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Dr. Eleni Maloupa

Dr. Eleni Maloupa (BSc Agronomy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, MSc & PhD in Plant Biology and Physiology, “Pierre et Marie Curie” University of Paris) is Director of the Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Head of the Laboratory for the Conservation and Evaluation of Native and Floricultural Species (LabCENFS) and Curator of the Balkan Botanic Garden Kroussia.

Her research fields focuses on protection, conservation, propagation and utilization of native Greek plant species (mainly aromatic-medicinal). She has teaching experience in graduate and postgraduate level (Universities, MAICH). She participated in the MSc program “The biodiversity and sustainable exploitation of native plants” (School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and supervise MSc and PhD thesis in school of Pharmacy and Athens Agronomy University. Her research work has been published in more than 60 international and Greek journals. She has also participated in the publication of 3 book chapters.

She has implemented major research programs in collaboration with internationally renowned researchers. She has organized and materialized educational programs and seminars addressed to farmers, enterprises and interested civilians on the above-mentioned subjects. She has educational certification for adult training from the National Organization for the Certification of Qualifications & Vocational Guidance (EOPPEP).

Abstract (EN/GR): here

Dr. Dimitrios Vlachos

Professor Vlachos is the Director of the Laboratory of Statistics and Quantitative Analysis Methods, Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LASCM) of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece.

He conducts research and consulting in the fields of supply chain management, logistics, applied operational research, combined transport systems management, business restructuring and strategy development. He has participated in more than 60 research projects (in 15 of them as a principal investigator) in the field of Supply Chain Management, and he has co-authored the respective technical reports.

He has published more than 200 papers in scientific journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. He has participated as a consultant or expert in numerous projects funded by public and private organizations. He is President of the Greek Association of Supply Chain Management (EELBE).

Dr. Eleftherios Iakovou

Dr. Iakovou is the Director of Manufacturing and Logistics Innovation Initiatives at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES); the Associate Director of Supply Chain Management and Applied Operations Research at Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT) of TEES; and a Professor and a Holder of a TEES Research Professorship at the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University.

His research areas include: Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management, Intermodal & Maritime Logistics, Green Logistics – Sustainability, Port Management, Global Logistics & Free Trade Facilitation, Manufacturing & Production Systems, Humanitarian Logistics, Emergency Response Management and Innovation, Policy-Making & Strategy Development.

Prior to joining Texas A&M in 2015, Dr. Iakovou served as the Department Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Dr. Iakovou has published more than 230 papers in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings, as well as two books. He has served as a keynote speaker for a plethora of national and international events, while he has been consulting extensively for a number of governmental and corporate organizations both in the U.S. and in the EU for more than two decades. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and briefly also as its CEO for the Alexandrian Innovation Zone S.A., in Thessaloniki, Greece. For more than ten years, he was the President of the Greek Association of Supply Chain Management (EEL ΒΕ).

Dr. Charalambos Kasimis

Charalambos Kasimis is a Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development of the Agricultural University of Athens. In March 2015, he was appointed as Secretary General of Agricultural Policy and Management of European Funds of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, in charge of CAP, Rural Development and Fisheries Development Programmes of Greece as well as International Relations. He completed his term in office in July 2019.

He has served as the Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (2013-2014) and as the Director of the Postgraduate Studies MSc. Programme “Integrated Rural Development and Management of Rural Space” (2010-2014). Between September 2014 and March 2015, he was appointed as Deputy Rector of the Agricultural University of Athens. In the period 1986-2003 he served as a member of staff at the Department of Economics of the University of Patras and between 1995 and 2000 as the Director of the Institute of Urban and Rural Sociology at the National Centre for Social Research. For a number of years, he served as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Rural Sociology and between 2013 and 2015 as President.

His academic interests focus on issues of rural transformation and development in Greece, the Balkans and the Mediterranean region and more particularly on family farming, employment and rural community change. Migration and, more precisely, the implications of international migration on rural regions have become one of his main research topics in the past years. In the crisis years he dealt with the study of the implications of the economic crisis upon the rural areas and the ‘return to the land’ movement in Greece.

Since 2016 Charalampos Kasimis is Vice President and member of the Governing Board of the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM).

Between 2018 -2019 he served as Executive Board member of the Organisation “Enterprise Greece”.

