EVENTS
October 2016
06oct12:00 pm2:00 pmStartup Fever in the Mediterranean
Event Details
A promising innovation ecosystem is under way in Greece as an emerging group of young Greeks help the country on the path to
Event Details
A promising innovation ecosystem is under way in Greece as an emerging group of young Greeks help the country on the path to recovery. These globally-focused scientists and engineers, highly educated and without other job prospects, are setting the country on a new course toward technology entrepreneurship. Startups are offering a wave of investment opportunity in software apps, energy and hardware. Development houses are offering custom software solutions while other businesses provide clinical trials at competitive rates to small and large enterprises worldwide.
October 6, 2016
5.00- 5.15 Registration
5.15- 5.30 Opening Remarks
5.30- 7.30
The Startup Ecosystem of Greece
Presented by
MITEF Greece, Thessaloniki Innovation Zone, Open Fund
ALTER + (American companies who have invested in Greece)
Custom Software Development Market
Presented by
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Athens Technology Center
7.30- 8.30 Networking reception
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October 6, 2016 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm(GMT-11:00)
June 2017
Event Details
The Consul of Greece in Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece are inviting you to join a discussion with
Event Details
The Consul of Greece in Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece are inviting you to join a discussion with Dimitri Papadimitriou, Minister of Economy and Development of Greece, who will share the Greek government’s plans to promote investment in startups in Greece. The evening will include a dialogue with entrepreneurs operating in the Greek startup economy.
June 23, 2017
5:15 pm-Ifigenia Kanara, Consul General of Greece in Boston (Welcome)
5:25 pm-Marina Hatsopoulos, moderator (Introduction to Minister)
5:30 pm-Dimitri Papadimitriou, Minister of Economy and Development
5:50 pm-Q&A
6:00 pm-Greek entrepreneurs to each give 30-second overview of their startup
6:10 pm-Questions and statements of Priorities from Greek entrepreneurs to the Minister
6:30 pm-Ifigenia Kanara to invite all to Mix and Mingle
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June 23, 2017 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm(GMT-11:00)
May 2018
Event Details
The video recording of the event is here. Event Organized by the Consulate General of Greece
Event Details
The video recording of the event is here.
Event Organized by the Consulate General of Greece in Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece
The Boston-Israel business relationship is a powerful driver of both economies, with thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in revenues, and many successful exits.
What makes it work? Come hear from two experts:
David Goodtree, Global Venture Partner, Our Crowd Goodtree led three Governor’s missions to Israel, and is author of the “Massachusetts-Israel Economic Impact Study”. He’ll bring the numbers and the context.
Dr. Udi Meirav, CEO, enVerid Meirav is founder of an energy-saving commercial HVAC technology company with strong growth and financial backing, and is a serial Boston-Israel technologist. He’ll tell the personal story of tapping into the local community and the integration experience.
May 14, 2018
5:30 pm Networking
6:00 pm Welcome by Stratos Efthymiou, Consul General of Greece
Program moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos, Entrepreneur & Advisor, MITEF Greece
6:50 Pitch by Michael Tzannes, Technology Entrepreneur, board chairman of Accusonus
7:00 pm Networking Reception
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May 14, 2018 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm(GMT-11:00)
October 2018
Event Details
The video recording of the event is here. What are US investors looking for in a
Event Details
The video recording of the event is here.
What are US investors looking for in a startup, and why would they invest in a Greek startup?
Renown serial entrepreneur Paul English will kick off our event, followed by an overview of Greek venture opportunities from Alexandra Choli, and then insights from investors Nicole Stata and Michael Tzannes. After we hear short pitches from several Greek startups, they will ask questions (along with the audience) and provide constructive feedback.
Program
October 11, 2018
4:30 pm Networking drinks & snacks (4th floor bar)
5:30 pm Event will be at the theater (6th floor)
Welcome by Giorgos Zacharia-CTO, KAYAK
Keynote by Paul English-Co-Founder, KAYAK
5:50 pm Greek Venture and Startup Scene by Alexandra Choli-Partner, Metavallon
5:55 pm US Investor Panel moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos-Advisor, MITEF Greece
Nicole Stata-General Partner, Boston Seed Capital
Michael Tzannes-Technology Entrepreneur; Chairman, Accusonus
Pitches by MIT Enterprise Forum Greece Startup Competition Finalists
Panagiotis Leledakis, IFA Academy
Danae Antonopoulou, Pegneon
Julius Georgiou, AJM Medicaps
Andreas Androutsellis-Theotokis, Innate Repair
Iakovos Kritikos, ΑΓΩ Simulations
6:30 pm Networking and Cocktails
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October 11, 2018 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm(GMT-11:00)
May 2019
Event Details
The video recording of the event is here. The event, organized by the Consulate of Greece
Event Details
The video recording of the event is here.
The event, organized by the Consulate of Greece in Boston in coordination with The MIT Enterprise Forum Greece Diaspora Council, will include a welcome by Stratos Efthymiou, the Consul General of Greece in Boston, and several short pitches by Greek startups, moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos.
EVENT DETAILS
May 28, 2019
5:30 pm Coffee Reception
6:00 pm Welcome by Stratos Efthymiou, Consul General of Greece in Boston
6:05 pm Fireside Chat with Nicholas Negroponte and Michalis Bletsas
7:00 pm Greek startup pitches, moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos
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- Bill Gianoukos, Pineapple
- Michalis Vlastarakis, Eurobank/EGG program
- Marianthi Fragkopoulou, Herado
- George Chaliotis, Mediline USA
- Apostolos Atsalakis, PNOE
- Dr. Evangelos Pappas, RTsafe
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7:20-8:30 pm Wine Reception with Greek-themed drinks and snacks
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May 28, 2019 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm(GMT-11:00)
September 2019
30sep5:30 am8:30 pmFireside Chat with Nikos Moraitakis, Co-Founder and CEO, Workable
Event Details
The Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Consulate of Greece in Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, welcomes you
Event Details
The Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Consulate of Greece in Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, welcomes you to an evening celebrating Greek entrepreneurship with the participation of Kostas Fragogiannis, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy.
September 30, 2019
Workable Headquarters in Boston, MA
5:30 pm Registration
6:00 pm Kostas Fragogiannis, Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy, Hellenic Republic
6:10 pm Panagiotis Karampinis, Endeavor Greece
6:12 pm Hellenic Innovation Network Platform, presented by Basil Vetas
6:14 pm Fireside Chat with Nikos Moraitakis, moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos
6:40 pm MITEF Greece pitches, introduced by Vassilis Papakonstantinou
- BeeNova is an AI-infused narrative platform that provides kids with life-long learning skills to reach their full potential, leveraging phenomenon-based learning and the latest machine learning technology for NLP and content recommendations.
- Solmeya offers Feed Compounds helping Humanity solve the upcoming shortage of Feed due to overpopulation & arable land scarcity by combining our top-notch technologies that produce Crude Protein by utilizing the ambient air.
- Twiddle develops AI-powered film scoring services both for the B2C sector via a mobile app, and for the B2B industry through SAAS opening monetization channels beneficial for all sides.
6:50-8:30 pm Wine & Cheese Reception, including Kleos Mastiha cocktails
Press Coverage:
https://usa.greekreporter.com/2019/10/05/greek-business-%CE%B5vent-successfully-concludes-in-boston/
SUPPORTED BY
Gold Sponsor
In-kind Sponsor
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September 30, 2019 5:30 am – 8:30 pm(GMT+00:00)
May 2020
07may12:00 pm12:30 pmWebcast: Research and Innovation in GreeceA discussion with Manolis Dermitzakis
Event Details
The video recording of this event is available here. Hellenic Innovation Network, with
Event Details
EVENT DETAILS
Thursday, May 7, 2020
09:00 – 09:30 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:30 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:30 (Greece/Cyprus)
Speaker: Speaker: Emmanouil Dermitzakis
Emmanouil (Manolis) Dermitzakis is Professor of Genetics in the Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, University of Geneva Medical School, Director of the Health 2030 Genome Center and Chairman of the National Council for Research, Technology and Innovation in Greece. He is member of the executive boards of the Institute of Genetics and Genomics in Geneva (iGE3), vice-chair of the Swiss Personalized Health Network Genomics Task Force, and also member of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. He obtained his B.Sc. (1995) and M.Sc. (1997) from the University of Crete (Greece) and his PhD in 2001 from the Pennsylvania State University in the USA. His post-doctoral work was at the University of Geneva Medical School. He previously was a Senior Investigator at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge. He was elected EMBO member in 2014, recipient of the 2017 Bodossakis science award and has been named Highly Cited Researcher by ISI every year from 2014 onwards. He also served as president of the World Hellenic Biomedical Association (2014-2015). His research focuses on the genetic causes of human disease. He has had leading roles in the ENCODE, Mouse Genome Sequencing, the International HapMap, the 1000 genomes and GTEx projects. He has served in the Board of scientific journals such as Science, eLIFE, PLoS Genetics and he is currently the Chief Editor of Frontiers in Genetics. |
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Moderator: Aristos Doxiadis
Aristos Doxiadis is a pioneer of private equity in Greece. In his 23 years as investment manager, he has invested in technology startups (with Openfund), and in growth companies across a wide range of industries, from table grapes and health clubs to book logistics and banking software (with Commercial Capital and Eikon Capital). He has participated in the boards of about fifteen companies and taken an active executive role in some of those. Aristos is also a well-known analyst of the Greek economy and society, and has extensive experience in management consulting and in public policy advice. He holds a BA in Social Studies (Harvard), and an MSc in Economics (Birkbeck College, London). |
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Time
May 7, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm(GMT-11:00)
Location
Online
18may12:00 pm12:30 pmWebcast: Covid-19 Antibody DetectionA discussion with Leonidas Alexopoulos
Event Details
Click the button to register for the event: Register The video recording
Event Details
Click the button to register for the event: Register
The video recording of the event is available here.
