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.
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.
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.