Dr. Philip Papadopoulos

Dr. Philip Papadopoulos holds a PhD from London School of Economics and is currently the Director of the Strategic Project Management Office of the American Farm School (AFS). In this capacity he is responsible for the Agrifood Entrepreneurship Centres run by AFS in the cities of Thessaloniki and Kalamata, and oversees training and consultancy projects in over thirty locations throughout Greece. Building and managing multi-actor alliances between research institutes, civil society institutions and the real economy is one of his core activities.

His fields of interest include Consumer Behavior related to the Mediterranean Diet, Alternative Tourism, Food Anthropology, Entrepreneurship, E-commerce, Organizational Culture & Climate, Leadership and Management, including motivation and performance management.

Ms. Alexandra Nikolakopoulou

Alexandra Nikolakopoulou received her law degree from the University of Athens after which she was called to the Athens Bar. She completed her DEA in European law at the University of Toulouse. After three years working for the legal Unit of the European Commission’s Consumer Protection Directorate General she joined EuroCommerce, the European Association of retail and wholesale companies, where she worked as a food law advisor.

She joined DG SANTE in 2003 (ex DG SANCO) where she serves today as Head of Unit in the Unit ‘Farm to Fork Strategy’ in the Food Safety Directorate. She has been leading and coordinating the work for the adoption the EU Farm to Fork Strategy and she is in charge of some of the main initiatives of the strategy such as on the general framework for sustainable food systems, front of pack labelling and nutrient profiles, origin labelling, sustainable labelling, food waste.

Throughout her career in DG SANTE she has been dealing with issues relating to food labelling and general food law. More specifically she was responsible for the preparation, negotiation and adoption of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of Food Information to Consumers and of the recent Transparency Regulation.

Dr. Dionysia-Theodora Avgerinopoulou

Dr. Dionysia-Theodora Avgerinopoulou, M.P., is a leading future in Environmental Law and Policy. She currently serves as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament and the Chair of the Special Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Protection and its Subcommittee of the Watercourses of the Hellenic Parliament.

She has served as the Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership Organization in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Head of Water of the Commission on Environment and Energy of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France. Dr. Avgerinopoulou has also served as the Chairperson of the Standing Committee for the UN Affairs of the Inter- Parliamentary Union, in Geneva, Switzerland, Chairperson of the Circle of the Mediterranean Parliamentarians on Sustainable Development, and the Vice-Chair for the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development, in Athens, Greece.

Dionysia received a first degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Greece and an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. She also holds a Doctorate in International Environmental Law (J.S.D.) from Columbia University School of Law in New York, NY. Dionysia is the author of several articles and a book on environmental and international issues and has presented her work at several international conferences. She teaches Public International Law, International Environmental Law, European Environmental Law, Law of Sustainable Development, Global Environmental Governance and Climate Change Law.

Dionysia is an attorney-at-law by profession. She has previously worked, among others, at the Legal Service of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, the Permanent Mission of the European Union at the United Nations in New York, U.S.A., the Center on Environmental and Land Use Law of the New York University School of Law in New York, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Yale Law School in New Haven, C.T., U.S.A. and the International and Foreign Law Institute in Athens, Greece.

She has been elected four times as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament and three times as the Chairperson of the Special Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Protection and its Subcommittee of the Watercourses. She has served as President of the Parliamentary Committee of Friendship between Greece and Botswana, Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Committee of Friendship between Greece and Norway, Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee of Friendship between Greece and the Netherlands, and a Member of the Parliamentary Committees of Friendship between Greece and Albania, Canada, Japan, Israel,  Kenya, Singapore, U.S.A., and Russia. She has served as the Deputy Secretary of Volunteerism and NGOs and the Deputy Head of the Environmental Policy Sector of the New Democracy Party. Dr. Avgerinopoulou was a member of the Committee regarding the Genetically Modified Organisms of the Greek Ministry for Environment, Energy and Climate Change, and the parliamentary representative of her Party for the Law on Biodiversity that implemented the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and introduced the National Biodiversity Strategy for Greece.