EVENT DETAILS
Monday, May 18, 2020
09:00 – 09:30 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:30 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:30 (Greece/Cyprus)
Speaker: Leonidas Alexopoulos, Founder of Protavio Leonidas Alexopoulos is an associate professor at the National Technical University of Athens, director of the Systems Bioengineering Group, and a biotech entrepreneur. He studied at Duke, MIT, and Harvard Medical School. His research combines mathematical modeling of biological systems with novel experimental technologies for early drug and biomarker discovery and has received several awards. He co-founded Protavio, a successful biomarker discovery-to-production biotech startup that operates with a lean startup model and brings a novel multiplexing technology to pharmaceutical and tobacco industries. He is a member of Hellenic Biocluster and MIT EF Greece and his vision is to empower translational research from academia to entrepreneurship.
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Moderator: George Petrocheilos, General Partner at Camden Partners Nexus
George Petrocheilos is a Managing Partner at Nexus Management, our venture capital strategy, which he co-founded in 2016. He makes investments in early-stage biomedical technology companies founded by world-renowned scientist-entrepreneurs. He currently serves on the Boards of Spiral Therapeutics, MindX, Sisu Global Health, Inc., Ashvattha Therapeutics, and WindMIL Therapeutics. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the family-owned PETKA S.A., a construction & development company headquartered in Athens, Greece. George currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Johns Hopkins Center for Financial Economics. He also serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of the Halcyon Incubator in Washington D.C. and the MIT Enterprise Forum. George’s honors include Baltimore Business Journal’s 2019 ‘Tech 10’ leaders in Maryland, BBJ’s 2013 “40 Under 40 Business Leaders” and The Hill’s 2013 “Washington D.C. Rising Stars”, among others. George earned a B.A. degree in Financial Economics from the Johns Hopkins University. |
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May 18, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm(GMT-11:00)
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Online
26may12:00 pm12:30 pmWebcast: Cyber-Security ChallengesA discussion with Alex Stamos
Event Details
The video recording of this event is available here. Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of
Event Details
The video recording of this event is available here.
EVENT DETAILS
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
09:00 – 09:30 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:30 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:30 (Greece/Cyprus)
Introductory remarks by Gregory Dimitriadis, Secretary General for International Economic Affairs, Greek Foreign Ministry.
Speaker: Alex Stamos, Director, Stanford Internet Observatory, Former Chief Security Officer, Facebook and Yahoo Alex Stamos is working to improve the security and safety of the Internet through teaching and research as the Director of the Stanford Internet Observatory. He has served as Chief Security Officer at Facebook and Yahoo and was a co-founder of iSEC Partners. Alex has investigated and responded to several historical events and has been called the “Forrest Gump of InfoSec” by friends. He is working on election security as a member of the Annan Commission on Elections and Democracy and advising NATO’s Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. He has spoken on six continents, testified in Congress, served as an expert witness for the wrongly accused, earned a BSEE from UC Berkeley and holds five patents. |
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Moderated by: Michail Bletsas, Director of Computing / Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab
Michail Bletsas is a Research Scientist and the Director of Computing at MIT’s Media Lab. He was a member of the core technical and design team for the “One Laptop Per Child” initiative which created OLPC’s pioneering, award-winning “XO” laptop. He has been involved with startups in many diverse capacities: cofounder, advisor, director, investor, consultant. Over the years, he has advised governments around technology policy issues and provided expert opinion in technical matters to top-level officials. He has implemented broadband access networks using cutting-edge technologies including one of the earliest ADSL testbeds and various wireless technologies. Mr. Bletsas has been a frequent keynote speaker in international conferences and has been engaged in many civic activities. |
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Time
May 26, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm(GMT-11:00)
Location
Online
June 2020
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here. Tuesday June 17, 2020
Event Details
Tuesday June 17, 2020
9:00 – 10:00 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 1:00 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:30 (Greece/Cyprus)
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, hosts events to educate those in the US about technology innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece, and offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. While our events are typically held in Boston, due to the covid-19 situation we are hosting a series of webcasts in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
Responses to Unanswered Questions from the Event:
Theoharis Theoharides: Studies have identified natural molecules (some from Greek flora) blocking corona virus binding and the subsequent release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, why isn’t the industry interested in this?
Industry is definitely interested and that is reflected in the fact that there are several hundred clinical protocols being pursued (repurposed drugs, direct antivirals, antibodies, convalescent plasma and vaccines). Furthermore, industry would have no aversion to natural compounds if the safety-efficacy criteria were met. If such compounds have been widely reported in credible journals, it is safe to assume that scientists in industry are not convinced, based on whatever data are published, that such compounds will work. Otherwise they would be investigating them right now.
Asimina Kazakidi (Biomedical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, UK): Thank you for the excellent discussion. What is your advice for faculty in UK/US Universities who think to return to Greece?
Always a difficult question. There is no doubt that in several places in Greece doing science is difficult, but there are also several exceptions (IMBB, Fleming, etc). If you find a good position in those you may wish to consider seriously going back. It does seem that these days there is an effort to “upgrade” science in Greece.
Elias Chatzoudis: Ακούγεται ότι η ομάδα αίματος παίζει κάποιο ρόλο. πχ όσοι έχουν ομάδα αίματος Ο+ θεωρούνται οι “τυχεροί”. Ισχύει αυτό [Translation: It sounds like blood type plays a role. For example, those who have O+ blood type are considered “lucky”. Is this true?]
In a recent study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, it appears that gene variants in two regions of the human genome are associated with the degree of severity of COVID-19. These two regions carry many interesting genes, including one that determines blood type. The findings suggest that people with blood type A face a 50 percent greater risk of needing oxygen support or a ventilator should they become infected, but people with blood type O appear to have about a 50 percent reduced risk of severe COVID-19. It’s an interesting finding but still very preliminary.
Marios Sardis: Excellent conversation and very informative! Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us. Would you at any point be interested to support teams of Greeks who want to pursue ideas in the US?
We would be happy to do so.
Gregory Stephanopoulos: On Universities: High quality Universities are a necessary (not sufficient) condition of economic development. Greece has a deficit here. How does it deal with it?
To date the only positive steps taken have been the establishment of certain high quality research institutes but nowhere enough to have a transformative impact on the existing structures. Greece needs to appreciate the value of basic research and furthermore the government needs to define a science strategy for the country. It takes, talent, money and time. That is what we have been arguing for some time.
Dr. Papadopoulos also shared an excerpt from his contributions in “Biotechnology in the time of Covid-19” [Rosetta Books], edited by Dr. Jeremy Levin.
Speaker: Stelios Papadopoulos, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board, Biogen Inc. Following a long career on Wall Street as an equity analyst and investment banker, Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos joined Biogen’s Board of Directors in 2008 and was appointed as Chairman in June 2014. Dr. Papadopoulos is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Exelixis, Inc., an oncology-focused biopharma company that he co-founded in 1994. He is also the Chairman of Regulus Therapeutics, Inc., a life sciences company focusing on microRNA. With Dr. Artavanis-Tsakonas, among others, in addition to Exelixis, he co-founded Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cellzome, Inc. He served as board member and Chairman of both companies until their respective acquisitions by Hoffman-La Roche in 2011 (Anadys) and GlaxoSmithKline in 2012 (Cellzome). In the not-for-profit sector, Dr. Papadopoulos co-founded Fondation Santé with Dr. Artavanis-Tsakonas in 2000 and has served since then as its Chairman. He is also a member of the Board of Visitors of Duke Medicine and a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Duke Institute for Health Innovation. Dr. Papadopoulos holds an MS in physics, a PhD in biophysics and an MBA in finance, all from New York University. Before coming to Wall Street in 1985, Dr. Papadopoulos was on the faculty of the Department of Cell Biology at New York University School of Medicine. |
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Speaker: Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, Professor Emeritus of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School; Professeur honoraire au Collège de France President, Fondation Santé
Dr. Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard and Professeur honoraire au Collège de France. His current research covers topics in the areas of cellular signaling, developmental biology and genetics. From 2012 to March of 2017 he was the Chief Scientific Officer for Biogen. He joined the Department of Cell Biology at the Harvard Medical School in 1998 and was the founding Director of the Developmental and Regenerative Biology Program at Harvard. From 1999-2007 he was also the Kurt J. Isselbacher/Peter D. Schwartz Professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. In 1998 he was elected Professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair of Biology and Genetics of Development. He is the Founding Director of the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology at Institut Curie, Paris while he previously served as Professor at the Department of Biology and the Department of Cell Biology and as the Director of the Biological Sciences Division at Yale University. Dr. Artavanis-Tsakonas is a co-founder of the biotechnology companies Exelixis, Cellzome, and Anadys. He is also the president and co-founder of the philanthropic organization Fondation Santé, which supports biomedical research and educational initiatives in Greece. |
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Moderator: Stratos Efthymiou, Consul General of Greece in Boston
Stratos Efthymiou is a career diplomat, currently serving as the Consul General of Greece in Boston. He holds a Master (DEA) from Sciences-Po, Paris and a BA in International Relations from Panteion University. He has previously served at the Greek Embassies in Ankara and Moscow and as Spokesperson and Deputy Spokesperson of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs which he joined in 2004. He speaks English, French, Spanish, German, Russian and Turkish. |
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Time
June 17, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm(GMT-11:00)
Location
Online
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here. Tuesday June 23, 2020
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here.
