SPEAKERS
Niki Kerameus
Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Greece
Niki Kerameus is the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs of the Hellenic Republic. She serves as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament since January 2015. Ms. Kerameus is a lawyer practicing mainly in the field of international arbitration, with significant experience in Greece, France and the U.S.A. She is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the University Paris II – graduated first in both and summa cum laude. She is a founding member and first President of the Non-profit Foundation “Desmos”, which locates surplus from companies and individuals to cover the needs of the most vulnerable citizens of Greece and social welfare organizations.
Margaritis Schinas
Vice President, European Commission
Margaritis Schinas took office as Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life in the Von der Leyen Commission in December 2019. In this capacity, he oversees the EU’s policies for migration, security union, social rights, skills, education, culture, youth, health and dialogue with churches, religious associations and non-confessional organisations. Mr. Schinas started his career in the European Commission in 1990. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament, from 2007 until 2009. Upon the completion of his parliamentary term of office, he returned to the European Commission and held various senior positions.
Mariya Gabriel
European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education & Youth
Mariya Gabriel is responsible for important EU programmes as Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps and Creative Europe. She was Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society from 2017 to 2019. Under her leadership, the Digital Single Market has become a reality. She has created the first pan European “Digital Europe” programme. She is Vice-President of the European People’s Party, and was elected Vice-President of EPP Women in 2012. She is one of the 50 most influential women in Europe in the field of cybersecurity.
Akis Skertsos,
Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister of Greece
Akis is the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, responsible for the coordination of the government work (July 2019). Prior to his current position, he has been the Director General of SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (June 2014 till June 2019). He is an expert in political management and lobbying. He holds a Master of Arts in Political Management and Lobbying from George Washington University in the USA (2000-2001), a BA in Journalism and Communications from Aristoteleion Panepistimion Thessalonikis (1995–1999).
Sofia Zacharaki,
Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs
Before her appointment, Sofia Zacharaki served as the spokesperson for Nea Demokratia, the then leading opposition center-right party in Greece, an EPP member party. Before that and for more than 2 years, Sofia was the party’s deputy spokesperson. Prior to that, in 2012 until 2014 she was the European and International Affairs advisor to the Minister of Development and participated in the preparation of the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Martina Dlabajova,
Member of the European Parliament
Renew Europe Group
Martina Dlabajova is a Member of the European Parliament coming from the Czech Republic. She is part of the Renew Europe Group, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control and RE coordinator in the Industry, Research and Energy Committee and a member of the SME Intergroup and AI Intergroup. In her previous term in the European Parliament she initiated the Intergroup for Creative Industries and was appointed its Vice-President. In 2015 she received the MEP Award in the category “Employment and Social Affairs” (as first Czech MEP ever). She is a great supporter of young people and is the author of the project of motivational traineeships for them “PročByNe?”(„Why Not?“).
Jeff Bullwinkel,
Associate General Counsel and Regional Director of Corporate, Legal & External Affairs, Microsoft Europe
Jeff is based in Amsterdam and oversees the company’s legal and corporate affairs teams across the region, providing support for commercial transactions and regulatory counsel on public policy issues such as IPR, cybersecurity, competition, and international trade. Mr. Bullwinkel joined Microsoft in 2000 and previously held a number of senior roles with the company across the Asia Pacific region, based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Bullwinkel was with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, an international law firm based in New York. Mr. Bullwinkel also served as a federal prosecutor with the Office of International Affairs, Criminal Division, US Department of Justice, where he was responsible for a wide range of matters relating to international law.
Heba Ramzy,
Global Citizenship Senior Director, Avanade
Heba is currently the Global Citizenship Senior Director at Avanade. Heba has an accomplished professional history having worked at Microsoft for 14 years and being the founding partner of H&E consult. Heba has received numerous national and international awards including the National Honorary award by Egypt’s First Lady, Cable & Wireless Childnet International Award for excellence, and Microsoft’s highest award, Circle of Excellence in 2007. Heba also created the first international acclaimed Egyptian children gateway, “Little Horus” and co-founded 21st Century Kids Club. Heba has also served on national and international NGO boards and is currently the chairwoman of the MasterPeace board, a member of the Co-Opinion advisory board, and a member of the Eisenhower Fellow President Advisory Council.
Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi
Vice Chairman Institutional Client Group, EMEA, Citi
Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi is the Vice Chairman of the Institutional Client Group, EMEA. From 2013 to 2018 he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Citi Holdings, which comprises Citi’s non-core assets and businesses. Prior to running Citi Holdings, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Citi Transaction Services (CTS). Prior to his role of CEO of CTS, Francesco was the Global Head for Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS), a major business division of Citi Transaction Services. He joined CTS in 2003 as the Region Head for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Adam Warby,
CEO Emeritus, Avanade,
Chairman JA Europe
Adam is CEO Emeritus of Avanade, which was created in 2000 as a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft to combine deep industry and business expertise with the leading enterprise software platform. As a founding member of Avanade, Adam has been instrumental in building the culture of the company which has grown to 29,000 professionals in 23 countries globally. In 2014, under Adam’s leadership, Avanade established its Corporate Citizenship mission “To help close the gender, income and technology gaps to enable women to better fulfill their potential”
Marco Veremis,
Chairman, JA Greece
Co-founder & Executive Chairman, UPSTREAM
Marco started his career in 1996, as a marketing strategist with Omnicom, WPP and IPG where he developed global communication strategies for brands such as Nestlé, Smithkline Beecham, Johnson & Johnson and Sony Electronics. In 2002, he returned to Greece and co-founded Upstream along with Alex Vratskides. Since then, Upstream has evolved into a leading global technology company in the field of mobile commerce, conducting business in over 45 markets. Marco served as CEO of Upstream until June 2017, and is its Executive Chairman of the Board, whilst also a partner at BigPi Venture Capital.
Emilios Kyriacou,
Citi Country Officer Greece, Cyprus & Malta
Corporate Bank Head Greece
Emilios Kyriacou is a Managing Director and Senior Credit Officer of Citigroup, having joined Citi 30 years ago. Before his current appointment as Citi Country Officer of Greece, Emilios has held various senior positions including Corporate Banking Head for Greece and Cyprus, a mandate he still retains. Most recently, Emilios acted as Corporate Banking Head for Greece, Cyprus and Central Europe, the latter consisting of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Balkan & Baltic NPCs.
Kyriakos Apostolidis,
Senior Vice President, General Manager of MetLife in Greece & Cyprus
Senior Vice President, General Manager of MetLife in Greece & Cyprus
Angela Gerekou,
President, Greek National Tourism Organization
Angela Gerekou has been appointed President of the Greek National Tourism Organization in August 2019, by decision of the Greek Government and the Ministry for Tourism. She holds a degree from the School of Architecture of the University of Rome, Italy. She has worked as an architect for the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, on special programs for the renovation of less developed areas of Athens. She has served at the Greek Government in the positions of Deputy Minister for Culture and Tourism (2009-2010) and Deputy Minister for Culture (2014-2015).
Asheesh Advani,
President & CEO of JA Worldwide
Prior to joining JA, Asheesh served as CEO of a financial technology company that was acquired by Interactive Brokers in 2015 and rebranded as IB Asset Management. His experiences as an entrepreneur and founder have been chronicled in case studies at Babson College and at Harvard Business School. Outside of his entrepreneurial activities, Asheesh has served as a corporate executive, magazine columnist, author of business books, active member of non-profit boards and corporate boards, and occasional commentator in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, and MarketWatch.
Ragna Jebsen,
Events Manager JA Alumni Europe
Participated in the Company Programme in 2015 and she is the winner of the CoYC 2015 in Berlin.
Argiris Tzikopoulos,
CEO of JA Greece
Mr Argiris Tzikopoulos has been CEO of Junior Achievement Greece since 2014. During his term of office, JA Greece has achieved the highest school participation rates in the history of the organisation (200% for the Company Programme and 340% for Start Up), and has managed to reach a notably higher number of schools in underprivileged areas throughout the country. Raising awareness of entrepreneurship education in a country that has been going through serious financial and social challenges has been the priority for Argiris and the team of JA Greece.
Salvatore Nigro,
CEO of JA Europe
Salvatore joined JA Europe in February 2020 after having spent twelve years at Education for Employment (EFE). As CEO of EFE-Europe and Vice-President of EFE-Global, Salvatore led EFE’s business development, partnership and programme management in Europe to support operations in the Middle East and North Africa. He previously was Director of the International Partnerships and Advocacy Department of the Glocal Forum and worked at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.