In 2011, Dr. Avgerinopoulou was elected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum for her global leadership in environmental protection issues. In the same year, she received the “Green Star” Award by UNEP/OCHA/Green Cross International for her efforts in preventing and responding to environmental emergencies and natural disasters. She was also selected among the “40Under40” of the EU. In 2010, she also received a Special Congressional Recognition for her “outstanding efforts and invaluable contributions on behalf of Hellenic Students and the environment” and the Global Citizenship Award for Leadership in Assisting Humanity by Orphans International Worldwide in 2010. In 2009, she received the international Goddess Artemis Award by the Euro-American Women’s Council for her contribution to transatlantic cooperation between the U.S. and the EU on environmental and climate change issues.

She speaks Greek, English, French, German and Spanish. She is the mother of one young boy.

Ms. Stella Ronner-Grubačić

Professional career Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

1990 – 1991            Diplomatic training MFA

1991 – 1993            Policy officer, Multilateral Development Cooperation/ UN aid (The Hague, New York)

1993 – 1996            First secretary Political and Press Affairs, Embassy in Belgrade

1996 – 2001            ENA (1996-1997) followed by posting at Embassy in Paris (1997-2001)

2001 – 2003            Spokesperson for OSCE Mission to the Former Republic of Yugoslavia

2003 – 2004            Spokesperson to former Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, OSCE Chairman-in-Office

2004 – 2005            Spokesperson Dutch EU Presidency

2005 – 2008            Head, Western Europe Department

2008 – 2010            Ambassador for Millennium Development Goals

2010 – 2014            Ambassador to Croatia

2014 – 2015            Director of Communication to the MFA

2015 – 2019            Ambassador to Romania and the Republic of Moldova

Sep 2019                Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic

 

Education:

– 1982   Graduated High School, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt Gymnasium, Amersfoort

– 1989   Masters degree, European Studies, University of Amsterdam

 

Internships:

– Department for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations Secretariat, New York, September – December 1987
– European Commission, DG XI (Environment & Nuclear Security), September 1988 – March 1989

 

Post-academic:

– ‘International Relations’, Clingendael Institute, The Hague

– Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), Paris

 

Languages: fluent in Dutch, English, French, Serbian/Croatian and moderate in Spanish and German

 

Married to Bratislav Grubačić, one son (Luka Grubačić)

Mr. Harry Theocharis

Harry Theocharis is the Greek minsiter of Tourism. He was first elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament in January 2015.

Mr. Theocharis has served as a secretary general for information systems and as a secretary general for public revenues, when he reorganized the agency and succeeded in meeting budget revenues and producing a fiscal surplus.

He earned his Master’s with honors in software engineering from Imperial College.

Mr. Makis Voridis

Makis Voridis was born in Athens in 1964. He graduated from Athens College and obtained a degree in Law, from the University of Athens. He holds a Master of Law from the University of London, specialized in International Commercial Law and in Criminal Law. He is fluent both in English and French.

In 1992 he served in the Army, as a Cadet Reserve Officer of Artillery, leader of his series of the Artillery School and was released qualifying the rank of Lieutenant. He has been practicing Law in Athens for the last 29 years specialized in International Commercial Law and in Criminal Law. He is married to Danai Michelakou, pediatrician and they have two children.

In September 2007 he was elected for the first time as a member of Greek Parliament, and was re-elected in October 2009, in the Attica Region. In November 2011, he was appointed as Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and public transportation Networks, during the coalition Government of political parties PASOK-NEW DEMOCRACY-LAOS, under Prime Minister Loukas Papadimos. At the elections of May 6th 2012, he was elected as a member of Parliament, Attica electoral District under the Political Party “New Democracy”, ranking first position in the Election Ballot. From 2012 until 2014 he was the Parliamentary Representative of Political Party “New Democracy”. He was re-elected during the elections of June 17th 2012 (Election List).

In June 2013 he was assigned as President of the Political Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). In June 2014 he was appointed Minister of Health under Prime Minister Antonios Samaras. He was re-elected at the elections of 15th January and 20th September of 2015, with the Political party of “New Democracy”, in the Attica Region. In January 2016, the President of political Party “New Democracy”, appointed him as Divisional Director of Internal Affairs. Ιn July 2017 he was elected President of the Special Immigration Committee of the Parliament Assembly of OSCE.

In July 7th 2019 he was re-elected as a member of Parliament of East Attica A’ District, under the Political Party of “New Democracy” and was appointed Minister of Rural Development and Food.