Tuesday June 23, 2020
09:00 – 09:30 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:30 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:30 (Greece/Cyprus)
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, hosts events to educate those in the US about technology innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece, and offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. While our events are typically held in Boston, due to the covid-19 situation we are hosting a series of webcasts in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
Speaker: Manolis Kellis, Ph.D., Professor, Computer Science, MIT Manolis Kellis , Ph.D., is Professor of Computer Science at MIT, a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a Principal Investigator of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, and the Head of the MIT Computational Biology Group (compbio.mit.edu). His research is dissecting the mechanisms underlying human disease, using genetics, genomics, epigenomics, gene regulation, and high-throughput experiments, with broad implications for medicine and human health Professor Kellis’ work is revolutionizing our understanding of the human genome and human disease, across Alzheimer’s, obesity, schizophrenia, heart disorders, and cancer. He has developed and disseminated some of the most widely-used techniques and resources in genomics. He has more than 220 publications with more than 90,000 citations, and has received multiple scientific awards, including the US Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) by President Barack Obama. He has led several large-scale genomics projects, including the Roadmap Epigenomics project, the ENCODE project, the Genotype Tissue-Expression (GTEx) project, and comparative genomics projects in mammals, flies, and yeasts. He lived in Greece and France before moving to the US, and he has studied and conducted research at MIT, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, and the Cold Spring Harbor Lab.
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Moderator: Katia Catherine Karalis, MD, PhD, Executive Director for Biology, RGC, Regeneron, Inc.
Dr. Karalis is trained in genetics and experimental endocrinology with broad experience and contributions in basic and translational research as well as strategic, scientific and managerial leadership of multidisciplinary teams in academic and industry settings. The focus of her interest is in the understanding how distrurbed homeostasis of the organism such as when exposed to external or internal challneges, drives disease mechanisms and how we can overcome the insults with new therapeutics.She has solid experience in inflammatory diseases, immune response, stress responses, metabolism, organoids, and organ chip technology. At Emulate based on their Organs-on-Chips technology platform, as the EVP of Research she has been leading the team to develop disease models in micro-engineered environments and accurately understand how different diseases, medicines, chemicals and foods affect us and elucidate mechanisms driving the spectrum of individual’ responses. Models developed by the team are commercialized by Emulate and employed by a number of academic and industry groups around the world. Prior to joining Emulate she was heading the Developmental Biology Section at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, working on experimental models of human diseases with focus on intestinal inflamation, metabolism and tissue regeneration. She is affiliated faculty at the BSRC Alexander Fleming in Greece and Harvard Medical School, where she was Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and faculty at the Division of Endocrinology of Children’s Hospital. She has been a Helmholtz International fellow and a Visiting Scholar at Wyss Institute Harvard Medical School. She joins the Regeneron Genetics Center to lead the Biology group for the understanding of new mechanisms for genetic inflammatory, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases and development of new drugs for human patients. |
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June 23, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm(GMT-11:00)
Location
Online
September 2020
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here. Thursday, September 10, 2020
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here.
Thursday, September 10, 2020
9:00 – 9:45 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:45 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:45 (Athens/Nicosia)
- Aimilios Chalamandaris, Innoetics
- Conno Christou, Avocarrot
- Cosma Pabouctsidis, Roboteq
- George Sidiropoulos, Think Silicon
- Moderator: Myrto Papathanou, Metavallon
From the early successes of Greek startups like Athena Semiconductors (acquired by Broadcom) and BugSense (acquired by Splunk) to the latest $360M acquisition of InstaShop by Delivery Hero last week, the Greek startup community is realizing the viability of its businesses to reach strong exits in the international markets. Exits don’t happen overnight, however, and the journey is one of highs and lows. Join us as we hear from a group of Greek entrepreneurs who have navigated the inevitable challenges and thrills of growing a startup in order to ultimately sell their businesses.
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece hosts events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. While our events are typically held in Boston, due to Covid-19 we are instead hosting a webcast series in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
George Sidiropoulos, Think Silicon
George Sidiropoulos is a technical innovator and co-founder of Think Silicon. He started his engineering career at Atmel as an ASIC designer, involved in many SoC designs that reached the wifi and the VoIP markets. He continued as an ASIC designer at Think Silicon developing ultra-low power GPUs before moving to the business side. As the CEO of Think Silicon, he was responsible for corporate strategy, business development, funding, sales and IPR. Think Silicon was acquired by Applied Materials and George is fighting to maintain his startup mentality in order to grow the business and the team aggressively. |
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Conno Christou, Avocarrot
Conno Christou studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. After his studies in 2013, he co-founded Avocarrot along with 3 other college friends in London, and the following year they expanded to San Francisco. Among other awards, Avocarrot was voted as one of the 8 most promising startups worldwide (excl USA) by Google for Entrepreneurs, and was awarded as ‘The Next Big Thing’ at ad:tech – the biggest advertising technology event in the world. Avocarrot raised $3 million from investors in the US, UK and Greece. In 2016 they joined Endeavor global network, and later in the year, the company was acquired by Glispa Global Group for a reported $20 million. Conno served as the Vice President of Innovation in the mother company for 4 years. |
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Aimilios Chalamandaris, Innoetics
Aimilios Chalamandaris was a co-founder and CEO of Innoetics. He holds a BA and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the NTUA, as well as a master’s degree in Telecommunications and Digital Signal Processing from the Imperial College of London. He is one of the founding members of the team which developed one of the world’s leading synthetic speech technologies. He has led to the establishment of Innoetics as one of the most important companies of synthetic speech internationally, culminating in its acquisition by Samsung Electronics in 2017. Today Aimilios is the Head of R&D at Samsung Electronics Greece, and he is a big supporter of the Greek startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Since 2020 he is honored to be also serving as a member of the National Council for Research and Innovation, the supreme advisory body for the formulation and implementation of the national policy for Research, Technology and Innovation in Greece. |
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Moderator: Myrto Papathanou, Metavallon
Myrto Papathanou is a Founding Partner at Metavallon VC, a $35M venture capital fund investing in early stage technology companies stemming from Greece. She has 15 years of experience in the fields of finance and entrepreneurship and has been involved in technology companies as a founder, mentor, investor and board member. Before co-founding Metavallon VC, she served as Group CFO and Head of Corporate Development at EFA Ventures. Since 2019 she is part of the Advisory Board of WomenOnTop promoting women’s inclusion and representation in business. In 2016 she was recognized as ‘Leader of the Year’ by Linkage Greece in appreciation of her extraordinary leadership and contribution to the progress of business and society. In 2019 she became a Kauffman Fellow, the first from Greece. In 2020 she was included in Fortune Greece’s 40 under 40 list. Myrto is an economist from City University, with an MSc in Finance from Imperial College and an MBA from INSEAD. |
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Cosma Pabouctsidis, Roboteq
Cosma Pabouctsidis was born in Switzerland in 1959 to Greek parents who migrated from Serres. He did all his studies in Geneva and got his Electronics Engineering Diploma in 1978. At age 23, Cosma moved to the US, where he stayed 21 years before returning to Switzerland in 2004. In the US, Cosma worked in two large semiconductor corporations and did two successful startups. Roboteq is the second company he founded. It started it in 2002 as a side project while he was employed at a large electronics chip maker, and ultimately became a serious venture and his full-time job around 2010. Roboteq, which makes motion control, navigation sensors and power management solutions for mobile robots, was acquired by Japan’s Nidec Corporation in 2019. |
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Time
September 10, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm EDT(GMT-11:00)
Location
Online
October 2020
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here. Thursday, October
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here.
Thursday, October 8, 2020
9:00 – 9:45 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:45 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:45 (Athens/Nicosia)
- Introduction: Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments-Research, Innovation and Technology, Hellenic Republic
- George Varvarelis, Augmenta
- Sotiris Bantas, Centaur
- Moderator: Apostolos Klontzaris, Flagship Pioneering
Agriculture, an industry that goes back thousands of years, has traditionally been a key sector of the Greek economy. Today, Greek startups are using innovations in technology to improve crop productivity and post-harvest quality, thereby opening up opportunities for the Greek economy to diversify beyond services and tourism. We will hear from two venture-backed startups that were started in Volos, Greece. The discussion will open with an introduction by Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Research & Technology of Greece, who will discuss where Greece stands today in terms of research and innovation, and where it is heading.
