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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.

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).

 

Ms. Tatiana Giemelou

Tatiana Giemelou is the head of Business Development at the National Bank of Greece.

Her career is dated back to 2002 at Citibank, holding positions in Credit-cards Management and Alternative Sales Networks.

She then joined Alpha Bank being assigned as Head of International Marketing for Albania, Cyprus, Serbia & Romania, and afterwards as Head of Merchandising.

She holds an MBA from Sunderland University.

Ms. Marina Tosheska

Marina Tosheska, a licensed doctor of veterinary medicine, is a founder of the digital platform Domasno.mk, primarily focused on the promotion, marketing and sale of agricultural products, by connecting local women producers with national and international markets.  The platform not only promotes their food, but also regional literature, art, tourist attractions, sites, tours and adventures, as well as gastronomic entities from the Pelagonija region. Domasno.mk aims to build more economically sustainable rural community, and acts as a pillar of support for the rural women.

Now also a president of the Union of Associations for Rural Development – Network of LAGs in North Macedonia, Marina focuses on staying globally connected in supporting women entrepreneurs in agribusiness sector and promoting agribusiness as a force for good that generate transformational economic impact.

As a manager in the civil society organization Local Action Group AGRO LIDER, she centres her work on educational and professional support to women in rural areas in implementing community-led initiatives. Her involvement in civic activism has particularly focused on rural women’s rights, gender equality and women entrepreneurship.

Mr. Alexandros Vassilikos

Alexandros Vassilikos was born in Athens in 1976 to a Greek father, a self-made hotelier-business man, and a French mother. He was raised in Athens and attended the French-Hellenic school with a very diverse group of peers. He holds a Masters’ degree in Economics and Finance, with studies in Nantes, France and London, U.K.

Alexandros officially enters the family business in 1998 as a second generation hotelier. At the age of 24, he is appointed COO of AIROTEL Group and a year later, after the sudden loss of his father he becomes CEO of AIROTEL Group.

With the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in view, he drives the group into a modernization period by renovating its assets in Athens.

Despite the economic crisis, he expands the chain by doubling the company’s assets in Patra and adding a long term lease in Kavala. Also, AIROTEL expands in Crete by buying, refurbishing and selling traditional houses.

Seeing the potential for growth in Greek summer residences, under Alexandros’ chairmanship, AIROTEL purchases more than 20 houses across picturesque mountain villages of south-eastern Crete. These houses are then refurbished and sold.

In 2007 Webotel SA is founded, a company dedicated to the online representation of hotels in Greece.

In parallel to his professional obligations, he was elected President of the Athens – Attica Hotels Association in 2012. He was also Member of the Executive Council and Vice-President of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels and Superintendent of Public Relations of the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers. He was also a Member of the Board of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) from 2011 to May 2017.

In January 2018 he resigns all former positions after being elected President of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, the youngest person ever to hold this position since the creation of the institution in 1935.

In October 2018 he is elected as a member of the Executive Committee of HOTREC, the umbrella Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Pubs and Cafes and similar establishments in Europe.

Finally, being a French national, Alexandre was also appointed economic adviser to the French Embassy in Athens in 2008, a position he actively holds to this day.

Ms. Christina F. Legaki

She was born in Athens in 1960 and she has 4 daughters. She graduated from Arsakeio Psychikon high school and she holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Athens University of Economics. She continued with a masters degree (MBA), in USA, from Virginia Darden School of Business.

She has a long professional journey in the area of Business Administration with senior responsibility positions in multinational corporations. Her expertise, lies on management of companies that promote innovation, on all stages of agricultural economy. She is the Country Leader for CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE HELLAS, a leading company in the field of agriculture which came into life out of the mingle of expertise and know how of companies such as DuPont Crop Protection, Pioneer and Dow Chemicals. She is also Business Leader for Israel & Cyprus at CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE and President of the board and CEO of DuPont Hellas S.A.

Her prior management position was President of the board and CEO of PIONEER HI-BRED HELLAS S.A., a multinational seed production and commercial company. Christina Legaki is also shareholder in HELLAFARM S.A., GAIA WINEMAKING S.A., THODORIS PANAS – DANCING SCHOOL OF ATHENS.

She speaks fluently English and French.

Mr. Haris Linardakis

Haris Linardakis is the IBM Cloud leader, Greece and Cyprus. Within his role, he is helping enterprises of all sizes to assess cloud readiness, develop cloud adoption strategies and power their digital transformation.

Throughout his career in IBM, he held business development positions in global technology services and enterprise business unit. As a professional, he is committed to deliver business value through technological advancement and innovative thinking. His main interests include cloud platforms and services, business analytics, internet of things, cognitive applications and blockchain.

Haris’ academic background includes electrical and computer engineering degree and a PhD degree in telecommunications, both from the National Technical University of Athens.

Mr. Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos

Alexandros is a Mandate Manager with the European Investment Fund (EIF) for the last 2 years where he has been involved with European Structural Funds in Greece and Cyprus, provides funding for projects that help to achieve EU aims. In addition, Alex has 20 years of experience on financial planning, analysis, annual strategic planning and business decision support, including maintaining and developing comprehensive modelling tools to facilitate sales forecasting, consolidation and evaluation for domestic and exports business.

Past employers include ABN Amro Bank in Luxembourg, where he currently resides, Alpha Bank, Hellenic Bank, and Michaniki Group of Companies in Athens, and Schroder Wertheim & Co. in New York City. Alexandros holds a master’s degree of Business Administration in Finance from the Kogod School of Business, American University of Washington D.C. and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the Clark University, Boston area.

Ms. Jessie Voumvaki

Jessie Voumvaki is the Deputy Chief Economist at the National Bank of Greece (NBG). She is also the representative of Hellenic Bank Association to the Business Finance Committee (BFC) of the European Banking Federation.

As Deputy Chief Economist with NBG, she is the research coordinator of the “Greek SMEs survey” which reports “NBG Business Confidence Indicator for SMEs” and provides analysis on various special issues on Greek entrepreneurship. She also coordinates the publication of “NBG sectoral studies”, with topics ranging from traditional growth drivers (such as tourism) to potential rising stars (such as higher education).

After joining NBG in 2001, she has gained extensive working experience in quantitative modeling of economies and markets (within a global, European and national context), as well as wide experience of leading data-driven analysis with clear strategic and policy implications.