Advisory Board Members

Dr. George K. Vaggelas is an Associate Professor at the Department of Ports management and Shipping of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is also a founding member of PortEconomics – a web-based initiative advancing knowledge exchange on port economics, management and policies. He has hands-on experience as he was an advisor for Thessaloniki Port Authority S.A., member of the Regulatory Authority for Ports in Greece and managing director of consultancy firm in the port and shipping industry. He has (co-) authored several studies published in international scientific journals and presented at international conferences, examining port economics and management, port policy as well as shipping transport and seaport economics, management and policy. George has completed shipping and seaport related projects in several European countries, examining transport systems and port reorganization, transport systems investments, port M&A’s, shipping clusters, shipping policy etc.

Christy Emilio Ioannidou was born in Athens. She studied psychology, history and etymology. She is a Naval History researcher specializing in topics related to Naval Warfare in antiquity. She developed remarkable literary activity, publishing books and writing more than 100 articles, monographs and studies in academic journals and magazines issued by specialized agencies such as the Hellenic Navy General Staff. Christy has got plenty of awards and honored plaquets for her research in Naval History, among them the Award of First Section of Sciences, Academy of Athens, 2021. She is founding member and member of the Board of Directors of Hellenic Ιnstitute of Maritime History (H.Ι.M.Η), member of Hellenic Submariners Association and of Koryvantes Association of History Studies.

Christos Karapiperis is the CTO and Co-founder of DNA Sequence. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration and a BSc in Computer Science. His academic profile is enhanced by a Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership from the Chartered Institute of Management, UK. Professionally, Christos excels in overseeing large IT projects in both the private and public sectors and has been involved in EU and national-funded bioinformatics research. He specializes in cloud technologies and platforms, focusing on big data pipelines and machine learning operations (MLOps). His expertise extends to multi-cloud environments, making him a versatile and valuable asset in information technology.

During her longstanding career, Dr. Venetia Koussia has acquired senior management positions in companies and organizations of various industry sectors, leading them successfully through highly volatile market conditions by designing and implementing socially responsible growth strategies. Through innovative collaborations with the EU and undertaking an active role in national and international institutions, such as AmCham Greece and Compete Greece, she has been contributing to developing and implementing initiatives aiming always to improve aspects of competitiveness of the Greek economy. Venetia holds a postgraduate Diploma in Corporate Governance, a Ph.D. in Corporate Strategic Planning for Banking Services and an M. Phil. in Agricultural Marketing and Market Research. Her B.Sc. is in Business Administration from the American College of Greece. She does not know what her next field of studies will be but she definitely knows she would like to explore further the impact of humanities on humans.

Prof. Nikolaos E. Labrou received his BSc degree in Chemistry from the University of Patras, and his PhD in Enzyme Biotechnology from the Agricultural University of Athens. He has conducted post-graduate studies in Regulatory Affairs (University of California San Diego, USA) and postdoctoral research, as Marie Curie fellow, in protein biochemistry and molecular biology (Leeds University, UK) and then at Agricultural University of Athens. Dr. Labrou started his academic career as Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, and he is currently full Professor with tenure and Director and Ηead of the Enzyme Technology Lab. He teaches at the postgraduate and undergraduate levels. His research takes place where molecular enzymology, chemistry and blue biotechnology meet and covers aspects of the entire range from pure to applied science. Dr Labrou serves as Editor-in-Chief for three journals, and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals. Prestigious funding agencies that have supported his research include the EU, NATO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bayer AG etc. Dr Labrou is a Member of the Board of Directors and Group Leader (Biocatalysis) at the Institute of BioEconomy, University Research Center of the Agricultural University of Athens. He is co-founder and Research Director of the biotech company EnzyCeuticals (a spin-off from the Agricultural University of Athens. Dr Labrou featured in the World’s Top 2% Scientists in four consecutive years (2019-2022) in his field according to the Stanford Rankings.

Fay Makantasi is the Research Director of diaNEOsis. She has taught Microeconomic Theory and Game Theory at Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and Principles of Economics at Hellenic Open University (HOU). She completed her PhD thesis on a game theoretic approach of international trade at AUEB. As a Postdoctoral Fellow she focused on public sector reform in Greece, the country’s export performance and the measurement of its human capital. During her studies she awarded grants for excellence and research from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY), the Bank of Cyprus, the Georgios and Victoria Karelia Foundation, the AUEB, the European Research Funding Program -“Heracleitus II”. She has recently received a research grant from the Hellenic Observatory of LSE on intelligent modeling of e-Government initiatives in Greece. Her research has been published in international journals and she has presented her work in national and international conferences. Fay has also co-authored and edited socio-economic research about Greece’s exit from the crisis and its modernization.

George Maronidis has been founding partner of “Maronidis & Associates Law Firm” since 1996, is currently the managing partner, and admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Greece. He studied law at the Law School of the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece (LL.B.) and holds an LL.M. Degree in maritime law from the University of Southampton, UK. George holds an Erasmus Scholarship Diploma in English Law from the University of Essex, UK. After his LL.M. studies, he worked for the London solicitors’ firm Thomas Cooper & Stibbard. His focus is mainly on shipping, transportation & logistics, commercial, company and insurance law and arbitration. He has established a reputation in litigation and legal counseling in his work. George represents industrial and commercial companies in litigation and negotiations, as well as major shipping lines, railway undertakings, multimodal transport operators, logistics hubs, Chambers and Associations/Organisations and has also participated in legislative committees of shipping and transport bodies with the respective Ministries for major issues. He has participated and spoken in numerous domestic and international conferences on freight transport and logistics, in several European programmes, and also writes in journals and columns of this sector. He is an elected BoD member of the Hellenic Logistics Association.
Dr. Eri Toka is a Mechanical Engineer with PhD in Industrial Management from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is professionally active in technology transfer, in the exploitation of research results of national and European funded research programs, as well as in the connection of research and innovation with business and society. She is the Head of the Technology Transfer Office of the Research Committee of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where she has also served as an external associate for national and European-funded research programmes. Eri has served as General Manager of the Hellenic Logistics Company of Northern Greece, while she remains an active member of the Board of Directors of GASCM. She is a member of the Standing Committee for Competitiveness – Entrepreneurship – Innovation of the Technical Chamber of Greece (Department of Central Macedonia) for the period 2020-2024, member of the Industry and Young Entrepreneurship Groups of ICC Women Hellas, and member of the Association of Graduate Greek Women Engineers.

Plamen Tonchev has been Head of Asia Unit at the Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER), Greece, since 1998. As an IIER representative, he is a founding member of the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC). In addition, he sits on the EU Chapter of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (EU CSCAP) committee, and has acted as a member of the Scientific Committee of the Asia-Europe Sustainable Connectivity (AESCON) initiative. Plamen has published books on Japan, India and Pakistan, as well as various reports and articles in academic journals on China’s socio-economic development and foreign policies. He has given lectures in a number of European and Asian universities and think tanks on political/economic relations between Europe and Asia. Plamen is a regular commentator in Greek and international media outlets on related issues.