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece hosts events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. While our events are typically held in Boston, due to Covid-19 we are instead hosting a webcast series in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments-Research, Innovation and Technology, Hellenic Republic
Dr. Christos Dimas is the Deputy Minister for Development and Investments in charge of Research and Technology. He is a lawyer and Member of the Hellenic Parliament. Before entering politics, he worked in the private sector as a business consultant for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He graduated from the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Queen Mary University in London. He completed his Masters 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. |
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George Varvarelis, Augmenta
George Varvarelis is the founder & CEO of Augmenta. He was a Ph.D. candidate in Computer and Embedded Systems Engineering while working on his family farm for 3 years when he decided to leave everything behind and start creating solutions that help feed the growing world. He has an academic and professional background in computer vision and deep learning. His life mission is to connect the dots of the global agriculture ecosystem and augment the capacity of the arable land. |
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Sotiris Bantas, Centaur
Sotiris Bantas is the founder and CEO of Centaur Analytics, a company passionate about perfecting global food quality, enabling abundance and reducing waste. Centaur connects and digitizes the supply chain by deploying cognitive technologies and Internet-of-Things solutions. Sotiris has a Ph.D. in Microelectronics and a Degree in Electrical Engineering, both from the National Technical University of Athens. |
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Fotis Fotiadis, Better Origin
Fotis Fotiadis, Co-Founder and CEO of Better Origin, a UK-based startup tackling food waste through insect biomass conversion, is pioneering the transformation of organic waste into high-quality animal feed and human food. He holds an MPhil in Sustainable Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sussex. |
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Moderator: Apostolos Klontzaris, Flagship Pioneering
Apostolos is a growth-minded executive currently in his second year as Senior Principal in Flagship Pioneering (a reputable venture fund in Boston MA) following approximately 5 years as a General Manager of Bayer Hellas (for the agricultural division), 10 years in M&A (both in Bayer AG and Syngenta AG) with a strong track record (total deals > €2bn) and approximately four years in Portfolio & Product lifecycle management. He combines strong business, science and financial academic background (BSc., MSc. & MBA). His strong belief is that “doubt is a stranger to the mindset of opportunity” and thus one should strive for the aphorism that is commonly heard in the business world “explore and take any opportunity you can!”. Apostolos is an Athenian, married with two kids, speaks four languages, is a keen chess player and a recognized athlete striving for a healthy mind in a healthy body. |
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Time
October 8, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm EDT(GMT-11:00)
Location
Online
November 2020
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here. Thursday, November
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
9:00 – 9:45 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:45 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:45 (Athens/Nicosia)
- George Bousis, Raise
- Moderator: Nikos Bonatsos, General Catalyst
Retail has seen dramatic shifts over the last few years, with the advent of technology and e-commerce, but nothing has upended it more than Covid, which has led to massive changes, both temporary and permanent. George Bousis will discuss the impact on his company, Raise, which is the largest gift card exchange and mobile prepaid wallet in the world. The discussion will be moderated by Nikos Bonatsos from General Catalyst, who is on the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Innovation Network.
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece hosts events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. While our events are typically held in Boston, due to Covid-19 we are instead hosting a webcast series in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
George Bousis, Raise
George D Bousis began his career at the age of 14 as a professional gamer for a variety of internationally recognized esports organizations. Following the end of his run in competitive esports, he began working at his family-owned business, Cermak Fresh Market which today is one of the largest independent grocers in the Midwest. After a successful tenure in various leadership roles, George went on to chase his entrepreneurial dream, and soon after founded Raise, a leading retail payments, and gift card company, that today is the largest direct-to-consumer seller of gift cards in the world. Since 2013, Raise has been globally recognized as one of the fastest-growing and transformative e-commerce companies. Under George’s leadership, Raise has generated nearly $4 billion in transactions and saved its millions of customers over $200 million to date. In addition, George has attracted more than $147 million in private funding from leading global investors including Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, PayPal, and a mix of family offices. Most recently, George returned to his roots and love for gaming by founding Oath Gaming – a professional esports organization focused on the development of experiential gaming lounges and arenas across the United States. The organization also has multiple-professional esports teams and content creators signed to its name. George has invested and closely advises over 40 plus startups where he enjoys working closely with founders and their management teams on their vision and product. Alongside his private investments, he’s most proud of his charitable works and foundation. George is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), Leadership 100, a Major Contributor to FWD.us, a recipient of Chicago Business 20 in their 20’s, a three-time recipient of the Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs List, and an esteemed honoree of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List. |
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Moderator: Nikos Bonatsos, General Catalyst
Niko Bonatsos is a managing director at General Catalyst, a venture capital firm with approximately $5 billion in total capital raised. Working from the firm’s San Francisco Bay Area offices, Niko focuses his investment strategy on finding first-time technology founders with strong product instincts, a robust appetite for learning, and a desire to create innovations with the potential to benefit millions. In his nine years with GC, Niko has been instrumental in the firm’s investments in Atrium, Audius, Cover, Hive, HubHaus, ClassDojo, Paribus (acquired by CapitalOne), Sleeper, and Snap (NYSE: SNAP) among others. Prior to joining General Catalyst, Niko attended Stanford University as a Fulbright Scholar earning an MS in Management Science and Engineering. He has studied in several countries earning additional degrees in Manufacturing Engineering & Management and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and worked as a part of the R&D team for Yokogawa Electric Corporation in Japan. |
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
November 12, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm(GMT-11:00)
Location
Online
December 2020
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here.
Event Details
The video recording of the event can be found here.
Thursday, December 10, 2020
9:00 – 9:30 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 12:30 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 19:30 (Athens/Nicosia)
- Yorgos Koutsoyannopoulos , Co-Founder/Former CEO, Helic
- Vic Kulkarni , Vice President, Marketing & Chief Strategist, Ansys Semiconductor BU
- Moderated by Dora Varvarigou, NTUA Professor (Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science) and Chairwoman of the Board of the Water Utility in Athens
Greece has pushed through the first wave of startups in IT, enabled by low barriers to entry, and now is shifting toward larger opportunities in deep tech. Commercializing university research offers the potential for greater returns, as demonstrated by top US universities, but the path is longer and less clear. Building a strong business from core technology is a massive challenge; and driving it to exit is even harder. Yorgos Koutsoyannopoulos, Co-Founder/Former CEO of Helic will discuss its formation out of the National Technical University of Athens to address the issue of electromagnetic crosstalk caused by closer proximity of high-frequency circuits. Vic Kulkarni, Vice President at Ansys, will discuss their reasons for acquiring Helic and expanding its Research and Development center in Athens, with a stated goal of increasing employment over 2-3 years from 50 to 200, mostly scientists and engineers.
Yorgos Koutsoyannopoulos, Helic
Dr. Yorgos Koutsoyannopoulos is Vice President of R&D at Ansys, Inc., the global leader of pervasive simulation technologies, member of S&P500 and Nasdaq-100. Based in San Jose, California, Yorgos is in charge of Ansys global semiconductor electromagnetic solutions, developed by a world-class group of scientists in Athens. Prior to Ansys and since 2000, Yorgos led as CEO Helic, Inc., a simulation software company that won as customers 15 out of the top 20 global semiconductor players for multiple years. Helic was a pioneer high-tech startup, the first to raise venture-capital financing in Greece, successfully acquired by Ansys in January 2019. Yorgos earned both his diploma and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the NTUA in 1995 and 1999 respectively and has attended executive courses in Harvard and London Business Schools in leadership and marketing. |
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Vic Kulkarni, Ansys Semiconductor BU
Vic Kulkarni is Vice President, Strategy, Ansys Electronics & Semiconductor Business Unit, San Jose. CA. Vic is responsible for steering the business, technology, go-to-market and product strategy, connecting the dots from chip-package-system design solutions with ANSYS multi-physics simulation technology to address challenges faced by multiple verticals, including 5G, AI, HPC, hardware security, Aero-Defense, mobile and autonomous. He drives strategic customer executive relationships and mergers-acquisitions with Ansys leadership team. Prior to merging with Ansys, Vic was a co-founder, President and CEO of Sequence Design focused on EDA solutions for power and energy efficient chip designs. He has held engineering and senior management positions in a number of leading companies in the Silicon Valley over several years. Vic has a MSEE in Solid State Electronics from University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. In 2007 the University honored him with the “Distinguished Alumnus Award. He has a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. |
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Moderator: Dora Varvarigou, NTUA Professor (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and Chairwoman of the Board of the Water Utility in Athens
Theodora Varvarigou is a professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). She received the B. Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from NTUA in 1988, the MS degrees in Electrical Engineering (1989) and in Computer Science (1991) from Stanford University, California. She received her Ph.D. degree from Stanford University as well in 1991. She has worked as a researcher at AT&T Bell Labs, USA and as an Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece. Prof. Varvarigou has great experience in cutting edge technologies, such as Cloud computing, multimedia content processing, semantic web, social networking technologies etc. She has published more than 200 papers in leading international journals, conferences and books. She has participated and co-ordinated numerous EC projects. From 2008-2012, she held the chair of the postgraduate program “Engineering Economic Systems” of NTUA. Since June 2019 she was elected as the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of EYDAP. |
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, was created to empower technology-based startups from Greece and Cyprus with a bridge to the U.S. through pitching and networking opportunities. Our dedicated group from the tech startup ecosystems in Boston and Athens organizes events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. Our CEO group meets monthly to discuss common challenges. Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community.
