DOXIA NIKIA HADJIVASSILIOU
President
NEIL SMITH
Vice President
Raven Russia Cyprus Ltd.
Neil Smith spent the first 15 years of his working life in London, where he initially qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Moores Rowland, before joining BDO and then after a total of 5 years in practice moved into banking, where he worked at Standard Bank, Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland, where he experienced a number of roles before specialising in structured and project finance. In 2008 Neil left London and moved to Cyprus to become Chief Operating Officer of Raven Russia Cyprus. Neil has since combined that role with Head of Structured Finance for the Raven Russia group.
ANDREAS ANDREOU
Vice President
COLUMBIA SHIPMANAGEMENT LTD.
A graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Accounting of the City University of London, Andreas holds a Masters degree, MSc in Shipping Trade and Finance, from the Cass Business School, London and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers of the United Kingdom.Having joined Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd, Cyprus in 1990, he currently holds the position of Insurance and Claims Director and is responsible for insurance related matters for all the group companies as well as ship registration and ship sale and purchase projects. Since 2008, he has also assumed responsibility for all union and ITF matters. He also held the position of Deputy Marketing Director for the five year period of 2008-2013.Outside of his responsibilities for Columbia, Andreas sits on a number of shipping related committees and boards. He is a participating Member on the Committee of the Norwegian Hull Club, a director on the board of Cyprus International Business Association, Chairman of the Marine Insurance Working Group of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber and Chairman of the Insurance and Legal Committee of Intertanko.In 2014 he was appointed as a Director of IMEC and was re-elected in same position in 2015. He participated as Observer in three rounds of IBF Central Negotiations and in local negotiations with German and Singaporean Unions.
FRIXOS SAVVIDES
HIVE MANAGMENT SERVICES LTD.
Frixos Savvides is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He started his professional career in London and returned to Cyprus in 1979. Soon after set up his own auditing firm PKF Savvides & Co Ltd, and retired from the firm in 1999 as Managing Partner, to join the Government of Cyprus as Minister of Health, a position he held until 2003. He has served in various Government Boards including Cyprus Telecommunication Authority and Chairman of Anti-drug National committee. Served in Boards of US and European listed companies, as an independent director. At present he serves as Chairman of Trust International Insurance (Cyprus) Ltd., and Deputy Chairman and member of the Board of Trust Reinsurance Bahrain. Member of the Board of Advent International Cyprus Ltd and Asia Advisory Investment Committee. Chairman of World Trade Center Cyprus and member of the Board of Lanitis Holdings Ltd.
ANDREAS PISHIAS
General Manager
MARGARITA ALEXANDROU
Assistant General Manager
PAVLOS VARNAVAS
Executive Committee Member
VALENTINOS STELIOU
Executive Committee Member
KIRILL KORNEYCHUK
Executive Committee Member
ANGELINA MARKARI
Executive Committee Member
MARIOS FOTIOU
Executive Committee Member
AVANTI HYLAS 2 CYPRUS LTD.
Marios Fotiou is a space systems engineer with more than a decade of experience in satellite communications. He is a graduate of Electronic Engineering from the University of Surrey and holds a Master’s degree in Spacecraft Systems and Satellite Communications from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Over the last years he has worked in Cyprus for Avanti Communications as a lead systems engineer in several satellite missions and as the HYLAS 4 satellite programme manager and spacecraft mission director up to its successful launch from French Guiana in April 2018. Since then he has taken the role of the Managing Director of Avanti in Cyprus running a diverse team of administrative, commercial and technical personnel supporting the operations of the company in Cyprus and the Middle East. He is also serving at the technical experts committee supporting the Minister of Communications and Works on issues of national space policy, that lead the country signing up a European Cooperate State agreement with the European Space Agency in 2016.
VASSILIOS DEMETRIADES
Executive Committee Member
UW Group
Vassilios DEMETRIADES served as Shipping Deputy Minister to the President of the Republic of Cyprus from July 2020 to February 2023. During his tenure, the strategic vision for Cyprus Shipping “SEA change 2030” was formulated, promoting an extroverted approach and a new philosophy and working structure within the Shipping Deputy Ministry (SDM). Vassilios demonstrated leadership at global and EU level in effectively responding to crises (COVID-19 and Ukraine war) taking charge of key actions to enable safe crew changes, formulating and implementing a national vaccination plan to cover 40000 seafarers, facilitating a fast-track process for seafarers affected by the war in Ukraine to open bank accounts and access their salaries.
He put forward a number of incentives and funding programs aiming to decarbonize shipping (Green Tax Incentives, “Research Innovation Shipping Environment” Program), and was actively involved in the formulation of a broad and diverse set of actions required to achieve emissions reduction targets at EU and IMO level. During his tenure Cyprus’ Blue Economy was further developed through the formulation of Cyprus’ Maritime Spatial Plan. He also took initiatives at global and regional level proposing an Agenda for the sustainable use of the Oceans by Commonwealth and promoting maritime safety in the Mediterranean through a proposal for a harmonized ship inspections regime.
The efficiency of SDM was further developed by creating the framework conditions for one-stop-shipping-shop through an EU funded project for the digital transformation of all SDM services already under implementation. During the same period a maritime passenger link between Cyprus and Greece was reinstated, after a 21-year hiatus, providing alternative connectivity through an effective framework of public subsidy. Vassilios placed great emphasis to the young generation aiming to create a culture for seafaring, maritime and blue studies and professions through innovative and interactive campaigns and initiatives. Prior to his appointment he served as a Policy Officer in the Directorate General of Mobility and Transport of the European Commission coordinating the EU maritime transport strategy and EU’s external maritime transport relations for 5 years, promoting the interests of the EU shipping industry at bilateral and multilateral level with all the major trading partners of the EU (US, China, India, Japan, Brazil, Iran). He was previously involved in the formulation and coordination of European Sustainable Shipping Forum and he has also served the European Commission as a Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Vassiliou in the formulation, communication and implementation of EU policies on education and vocational training. He has formerly served the Cyprus Public Administration as the Head of EU Affairs Unit at the Cypriot Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works formulating Cyprus’ national position to the EU on transport, telecommunications, shipping and integrated maritime policies and he was in charge of the overall coordination of the Cyprus Presidency to the EU pertaining to these areas. Vassilios served as the first Maritime Counsellor of Cyprus to the EU, from Cyprus accession to the EU in 2004 until the end of 2008, representing Cyprus to the EU in the fields of maritime transport, intermodal transport and networks, EU Integrated Maritime Policy, EU Space Policy, Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Previously he served the Maritime Administration of Cyprus from various posts putting forward visionary ideas and initiatives such as the Limassol Declaration on the EU Integrated Maritime Policy – one of the main priorities of the 2012 Cyprus Presidency to the Council of the EU. Vassilios was also a lecturer at the Cyprus Academy of Public Administration on EU policies and decision-making processes. He is the Chief Strategy Officer of UW Group leading the formulation and implementation of the Group’s vision and its strategic development. He is also the Founder of the VisionDo Advisory Ltd providing consultancy services to companies in meeting effectively their global and EU policy and regulatory challenges, promoting an extrovert and proactive approach in their organizational behavior. Since September 2024, he also holds the position of Director of Shipping, Yachting and Blue Economy at the Cyprus Investment Hub. He holds a BSc degree in Business Economics from Surrey University and an MSc degree in Management Science from the same University.
