the past, as an engineer working in private practice, he designed, implemented and supervised a number of studies and constructions of electromechanical installations in the private and public sector.

 

Mr. Kostas Oikonomidis

Kostas Oikonomidis is agronomist with a master’s degree in agronomy from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a master’s degree in Marketing and Communication from Athens University of Economics and Business

He started his career in 1989 as an Agronomist for the Hellenic Agricultural Insurance Organization. After a short pass from ICI Hellas and Elanco as a promoter, he was hired in 1993 from Ciba Geigy Hellas as responsible for Seeds Field Crops Development in North Greece. In 2003, he moved to Athens, taking over the position of Product Manager in Seeds Department of Syngenta and Field Crop Business Manager in 2010.

In 2011 he took the role of Marketing Head of Syngenta’s consolidated business activities (CP and Seeds) for Greece, Cyprus, Albania and Kosovo. In 2014, he took over the additional responsibility of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia as Marketing Head.

In 2020 he assumed his current role as Syngenta CP Marketing and Technical Head in Mediterranean business area (Greece, Israel, Cyprus, Palestine, Albania and Kosovo)

He was a member of the board of the Greek Seeds Association (SEPY) from 2016 to 2022.

Mr. Anthony D. Papayannides

Has read Law in Athens University. Post-graduate studies in Law, Economics and International Relations and in Medieval History in Strasbourg and Cambridge.  DEA European Law, DIHEE European Economy. Practiced business law and EU law. Consultant on E.U. topics to the Athens Daily Newspaper Publishers’ Association.

Member, then national representative, of the negotiating team for the Integrated Mediterranean Programmes. Counsellor to the Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs, Counsellor to the Minister for Culture, Chairman of the Committee of Cultural Affairs at the E.U. Council. Consultant to the Bank of Greece. Founding member and member of the Board of a number of European affairs institutes and reviews in Greece (EKEME, EKEM, EEK)

From 1972 onwards a journalist and then a columnist at the Greek political daily “TO VIMA” and at the economic and financial weekly  “ECONOMICOS TACHYDROMOS”, specialising in macro-economic policy European affairs and foreign relations. Has also worked at “ELEFTHEROTYPIA” and “IMERISSIA” newspapers, managing editor of “ELEFHEROS TYPOS”.

Writes a bi-weekly column at “NAFTEMPORIKI”. Presently managing director of ECONOMIA Publishing, (“ECONOMIKI EPITHEORISSI”, “BUSINESS FILE”; writes a daily blog at economia.gr). Participates to the talk show “Evening Report” at ACTION 24 Channel.

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. 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.

Dr. Spyros Fountas

Dr. Spyros Fountas is Associate Professor at Agricultural University of Athens and Editor-in-Chief in the ELSEVIER journal “Computers and Electronics in Agriculture” (IF: 3.84) since 2014. He holds an MSc from Cranfield University UK in Information Technology, and PhD from Copenhagen University, Denmark in Systems Analysis on Precision Agriculture.

He was Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA. He has been keynote speaker in several conferences among others in the International Horticultural Congress (IHC 18) in Istanbul, Turkey in August 2018 on “Applications of new technologies in horticultural crops”, in the 17th European Weed Research Society (EWRS), in France in June 2015 on “Big data analytics for crop protection”; in European Conference on Precision Agriculture (ECPA) in Spain in July 2013 on “Application of Precision Agriculture technology in high value crops”.

He has coordinated 3 H2020 projects, Smart-AKIS, GATES and currently OPTIMA on optimized Integrated Pest Management for precise detection and control of plant diseases. He is also participating in 22 other H2020 funded projects. He has 130 papers, including book chapters, journal papers and conference papers and 4000 citations (Google scholar, April 2021).

Ms. Valentina Disoska

Valentina Disoska is an entrepreneur, owner and manager of MM Disoski since 2000. It is a company that works in the fields of consulting and software development, multimedia, marketing, online sales and access to finance.

An architect by profession, further educated and certified to work in many other fields, such as business development and startups, youth learning and work, mentoring, project management, corporate social management, green economy, marketing from brand identity to entering foreign markets and many other topics that are compatible and make her an expert in her work. Certificated from various institutions, such as the European Training Foundation, the International Labor Organization, the German Academy for Green Business and many others. According to her, vocational and lifelong education is the most important for career development.

Valentina Disoska is active in society as a fighter for gender equality, specially dedicated to the development of women entrepreneurship. President and founder of the Association of Business Women since 2010, president and founder of the National Platform for Women’s Entrepreneurship, founder of the Balkan Coalition of Business Women, President of Council for women entrepreneurship in city of Skopje, member of several non-governmental organizations, chambers and movements for the improvement of human rights in North Macedonia and the region.

Other achievements of Valentina are Ambassador for Macedonia for the World Organization of Business Women WED; One of the main speakers at the UN Beijing 20 jubilee conference held in Geneva, an expert on entrepreneurial learning at the European Training Foundation – Turin, Expert for development of  National Strategy for Women Entrepreneurship in the Republic of North Macedonia, and many other achievements.

Awards received:

– Flower of friendship for the development of regional cooperation in the field of female entrepreneurship – Association of Business Women Serbia

– Promotion of entrepreneurship in SEE, creators of the century – Perspectives (SE)

– Award for support and promotion of entrepreneurship – Montenegro