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
December 10, 2020 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
January 2021
14jan12:00 pm1:00 pmWebcast: Why build a Startup in Greece? 300 Million Reasons under the Sun
Event Details
The video recording can be watched
Event Details
The video recording can be watched here.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
9:00 – 10:00 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 13:00 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 20:00 (Athens/Nicosia)
- Apostolos Apostolakis, VentureFriends VC
- Alexandra Choli, Metavallon VC
- Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou, Velocity Partners VC
- Katerina Pramatari, Unifund VC
- George Tziralis, Marathon VC
- Marco Veremis, Big Pi VC
- Moderated by: Dean Dimizas, Cambridge Associates
Greece is not simply the land of sunshine and holidays. With the European Investment Fund enabling a €300 million investment in Greek startups, opportunities are taking off in tech entrepreneurship. Six venture capitalists investing in Greek startups will share their experiences in a fast-paced roundtable, demonstrating the opportunity for Greece to create jobs and demonstrating the opportunity for Greece to create jobs and become a regional technology hub supporting successful startups and leading to more and larger exits such as the latest ones of Instashop and Softomotive. Assuming work-from-home remains common post-Covid, Greece could attract non-Greeks as well, which would accelerate the learning curve of the local ecosystem.
Apostolos Apostolakis, VentureFriends
Apostolos Apostolakis is an entrepreneur-turned-investor in the technology sector. He began his internet career by cofounding e-shop.gr, the first e-tailer in Greece. Subsequently he was an early investor and on the board of Beat until the sale of the company to Daimler, a Co-Founder at e-food.gr, that exited to DeliveryHero, and a Co-founder at doctoranytime. As an angel investor, Apostolos has invested in many startups in Europe and the US including Spotahome, Booksy, Packhelp and Shift. In 2015 he cofounded Venturefriends, a Venture capital fund that has raised 70 mil euros over two funds. VentureFriends invests at seed stage software startups mainly in the B2C and SaaS space. VentureFriends has supported 25+ startups including Blueground, Instashop, Spotawheel and Plum. |
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Alexandra Choli, Metavallon
Alexandra Choli is a Founding Partner at Metavallon VC, a venture capital fund investing in very early stage technology companies in Greece and Europe. She is an experienced professional in the fields of operations, business development and strategy, an avid entrepreneur and founder of both impact and mainstream ventures, and an active angel and institutional investor in Greece and internationally. |
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Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou, Velocity Partners
Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou is an entrepreneur and investor who works at the intersection of technology culture and new media. He serves as Co-Founder and General Partner at Velocity.Partners, a pre-seed and seed Venture Capital Fund active in Greece and SEE. He is best known as the Founder and Curator of TEDxAthens, the most impactful platform for ideas, dialogue and talks in Greece. Prior to his role at Velocity.Partners, Dimitris co-founded Found.ation (a leading startup acceleration and innovation hub in the Balkans), TechTalent School (a coding school) and TechTalent Pool (a recruiting SaaS for developers). From 2011 to 2013, Dimitris served as a Referrer for pre-seed investment firm HackFwd, leading its pipeline in Greece and Southeast Europe. DKG holds a Law degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury and an LLM (Master of Laws) in Computer and Communications Law from the Queen Mary University of London. He is a 2X alumnus of U.S. Department of State “International Visitor Leadership Program”, classes of 2013 and 2017, the latter under the prestigious “Gold Stars” program, and a member of the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum. Dimitris regularly speaks on the topics of entrepreneurship, technology, design thinking, digital storytelling and leadership. |
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Katerina Pramatari, UniFund
Katerina Pramatari is founding Partner at Uni.Fund, a Greek VC fund of €30M in the tech-transfer and innovation window of Equifund that invests in start-ups and spin-offs at pre-seed and seed stage, supporting the growth of new ventures and leveraging the hidden potential that exists in the Greek Universities, R&D and Tech Space. Katerina has extensive entrepreneurial experience and has been the founder of two technology start-ups. She also serves as Associate Professor at the Department of Management Science and Technology of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and is among the top European experts/academics in the fields of Internet-of-Things (IoT), retail and business analytics. She is a key founder of ACEin, a leading University accelerator that has been awarded for bridging the corporate world with University start-ups. Over the last years she has supported more than 300 teams in the setup of their own ventures and has been among the initiators and supporters of various activities fostering youth entrepreneurship. |
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George Tziralis, Marathon
Back in 2007, I was trying to turn my Ph.D. research into a startup and wondered if there were other like-minded people in my home country. I decided to look for them by staging a small event for entrepreneurs. A dozen founders showed up. It became a monthly thing. Over time it attracted dozens and then hundreds, an entrepreneurial community was born. We had the numbers but no matter how hard we worked, how timely our ideas were, they failed. Mine failed as well, I know how it feels. I took a step back and tried to work out why. The reasons that emerged were twofold: a profound lack of capital and relevant advice. True founders build; they start from a deep belief, focus on what they have, and try to make the best out of it. My intuition told me that my community peers could do great things. There were makers, builders, tech enthusiasts. It was my deeply-held belief that they could build successful companies. I had to do whatever it took to make this happen. In my first fund, we proved that a $10m technology company could be built in Greece. In my second, we raised that bar to $100m and it will be cleared. With Marathon, we aim higher again. My journey feels too short to have been told this many times that something “cannot be done.” There are many good reasons for this to be the case. “It has never happened here before” is not one of them. I like being early and starting small. You help things take shape. I also like working with people who want things as much as I do. You can usually tell straight away if the desire is there. If it is, it will sustain you. Venture is beautiful. Amid rejections and failures, you get to watch the best perform. Someone’s life’s work unfolds in front of you, getting them a bit further makes the journey worth it. |
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Marco Veremis, Big Pi
Marco Veremis is Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Upstream and Partner at BigPi Venture Capital. He holds a BA from the University of Warwick and an MPhil from Oxford University. 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, along with Alex Vratskides, co-founded Upstream. Since then, Upstream has evolved into a leading global technology company within the field of mobile commerce, conducting business in over 45 markets. Marco served as Upstream’s CEO until June 2017, and today is its Executive Chairman of the Board, while also a partner at BigPi Venture Capital. Marco is an active angel investor and member of the board in technology companies such as Persado, Workable and Hellas Direct. In parallel, Marco is the President of SEN/Junior Achievement Greece and a Board member of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (ΙΟΒΕ), of Endeavor and of the research and policy institute diaNEOsis. Marco has been awarded with the EY Greek “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, in 2013. |
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Moderator: Dean Dimizas, Cambridge Associates
Dean Dimizas is a Chief Investment Officer at CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ outsourced investment office. In his role as Chief Investment Officer, Dean constructs and manages portfolios for nonprofit institutions and families globally. Typically these clients have significant exposure to alternative assets. In addition to managing client portfolios, Dean and his team allocate a meaningful part of their time on manager research, sourcing and evaluating new managers across all asset classes for our clients’ portfolios. Prior to joining Cambridge Associates in 2004, Dean worked as an investment banking summer associate with Goldman Sachs in London while attending business school. Previously he worked as an Associate Director for four years at EFG Telesis Finance, a leading investment bank in Greece. In this role, he advised large corporate clients on a wide range of corporate finance transactions. Education CFA Charterholder MBA, Harvard Business School BS in Business Administration, American College of Greece (Deree College) |
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, was created to empower technology-based startups from Greece and Cyprus with a bridge to the U.S. through pitching and networking opportunities. Our dedicated group from the tech startup ecosystems in Boston and Athens organizes events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. Our CEO group meets monthly to discuss common challenges. Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community.
While our events are typically held in Boston, due to Covid-19 we are instead hosting a webcast series in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end.
If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
January 14, 2021 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
February 2021
11feb12:00 pm1:00 pmWebcast: Vir Biotechnology Tackling Infectious Disease
Event Details
The video is available
Event Details
The video is available here.
Thursday, February 11, 2021
9:00 – 10:00 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 13:00 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 20:00 (Athens/Nicosia)
- Dr. George Scangos, CEO, Vir Biotechnology & Former CEO, Biogen
- Moderated by: Anna Protopapas CEO Mersana Therapeutics
We’ll hear from Dr. George Scangos, CEO of Vir Biotechnology, about how Vir combines immunologic insights with cutting-edge technologies to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases, one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Vir is tackling the world’s largest and most serious infectious diseases, infections that are evasive, challenging, or insufficiently addressed by current approaches, including hepatitis B, influenza A, SARS-CoV-2, HIV, and tuberculosis.
