Jimmy Athanasopoulos
As Chief Financial Officer for EuroEnergy, Jimmy Athanasopoulos oversees the capital structure of the company and is responsible for presenting and reporting all of its financial information. He is also manages the company’s economic strategy and forecasting.
Following an MBA from Northeastern Illinois University, Jimmy began his career in Chicago as a provider of financial and investment services across various asset classes. He later undertook a variety of management roles at multinational corporations including DNV, Tyco Healthcare, and TetraPak before entering ship management as Chief Financial Controller with FreeSeas Inc. preparing statutory reports towards the SEC. He later joined G. Bros Maritime S.A. where he was responsible for financial reporting to the Board of Directors.
Mr. Athanasopoulos joined EuroEnergy’s parent company, the Libra Group, in 2012 as Director of the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award (now Envolve Greece), an award program for Greek start-up businesses funded and operated by the Libra Group. In 2015 he joined Libra’s Executive Team as Head of Social Responsibility, providing strategic oversight of the group's global responsibility and education programs.
In 2016, Mr. Athanasopoulos completed the Executive Education Program for Social Responsibility at Harvard Business School.
He remains Chairman of Envolve Greece and sits on the Board of the HOME Project, an initiative founded in Greece by the Libra Group to provide a safe haven for refugees, with a special focus on unaccompanied children.
Dr. Gulay Barbarosoglu
General Director, Hisar School
Professor Gülay Barbarosoglu is the General Director of Hisar School since April 2018 after completing her academic career in Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey. She served as the Rector of Bogaziçi University between August 2012 and November 2016. During her academic life, Professor Barbarosoglu served as the Vice-Rector for Research, as the founding Chair of Center for Disaster Management, as the Chair of Department of Industrial Engineering, as the Founding Chair of Financial Engineering at Bogaziçi University, and as the Head of the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.
As a professor of industrial engineering, Professor Barbarosoglu has contributed significantly to the areas of mathematical programming and optimization, logistics and humanitarian operations and production planning, stochastic programming and decision theory with her breakthrough publications and innovative projects.
As the Head of the Kandilli Earthquake Observatory, she expanded and upgraded the Turkey’s National Seismic Monitoring Network, participated in and contributed to global risk mitigation and crisis management research and implementation projects. In her efforts to enhance risk mitigation capability in the academia, she not only founded the Center for Disaster Management at Bogaziçi University, but networked with other academic instituitions to promote the academic awareness in the field of disaster and risk management.
In her role as the national representative of NATO RTO (Research and Technology Organization), she was involved in various projects and represented Turkey in various NATO RTO Meetings and activites to identify and improve the role of research and technology in designing the new NATO Strategic Concept accordingly. As the team-leader of NATO RTO projects, she has experienced numerous situations which improved her conflict resolution and consensus development skills.
As the Vice-Chair of EURO (the Association of European Operational Research Societies), and the board member of EUA (European Universities Association), she has worked with many universities in close collaboration to strengthen universities’ role in the development of knowledge society.
Currently she serves as a board member of several well-known companies and universities.
Slavko Bradic
Director of International Admissions, Office of Admissions, George Washington University
Dr. Edward B. Burger
President, Southwestern University
Dr. Edward Burger is the President of Southwestern University as well as an educational and business consultant. Most recently he was the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, and served as Vice Provost for Strategic Educational Initiatives at Baylor University.He is the author of over 60 research articles, books, and video series (starring in over 3,000 on-line videos).
President Burger was awarded the 2000 Northeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Award for Distinguished Teaching and 2001 MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo National Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics. The MAA also named him their 2001-2003 Polya Lecturer. He was awarded the 2003 Residence Life Teaching Award from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2004 he was awarded Mathematical Association of America's Chauvenet Prize and in 2006 he was a recipient of the Lester R. Ford Prize. In 2007, 2008, and 2011 he received awards for his video work. In 2007 Williams College awarded him the Nelson Bushnell Prize for Scholarship and Teaching.
President Burger is an associate editor of the American Mathematical Monthly and Math Horizons Magazine and serves as a Trustee of the Kenan Institute for the Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2006, Reader's Digest listed President Burger in their annual "100 Best of America" as America's Best Math Teacher. In 2010 he was named the winner of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching — the largest and most prestigious prize in higher education teaching across all disciplines in the English speaking world. Also in 2010 he starred in a mathematics segment for NBC-TV on the Today Show and throughout the 2010 Winter Olympic coverage. That television appearance won him a 2010 Telly Award. The Huffington Post named him one of their 2010 Game Changers; "HuffPost's Game Changers salutes 100 innovators, visionaries, mavericks, and leaders who are reshaping their fields and changing the world." In 2012, Microsoft Worldwide Education selected him as one of their "Global Heroes in Education." In 2013 President Burger was inducted as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
Dr. Burger was the 2008 ACS Athens Commencement speaker.
Maria Dimitrakopoulou
Financial Services
Maria Dimitrakopoulou is an experienced consultant with 15 years of experience holding various positions within the investment banking, corporate banking and corporate finance areas, in the United States and in Greece. She was part of the New York valuation team in the world’s biggest M&A deal in 2002, $60 BLN, and #15 in the M&A history.
Working within the Corporate Finance Department of Ernst & Young in Boston and New York offices she was responsible for providing transaction advisory services to Fortune 500 companies for M&A, restructuring, litigation, and business valuation purposes. She offered advisory services to many major public and private sector companies in both Greece and in the Southeastern Europe region regarding cross-border M&A and expansion strategies and made strategic recommendations to clients, as an investment banking professional. She has gained extensive experience in bank financing across all industry sectors, on large-scale corporate loans in Europe.
