Archives: Speakers

Dr Christos Dimas is the Deputy Minister for Development and Investments in charge
of Research and Innovation. He is a lawyer and Member of the Hellenic Parliament
representing New Democracy in the district of Korinthia.
Before entering politics, he worked in the private sector as a business consultant for
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

He was born on the 29 th of May 1980. He graduated from the Law School of the
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Queen Mary University in
London.

He completed his Master Degree in Comparative Politics at the London School of
Economics and Political Science (LSE). He then finished his PhD in European Political
Economy from the LSE, with a scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Foundation.
Parallel to his studies, he worked as a correspondent in London for Apogevmatini
newspaper while also practicing journalism at the BBC.

At the age of 25 he was a teaching assistant at the LSE while teaching at ICON
College in the University of Leicester and was a research fellow at the Jean Monnet
European Center of Excellence.

He was elected as an MP in the district of Korinthia, with New Democracy in the May
2012 elections and has been re-elected ever since.
In his spare time he enjoys playing football and basketball and reading history books.
He is married to the lawyer Nicoleta Syrengela and they have one daughter and a
son.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis is Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe since 2016. Before he was
Representative of Infineon Technologies in Brussels and Member of the European Parliament (2004
– 2014) inter alia in the ITRE Committee (Industry, Technology, Research and Energy) where he could
contribute to lay the cornerstone for the first and the second Joint Undertaking on hydrogen and
fuel cells. In 2007 he was elected “MEP of the year” by his colleagues of the European Parliament in
the category “Research and Innovation”. In 2015 he was appointed ambassador at large for Greece.
Mr Chatzimarkakis was born in Duisburg, Germany. He holds German and Greek nationality, a
degree in political science from the University of Bonn.

Nikos Androulakis is Member of European Parliament with Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, since 2014. Vice president of SEDE (Subcommittee on Security and Defence). Member of  ENVI (Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) & DACP (Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly). Also he is a substitute member of AFET (Committee on Foreign Affairs) &  INTA (Committee on International Trade). As Rapporteur, he negotiated the trilogue on the reinforcement of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism.

Member of the Greek Parliament (New Democracy Party, Constituency: Trikala) Minister of Environment & Energy 

Konstantinos Skrekas comes from Megarhi, Trikala. He is married to Eirini Karagouni  and has two daughters, Alexandra and Sophia. He holds a Degree in Civil Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  (Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Technology), and an M.Sc. in  Construction Management from the University of Birmingham, UK. After completing his studies, he worked in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector in managerial positions. He is the co-founder of a company operating in the FMCG  sector and held the posisition of CEO for 15 years. In the general election of 6 May 2012 he was elected Member of the Greek  Parliament (MP) for the Constituency of Trikala with the New Democracy Party. He  was re-elected on 17th June of the same year.

On the 25th of January 2015 he was elected Member of the Greek Parliament (MP),  receiving the largest number of electoral votes among candidates from all political  parties, in the Constituency of Trikala. He was re-elected in the elections on 20th  September of the same year. In the general elections on 7th July 2019 he was elected Member of the Greek  Parliament for the Constituency of Trikala. During his terms of office in the Hellenic Parliament he has been a member of the  Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, the Standing Committee on Production  and Trade, the Special Permanent Committee on Research and Technology and the  Special Permanent Committee on Environmental Protection. He was also Shadow Minister for the Environment and Energy Sector for the New  Democracy Party from January 2016 – June 2019.  He was appointed Minister of Development and Competitiveness from October 2014  until February 2015. On 9th July 2019 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Food,  being specifically responsible for the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). On 5th January 2021 he was appointed Minister of the Environment and Energy. He speaks English and French.

DORA BAKOYANNIS, M.P.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece
Former Mayor of Athens

Dora Bakoyannis is a member of the Greek Parliament,
and President of the Intergroup Committee of the
Development of Thrace. She has been elected as a member of
the Greek Parliament since 1989. She is Chairperson of the Greek Parliamentary
Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, while in
January 2021, she was elected Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe. She studied law, political sciences and communication in Munich
and Athens.

She was the first female Mayor of Athens (2002-2006) and the first female Greek
Foreign Minister (2006-2009), the highest post ever held by a woman in a Greek
government. In 2009, she was elected the First Female Foreign Associate of the
French Academy in Humanities and Political Sciences.

As a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe she was
President of the Committee of Political Affairs and Democracy from 2014 until
2016. She has been the Co-Rapporteur for the Russian Federation (Monitoring
Committee). She served as Rapporteur for the functioning of democratic
institutions in Poland (Monitoring Committee), while currently she serves as
Rapporteur for the Syrian crisis (Political Committee).

Dora Bakoyannis is worldwide known for her adamant stance against terrorism.

Constantinos Papalucas (MEng, MBA, MPA) is an Energy Policy Expert and an EastMed Specialist. Since October 2019 he is advising the Greek Minister of Environment and Energy on Energy Policy, Infrastructure and Energy Investments while in December 2020 he was appointed as the Coordinator of the National Hydrogen Committee whose mandate is to prepare the Hydrogen Strategy of the Hellenic Republic.

In the past he served as an Associate at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and also in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. Upon his return from the U.S. he founded EastMed Energy Hub, consulting energy corporations that seek to invest in the Eastern Mediterranean and governments on natural resources management, advocating for a regional energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Constantinos teaches Energy Strategy & Management and Negotiations &Conflict Management, in the Department of Business and Public Administration of the University of Cyprus. He is also a member of the United Nations Group of Gas Experts (UNECE), Group of Experts on CMM and the Task Force on Hydrogen.

Constantinos has written several Policy Papers and has been a member of the authoring team of the Greek National Energy and Climate Plan. His work has been hosted in mainstream journals and magazines such as the Washington Times, S&P Global Platts, Times of Israel, Egypt Oil&Gas, Hipporeads and others.

Constantinos holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Dr Charles Ellinas

Oil & Gas Consultant

Over 35 years experience in the oil & gas sector in senior management positions.
Currently CEO of e-CNHC (E-C Cyprus Natural Hydrocarbons Company Ltd),
providing management and advisory services in the oil & gas and energy sectors in
Cyprus and the region. A lot needs to be done and the aim of the company is to
contribute to the successful development of these sectors for the future of Cyprus.
Prior to this, as CEO of KRETYK I was responsible for implementing Cyprus
government’s strategy for the development of its hydrocarbons sector.
Until 2012 I was a Director of Mott MacDonald for 25 years and the Managing
Director of Mott MacDonald’s Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals business world-wide.
Charles Ellinas is also Features Editor, Natural Gas World, and Senior Associate,
Atlantic Council.

Takis Pournarakis studied mechanical engineering and has been working as a journalist since 1989. He is a F1 expert; he was commentating F1 races from 1996 until 2015.

From 2005 he has been focused on road safety. He has organized several Road Safety meetings with Municipalities, Regions, Sport Teams, Hellenic Air Force, Police etc. He presents and has participated in the formation of the government road safety program, “Watch out”.

He has work for several magazines such as 4Wheels, daily – weekly newspapers, web portals, and TV shows as editor in chief, reporter or presenter. He has a daily live radio show for more than 20 years, in nowadays at A989 radio. From 2016 he is a professor (sports and general journalism) at IEK AKMI. Additionally he is responsible about the auto section at the news portal mononews.gr