Dr. George Scangos, CEO, Vir Biotechnology & Former CEO, Biogen
George Scangos, Ph.D., is President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors of Vir Biotechnology. From July 2010 to December 2016, Dr. Scangos served as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors of Biogen Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious diseases. From October 1996 to July 2010, Dr. Scangos served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Exelixis, Inc., a drug discovery and development company. From 1993 to 1996, Dr. Scangos served as President of Bayer Biotechnology, where he was responsible for research, business development, process development, manufacturing, engineering and quality assurance of Bayer Biotechnology’s biological products. Before joining Bayer Biotechnology in 1987, Dr. Scangos was a Professor of Biology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Scangos has served as a member of the board of directors of various publicly traded companies, including: Exelixis, Inc., since 1996; Agilent Technologies, Inc., a life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical analysis company, since 2014; and Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from 2003 to 2010. Dr. Scangos served as Chair of PhRMA in 2016, and as the Chair of the California Healthcare Institute in 2010. He was a member of the board of directors of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development from 2006 until 2010. Dr. Scangos currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Cornell University and the Board of Overseers of the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Scangos received his B.A. in Biology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts. |
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Moderator: Anna Protopapas, CEO Mersana Therapeutics
Anna Protopapas joined Mersana in March 2015, bringing a substantial track record of executive leadership and business experience in the biotech industry. Prior to Mersana, Anna was President of Millennium, where she led Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s $1.3 billion oncology business. Anna also served as the Executive Vice President of Global Business Development for Takeda Pharmaceuticals where she oversaw global acquisitions, partnering, licensing, and venture investing. In this role, she led Takeda’s $12 billion acquisition of Nycomed, a critical step in the company’s globalization. Anna was a member of Takeda’s executive committee and was elected a corporate officer in 2011. Earlier in her career, Anna served as an executive officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and served in various senior leadership positions, playing an integral role in the company’s transformation from a genomics start-up to a fully integrated oncology leader. She was instrumental in the sale of Millennium to Takeda for $8.8 billion. Anna also served on the board of directors of Ariad Pharmaceuticals from May 2015 to February 2017, when it was sold to Takeda for $5.2 billion, and served on the board of Bioverativ from January 2017 to January 2018, when it was sold to Sanofi for $11.6 billion. She currently serves on the board of directors of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Anna earned her B.S. in Science and Engineering from Princeton University, M.S. in Chemical Engineering practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business. |
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, was created to empower technology-based startups from Greece and Cyprus with a bridge to the U.S. through pitching and networking opportunities. Our dedicated group from the tech startup ecosystems in Boston and Athens organizes events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. Our CEO group meets monthly to discuss common challenges. Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community.
While our events are typically held in Boston, due to Covid-19 we are instead hosting a webcast series in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end.
If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
February 11, 2021 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
March 2021
Event Details
Innovative Greeks around the world join forces. SEV and Endeavor Greece invite you to attend the global digital Conference “Innovative Greeks”, on 2
Event Details
Innovative Greeks around the world join forces.
SEV and Endeavor Greece invite you to attend the global digital Conference “Innovative Greeks”, on 2 & 3 March 2021. For two days, successful Greek entrepreneurs, experienced venture capitalists, international executives, and members of the Greek Government, will share their experiences, ideas, and views on how to grow Greece’s innovation ecosystem.
Join the Innovative Greeks’ Community.
- Follow Innovative Greeks on LinkedIn, here.
- Complete your free registration to the Conference, here.
- If you are a Greek living anywhere in the world and working in innovation, and you wish to contribute to the growth of the Greek innovation ecosystem, join the Innovative Greeks’ Community, here.
*In case you do not have a LinkedIn account, you may watch live on YouTube here.
** Simultaneous interpretation from Greek to English will be provided.
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Time
March 2, 2021 9:00 am – March 3, 2021 2:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
Event Details
The video is available
Event Details
The video is available here.
Thursday, March 11, 2021
9:00 – 10:00 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 1:00 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 8:00pm (Athens/Nicosia)
- Constantinos Daskalakis, Professor, EECS, MIT
- Fotini Christia, MIT Professor of Political Science and Director, MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC)
Constantinos Daskalakis, Professor, EECS, MIT
Constantinos Daskalakis is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He holds a Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. He works on Computation Theory and its interface with Game Theory, Economics, Probability Theory, Machine Learning and Statistics. He has resolved long-standing open problems about the computational complexity of Nash equilibrium, and the mathematical structure and computational complexity of multi-item auctions. His current work focuses on high-dimensional statistics and learning from biased, dependent, or strategic data. He has been honored with the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, the Kalai Prize from the Game Theory Society, the Sloan Fellowship in Computer Science, the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize, the Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, the Simons Investigator Award, the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize from the International Mathematical Union, the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, and the Bodossaki Foundation Distinguished Young Scientists Award. |
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Fotini Christia, MIT Professor of Political Science and Director, MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC)
Fotini Christia is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC). She received her PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University in 2008 and has been awarded an inaugural Andrew Carnegie fellowship and a Harvard Academy fellowship among others. Her research interests deal with issues of conflict and cooperation in the Muslim world, and she has worked out of Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian Territories. Her book, Alliance Formation in Civil Wars, published by Cambridge University Press in 2012, was awarded the Luebbert Award for Best Book in Comparative Politics, the Lepgold Prize for Best Book in International Relations and the Distinguished Book Award of the Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of the International Studies Association. Her research has also appeared in Science, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Development Economics, American Political Science Review, and Journal of Comparative Politics, among other journals. Fotini Christia has written opinion pieces for Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. She graduated magna cum laude with a joint BA in Economics-Operations Research and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University in 2001. |
Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, was created to empower technology-based startups from Greece and Cyprus with a bridge to the U.S. through pitching and networking opportunities. Our dedicated group from the tech startup ecosystems in Boston and Athens organizes events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. Our CEO group meets monthly to discuss common challenges. Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community.
While our events are typically held in Boston, due to Covid-19 we are instead hosting a webcast series in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event.
During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end.
If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here
Supported by:
Organized by:
more
Time
March 11, 2021 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
24mar11:45 amGlobal Innovation Showcase
Event Details
Massachusetts Innovation Network, Home of the New England Innovation Awards, is hosting the Inaugural Global Innovation
Event Details
Massachusetts Innovation Network, Home of the New England Innovation Awards, is hosting the Inaugural Global Innovation Showcase, which will feature 11 international companies that have just launched in Massachusetts, or are about to do so in the near future. Among these will be 3 Greek Founders: Christos Kapatos of UK-based SergTechnologies, Katie Millioni of Athens-based Habeats, and Konstantin Papaxanthis of Stockholm-based Scytáles AB, all in the Life/Health sciences track. Register Here.
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Time
March 24, 2021 11:45 am(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
April 2021
08apr12:00 pm1:00 pmWebcast: From Greek Start-Up to Global Scale-Up
Event Details
The video is available
Event Details
The video is available here.
Thursday, April 8, 2021
9:00 – 10:00 am (San Francisco)
12:00 – 1:00 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00 – 8:00pm (Athens/Nicosia)
- Introduction by Kostas Fragogiannis, Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Openness
- Alex Chatzieleftheriou, Blueground
- George Palikaras, Metamaterial
- Costa Tsaousis, NetData
- Dimitris Tsingos, Epignosis
- Moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos, Levitronix Technologies
Introduction by Kostas Fragogiannis, Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Openness
Kostas Fragogiannis was born in Kavala, where he completed his basic education. After graduating from the British Institute of Marketing (HND), he continued his studies in the U.S., earning a BS in Business Administration and an MBA in International Management & Computer Systems from the University of San Francisco. For over 30 years, he has held senior executive positions in major companies and groups, such as Emporiki Bank, Interbank, Delta, the Vasilakis Group, Ant1, the Viohalco Group, Vivartia, and the Chipita Group, where he was also a founding member of the Group’s international operations 24 years ago. Before assuming his duties as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness, he was the Development Manager of the Chipita Group, contributing significantly to the further growth and development of the Group’s international operations. Having successfully handled development projects worth hundreds of million of euros throughout the world, he has gained invaluable experience in negotiating with organizations in countries where he has overseen investments. Through his role in the development and internationalization of companies, he has contributed to the creation of thousands of jobs, while also creating considerable added value in each country where he has been active. He has led a total of 18 productive investment projects in 16 countries, 9 investment consortiums, 5 buyouts and, finally, the founding of multiple commercial enterprises in dozens of countries. Through his many years of international experience, he has gained a full and up-to-date perspective on what is required to effectively attract foreign investments and to promote exports and growth in the international economy. |
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Alex Chatzieleftheriou, Blueground
Alex Chatzieleftheriou, is Co-Founder and CEO of Blueground. Blueground is a real estate tech company offering beautiful, thoughtfully furnished apartments for stays of a month to a year, or even longer. Currently active in twelve cities across the globe – including seven cities in the US – Blueground seeks to solve a lot of the hassles Alex experienced first-hand, as both a frequent business traveler and expat. Chief among them: how we can give people a place that feels like home and help them start living from day one. Prior to Blueground, Alex worked as a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company for six and a half years as well as on the strategy team of Samsung Electronics as an Associate Principal. In total, Alex has lived and worked in more than 15 cities around the globe. In 2009, Alex received his MBA from INSEAD. |
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George Palikaras, Metamaterial
George Palikaras is a Deeptech Entrepreneur and the founding CEO of Metamaterial Inc. (META), a publicly-listed smart materials and photonics company, with the mission to change the way we use, interact and benefit from light and other forms of energy. Over the past 10 years he has forged partnerships with Fortune 500 companies, enabling META to develop and lead disruptive technologies in aerospace, medical, automotive, cleantech and consumer electronics industries. His passion for technology and entrepreneurship resulted in his being named 2018 ‘Endeavor Entrepreneur’, 2017 ‘40 under 40’ by Fortune Magazine (Greece), ‘Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Ernst and Young (Canada). Under his leadership META has received numerous prestigious industry awards including the 2019 ‘Global Cleantech 100’. The start-ups he has led have developed strong IP portfolios with over 150 patents, completed two M&A transactions and raised more than $75M in funding. Prior to META, George founded MediWise Ltd. a research and development medtech company based in London, UK. George has received Executive Education at Harvard, INSEAD, UCL and Stanford Business Schools. He earned his BEng. in Computer Engineering, and MSc. in Digital Communication Systems and did his PhD studies in Metamaterial science with over 40 journal publications. He is a named inventor in 30 patents. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, George worked as a researcher at Queen Mary University in London in wearable and implantable sensors development. He also worked in industry at Wireless Technology Laboratories (former Nortel Networks) working with a team of engineers and managers through contract bidding and technology development for large telecommunication OEMs in excess of $30m. |
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Costa Tsaousis, NetData
Costa Tsaousis is Founder and CEO of Netdata, as well as being the original developer of the Netdata Agent. Previously, he worked for 25 years in the online IT services industry, assisting disruptors like Viva.gr, Viva Wallet, and Hellas Online become challengers using technology. Costa is also the primary developer behind FireHOL, a “firewall for humans” that builds secure, stateful firewalls from easy to understand, human-readable configurations. |
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Dimitris Tsingos, Epignosis
Dimitris Tsingos is a serial tech entrepreneur and early stage investor from Aspropyrgos, Greece. He’s the co-founder and President at Epignosis, vendor of TalentLMS, one of the most successful SaaS platforms in the educational technology market. Dimitris also is the Founder and CEO of Starttech Ventures, the private investor & venture builder where Epignosis was created along with several other tech companies. In the same context, he had been the co-founder and President at AbZorba Games, a gaming company acquired by Novomatic in 2015. Dimitris holds a BSc in Computer Science by the University of Crete and an MBA International by the Athens University of Economics and Business. He used to be the President at the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, the founder of the Hellenic Start-up Association and a board member at the European Business Angel Network. He’s a co-founder of Hellenic Business Angel Network and the initiator of the Scale-up Greece community. |
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Moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos, Levitronix Technologies
Marina Hatsopoulos, Speaker, Tedx, was Founding CEO of Z Corporation, an early market leader in 3D printing out of MIT, from 1994 through its sale in 2005. She is Board Chair of Levitronix Technologies, the worldwide leader in magnetically-levitated bearingless motor technology and President of Hellenic Innovation Network. She is a member of the National Board of Research & Innovation for the Republic of Cyprus. She is on the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She is on the Advisory Board of the Nantucket Conference, MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, Eurobank’s EGG incubator, Mindspace Startup Program and the OK!Thess accelerator in Greece. She was a Director of Cynosure Inc., a $400 million leader in the laser aesthetics market; the GSI Group, a $300 million supplier of laser-based equipment; and Contex Holding, a $100 million leading manufacturer of large-format scanners. She was an investor and Director of Dear Kate performance apparel and Tea Forte, a luxury tea brand. She has also written articles, essays and short stories which appear at windystreet.com and have been published in Venturebeat, Antioch Review, Bellevue Literary, and other literary journals. She holds B.A. degrees from Brown University in Math and in Music, and an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering. |
The Hellenic Innovation Network (HIN) has a mission to accelerate technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece to world-class level by 2030, thereby fueling the economy and job creation. As an outgrowth of MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, HIN is a US-based non-profit organization created with the support of the Consulate General of Greece in Boston to facilitate access to resources, partners, and best practices by building bridges between the diaspora in global tech hubs and the Greek tech community. Driven by an advisory group of global innovators, HIN disseminates startup news, broadcasts educational webcasts, organizes monthly CEO group meetings, and hosts in-person pitching and networking events.
Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community and to learn more about Greek startups in the news.
During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end.
If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here
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Time
April 8, 2021 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
May 2021
06may12:00 pm1:00 pmWebcast: Digital Transformation
Event Details
The video is available
Event Details
The video is available here.
Thursday, May 6, 2021
9-10:00 am (San Francisco)
12-1:00 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00-20:00 pm (Greek-Cyprus)
- Introduction by Alexandra Papadopoulou, Ambassador of Greece to the US
- Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of Digital Governance
- Moderated by Michalis Bletsas, Director of Computing at MIT Media Lab
Introduction by Alexandra Papadopoulou, Ambassador of Greece to the US
Ambassador Alexandra PAPADOPOULOU is the first female Ambassador of Greece to the US. Prior to that, she was also the First Female Permanent Representative of Greece to the European Union and served in other important positions, such as Head of the Diplomatic Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Director General for European Affairs/in charge of the Greek Presidency of the EU in 2014, Head of the Greek Liaison Office in Skopje and Deputy Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations. She also served as Head of the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) in Kosovo. Ambassador Papadopoulou holds a Law Degree from the University of Athens and a Master’s Degree in International Relations/International Law from the University of Pennsylvania (Fulbright Scholar). |
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Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of Digital Governance of Hellenic Republic
Kyriakos Pierrakakis is the Minister of State and Digital Governance in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He is a Greek computer and political scientist and politician. In 2007 he earned a Master in Public Policy from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and in 2009 he earned a Master of Science in Technology and Policy from MIT. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Athens University of Economics and Business. He served as Director of Research at Dianeosis, an independent non-profit think tank. He produced an array of research papers with a strong focus on economic growth and understanding the prevailing perceptions and beliefs among Greeks. He has also worked on technology policy for various research institutes in Greece and abroad and headed Youth Foundation as president. He was born on 1983 in Athens. He is married with three children. He speaks English and French. |
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Moderated by Michail Bletsas, Director of Computing at MIT Media Lab
Michail Bletsas studied at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and received a masters degree in computer engineering from Boston University. Before joining the Media Lab, he was a Systems Engineer at Aware Inc. He is one of the founders of the Greek mobile advertising and marketing company Velti S.A. and he was also one of the leaders in an effort to provide wireless networking to the island of Patmos, Greece. Since June 23, 2010, Bletsas is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (Athens, Greece). |
The Hellenic Innovation Network (HIN) has a mission to accelerate technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece to world-class level by 2030, thereby fueling the economy and job creation. As an outgrowth of MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, HIN is a US-based non-profit organization created with the support of the Consulate General of Greece in Boston to facilitate access to resources, partners, and best practices by building bridges between the diaspora in global tech hubs and the Greek tech community. Driven by an advisory group of global innovators, HIN disseminates startup news, broadcasts educational webcasts, organizes monthly CEO group meetings, and hosts in-person pitching and networking events.
Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community and to learn more about Greek startups in the news.
During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end.
If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
May 6, 2021 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
June 2021
10jun12:00 pm1:00 pmWebcast: Why Set Up Shop in Greece
Event Details
Event Details
The video is available here
Thursday, June 10, 2021
9-10:00 am (San Francisco)
12-1:00 pm (Boston/New York)
19:00-20:00 pm (Greek-Cyprus)
- Alex Patelis, Chief economic adviser to the Prime Minister of Greece
- Drew Delis, Orfium
- Nico Gariboldi, Pfizer
- Nick Kanopoulos, Brite Solar
- Moderated by Michael Tzannes, Accusonos
Alex Patelis, Chief economic adviser to the Prime Minister of Greece
Alex Patelis is chief economic adviser to Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He has over three decades of experience as an economist, analyst and strategist, working in a variety of positions in New York, London and Athens. Alex started his career with the US economics research team at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York, where he worked under Bill Dudley, Chief US economist as well as a proprietary FICC trader in the same firm. In London, he joined Citigroup Asset Management as a quantitative economist. At Merrill Lynch, he held a variety of positions, including Global head of FX & Debt strategy, as well as Managing Director of Global Research, Head of International Economics. In this capacity, Alex managed the research teams responsible for the firm’s outlook on all economies outside North America, including developed and emerging countries in EMEA, the Pacific Rim region and Latin America, as well as foreign exchange, local currency and external debt bonds. For their research, Alex and his team won a variety of awards, including from Extel and Institutional Investor. He was also Chief Economist at PSQR, a global discretionary macro hedge fund. More recently, Alex was President of Patelis Macro, an independent research boutique he launched in 2010, which focused on global macroeconomic analysis to select clients around the world. Alex earned a Ph.D. in Economics in 1997 from Princeton University, USA, where his thesis advisor was Professor Ben Bernanke. Titled “Asset returns and monetary policy”, part of his thesis was published in the Journal of Finance. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Mathematics from Sussex University, UK. |
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Drew Delis, Orfium
Drew Delis is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Orfium. He has a Masters in Law specializing in Intellectual Property rights and digital exploitation, with 7+ years experience in the music industry. ORFIUM is a music rights management company with deep domain experience in technology, data engineering, and the music industry in general. ORFIUM’s mission is simple – build software that maximizes the commercial value of intellectual property, and ORFIUM’s product offering includes solutions for catalogue management, licensing, matching, UGC monetization, royalty allocation and distribution, reporting, and analytics. |
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Nico Gariboldi, Pfizer
Nico started his career in Pfizer Italy 16 years ago, serving as Brand Manager of peri-LOE products, Commercial Effectiveness Manager, Business Intelligence Advisor, Supply Policy Specialist, and Junior Analyst. He has since held roles of increasing local, regional and global responsibility. Most recently, Nico was Global Capability Lead for the healthcare provider portal experience within the Customer Experience team and prior was Senior Director, Global Lead for Customer Engagement and Content Strategy for Pfizer Essential Health. In that role, he managed the team responsible for creating enterprise customer engagement strategies (digital and face-to-face) that supported commercial, scientific and business goals, based on an omni-channel approach and content marketing strategy. Nico earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from La Sapienza University in Rome. |
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Nick Kanopoulos,Brite Solar
Nick Kanopoulos has over 30 years of experience in creating and managing large teams of development, mass production, and marketing of semiconductor and nanomaterial products for the global market.He is the founder and CEO of Brite Solar Technologies. Before founding Brite he was Managing Director for Channel Development in Europe / Africa / Middle East for the Solar Business Unit of Applied Materials. He was Director of the Multimedia & Communications (MMC) business division of Atmel Corp. managing product development groups based in the U.S., Greece, Sweden and China. He was founder and CEO of Data Communications Technologies, which was acquired by Atmel, Director of the Integrated Electronics Group at RTI International (one of the largest independent research institutes in the U.S.) and for 10 years adjunct professor at Duke University in North Carolina. He has been a special advisor to the Minister of Macedonia & Thrace in Greece for matters of technology and to various semiconductor companies. He is an Electrical Engineering graduate of the University of Patras, Greece and holds MS and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University. He has published one book and over 100 papers in journals and conference proceedings, has nine patents (issued and pending) and is a member of several international trade and scientific organizations. |
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Moderated by Michael Tzannes, Accusonos
Michael Tzannes has spent his career with companies that improve the way people process and communicate digital information. From 1990 to 2012, he was with Aware, Inc. (NASDAQ: AWRE) as Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Technical Officer. After a successful IPO in 1996, Aware became a widely recognized communications technology pioneer and the leading supplier of silicon intellectual property to the digital subscriber line (DSL) industry. Michael also founded Aware’s patent management operations and led the sale of DSL, networking and signal processing patents to Intellectual Ventures, Intel, Techquity and others. Since 2012, Michael has been active in the start-up community in Greece as an angel investor and adviser. He is currently Chairman and Founder of Accusonus, with locations in Patras and Athens, a developer of human-friendly audio software focused on democratizing the creation of content. He serves as a Board Member at Athroa Innovations, Irida Labs and Yodiwo. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Phaistos Investment Fund and is the 2020 recipient of the Innovation Award from the Argo Hellenic Network. Michael is a lifelong innovator and holds patents addressing core technologies in multicarrier DWMT communications, MP3 audio, DSL, Wi-Fi, LTE and IoT communications. His consulting firm, TzPM, offers advisory services in intellectual property assessment, development, licensing, and monetization. Michael was valedictorian at the University of Patras, Greece, has a Master’s Degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from Tufts University, all in Electrical Engineering. |
The Hellenic Innovation Network (HIN) has a mission to accelerate technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece to world-class level by 2030, thereby fueling the economy and job creation. As an outgrowth of MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, HIN is a US-based non-profit organization created with the support of the Consulate General of Greece in Boston to facilitate access to resources, partners, and best practices by building bridges between the diaspora in global tech hubs and the Greek tech community. Driven by an advisory group of global innovators, HIN disseminates startup news, broadcasts educational webcasts, organizes monthly CEO group meetings, and hosts in-person pitching and networking events.
Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community and to learn more about Greek startups in the news.
During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end.
If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
June 10, 2021 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Online
October 2021
21oct5:00 pm7:00 pmData Analytics & Infrastructure
Event Details
Watch it here. Thursday, Oct 21, 2021, 5:00
Event Details
Watch it here.
Thursday, Oct 21, 2021, 5:00 – 7:00 pm @ Venture Café at CIC Cambridge
- Nikos Andrikogiannopoulos, Metrika
- George Demosthenous, Voda.ai
- Stavros Papadopoulos, TileDB
- Evanthia Tapiri, Amazon
- Moderated by Lucile Kellis, Steer
Nikos Andrikogiannopoulos, Founder & CEO of Metrika Metrika is the industry-leading company for operational intelligence and monitoring on blockchain networks. Before Metrika, Nikos spent a decade in telecommunications, working at one of the oldest telecom, media and technology strategy consulting firms in the world. Nikos holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, an MSc from MIT EECS, and a diplom in EECS with honors from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). |
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George Dimosthenous, CEO of VODA.ai
VODA.ai is an award-winning software company focused on helping utilities leverage data to reduce waste and effectively serve their communities. Water pipes deliver life’s most valuable resource. Wastewater pipes are critical to proper sanitation. VODA.ai is the most effective solution in predicting incidents and assessing business risk for both, with a smart platform that has been refined through partnering with some of the most innovative utilities in the world. Prior to founding VODA.ai, George worked at a public company, helping hundreds of utilities managing non-revenue-water and smart metering solutions. George is Harvard educated and based in Boston, Massachusetts. |
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Stavros Papadopoulos, Founder and CEO of TileDB, Inc
Dr. Stavros Papadopoulos prior to founding TileDB, Inc. in February 2017, Dr. Papadopoulos was a Senior Research Scientist at the Intel Parallel Computing Lab, and a member of the Intel Science and Technology Center for Big Data at MIT CSAIL for three years. He also spent about two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Dr. Papadopoulos received his PhD degree in Computer Science at HKUST and held a postdoc fellow position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. |
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Evanthia Tapiri, Data Scientist at Corporate Finance, Amazon
Evanthia Tapiri is a Data Scientist at Corporate Finance, Amazon where she is working primarily on demand planning, sales forecasting and utilizing machine learning techniques to automate the financial forecasting process. Before joining Amazon, she was a Data Scientist for Liberty Mutual Insurance developing Machine Learning models for dynamic pricing and specializing on explainable AI methods and visualizations. Evanthia is passionate about using data for social good and supporting women in technology. She holds a Master’s degree in Financial Statistics and Risk Management from Rutgers University and a Bachelors in Applied Mathematics and Physics from National Technical University of Athens. |
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Lucile Kellis
Lucile Kellis is an expert in survey research and discrete choice modelling with over 10 years’ experience in transportation travel demand forecasting. Lucile joined Steer in 2009 from the former transportation practice Charles River Associates. Her experience includes the analysis of econometric models for use in large-scale mergers and litigation cases. Prior to joining Steer, Lucile obtained an MS in Transportation from MIT and worked as a research assistant with the East Japan Railway Company operating the Shinkansen HSR trains. She also interned in the Office of Economics and Strategic Analysis with the US Department of Transportation. Lucile leads Steer’s stated preference survey capability in North America. She manages a range of high-profile transportation projects requiring rigorous application of econometrics skills. She also leads the survey effort of investment grades toll roads and managed lanes projects for both the public and private sectors. |
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The Hellenic Innovation Network (HIN) has a mission to accelerate technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece to world-class level by 2030, thereby fueling the economy and job creation. As an outgrowth of MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, HIN is a US-based non-profit organization created with the support of the Consulate General of Greece in Boston to facilitate access to resources, partners, and best practices by building bridges between the diaspora in global tech hubs and the Greek tech community. Driven by an advisory group of global innovators, HIN disseminates startup news, broadcasts educational webcasts, organizes monthly CEO group meetings, and hosts in-person pitching and networking events.
Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community and to learn more about Greek startups in the news.
During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end.
If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here.
We will be broadcasting the event afterwards on our website, hellenic.org.
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
October 21, 2021 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm(GMT-05:00)
Location
Venture Café
One Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, United States
Health Guidelines for this Event
December 2021
12dec5:00 pm7:00 pmHIN | Greek Tech Innovation
Event Details
Register here. Please join us for a panel discussion about the Future
Event Details
Register here.
Please join us for a panel discussion about the Future of Technology Innovation in Greece.
- What are some of the challenges for tech companies in Greece, and how are they being addressed?
- What are key enablers in US-based tech ecosystems like Boston which empower startups to flourish?
Christos Dimas
the Greek Deputy Minister of Development and Investments responsible for Research, Innovation and Technology. |
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Kostas Fragogiannis Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for economic diplomacy. |
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Giorgos Zacharia
a Greek from Cyprus, is President of Kayak, a publicly-listed online travel agency and metasearch engine based in Boston. |
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Evanthia Tapiri
Data Scientist at Corporate Finance, Amazon |
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Manolis Kasseris
will present Emvolon, which transforms diesel engines from conventional vehicles into mini chemical plants to utilize otherwise wasted resources like flare gas and residue biomass. |
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Nicos Vekiarides
will present Attestiv, which assures the authenticity of digital media captured by any person or device utilizing artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. |
The Hellenic Innovation Network (HIN) has a mission to accelerate technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece to world-class level by 2030, thereby fuelling the economy and job creation. As an outgrowth of MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, HIN is a US-based non-profit organization created with the support of the Consulate General of Greece in Boston to facilitate access to resources, partners, and best practices by building bridges between the diaspora in global tech hubs and the Greek tech community. Driven by an advisory group of global innovators, HIN disseminates startup news, broadcasts educational webcasts, organizes monthly CEO group meetings, and hosts in-person pitching and networking events. Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community.
Supported by:
Organized by:
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Time
December 12, 2021 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm(GMT-05:00)