Maria Dimitrakopoulou studied Finance and International Business Management at Boston University – School of Management, and she is an ACS alumna, class of ‘97.
Maria has been a really active member within the Greek-American community and it is her passion to improve, support and further develop Greek-American relations in the economic, educational and business fields.
Dr. David Gleason
Clinical Psychologist
Dr. David Gleason is a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of providing counseling, consulting and neuropsychological assessment services within independent schools. David earned a B.A. in Psychology & Theology (1982) and an M.A. in Counseling Children & Adolescents (1987) from Boston College before earning a Psy.D. at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (1993). After serving for several years as Administrative Director of Student Support Services (full-time psychologist in residence) at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, Dr. Gleason opened his own clinical practice in 2000. Subsequently, in 2002, eager to reconnect with an independent school faculty, Dr. Gleason joined Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, as that school's Consulting Psychologist.
In his private practice, Dr. Gleason provides psychotherapy, as well as comprehensive psychological and neuropsychological assessments to independent and international school children and adolescents. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Gleason has taught psychology courses at the secondary, undergraduate and graduate levels and has presented professional workshops and seminars at numerous independent schools and at several national conferences in the US, and at international conferences in Asia and Europe. David has been fully immersed in the world of independent schools as he and his wife have raised their three children while living on a boarding school campus.
Anastasios Ioannidis
Tasos Ioannidis was born in 1970 and graduated from the Greek French Lycee Leonin in Athens in 1988. He holds an LLM from Georgetown University, Paris Pantheon Sorbonne and graduated first in his class for his undergraduate law studies in Paris Pantheon Sorbonne. He is also a member of the Athens and Paris Bar. Together with his brother, Nikolas Ioannidis, they are owner/operators of the Belvedere Hotel in Mykonos, which opened in 1995 as a four star family boutique hotel.
In late 2000, after working for four years in Paris as a lawyer. he joined his brother Nikolas in the family firm. The two brothers embarked on an ambitious plan to upgrade the hotel's Food & Beverage operations and facilities to an international standard lifestyle boutique resort, a first of its kind in Mykonos.
In a period of 7 years, and with the creative direction of the Rockwell Architectural Group and top lighting designer Clark Johnson, the hotel was transformed to one of the best lifestyle boutique hotels in the world - widely credited as the property representing "the renewal of Mykonos" as quoted by the NY Times. A few years later, in 2015, the hotel collaborated with Six Senses SPA in order to develop top of the line boutique SPA facilities.
The initial plan also included the collaboration with celebrity Chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Matsuhisa Mykonos became an instant success, recognized as one of the best restaurants in Greece, while gaining major international accolades. Matsuhisa Mykonos established a seasonal winter location in the legendary Badrutt's Palaca Hotel, St. Moritz-Switzerland. In 2014, it was recognized as the best restaurant in St. Moritz according to "Gault & Miliau" magazine. In October 2008, Nobu Matsuhisa Athens opened at the Astir Palace hotel complex becoming quickly a success. Meanwhile, "Marechiaro" Mykonos opened as the first authentic Napolitan pizzeria in Greece with a signature Napolitan custom made wood oven also recognized by the "Associatione de Verace Pizza Napolitana".
The success of the Matsuhisa restaurants attracts the attention of the European gastronomical scene. Short term culinary promotions are conducted by Matsuhisa Mykonos and Athens in some of the most prestigious hotels in major European cities. Pop-up restaurants opened in periods of ten days to five months in a number of European Luxury Properties, including, "Baur au Lac Hotel" in Zurich-Switzerland, The "Ritz Hotel" in Paris-France, "Mandarin Oriental Hotel" in Munich-Germany and "Raffles Royal Monceau" in Paris-France. In the last quarter of 2015 beginning of 2016, two Matsuhisa properties opened, the Matsuhisa Munich located at the "Mandarin Oriental" Munich and the Matsuhisa Paris at the "Raffles Royal Monceau" in the Golden Triangle of Central Paris bringing the total number of Matsuhisa Restaurants in Europe to five with Mr. Ioannidis as the Managing Partner.
In 2011, Mr. Ioannidis oversaw the development and operation of the Food and Beverage Operation of the newly opened 78-room "New Hotel" located in the centre of Athens, which included a new generation Espresso Bar & French Bakery under the advisory of the "2008 Paris' Best Baker" (by Gault & Millau) Christophe Vasseur.
An international cooperation began in 2013 with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts combining the Nobu Matsuhisa culinary experience with an exclusive concept consisting of the creation of a new small Japanese restaurant brand under the name Izumi.
Presently Mr. Ioannidis as the CEO of the company that oversees the operation of the Belvedere Mykonos and all the Matsuhisa related restaurants and bars with annual turnover of 25 million € annual and over 400 employees.
Prof. Diarmuid Hegarty
Professor Diarmuid Hegarty, founder and President of Griffith College, Ireland is a Barrister and Chartered Accountant.
A former advisor to Vietnam and former Consul for Pakistan.
Council/Board Memberships:
Higher Education and Training Awards Council; Baggot Street Hospital (Currently); Chartered Accountants Ireland, representing Ireland on the Accounting Standards Steering Committee
Chairman of:
Various Technical Committees of ICAI; The Higher Education Colleges Association; The Irish Higher Education QualityNetwork
Friends of the Vocal Arts in Ireland (Currently), Las Adelfas Hotels.
Nick Kikis
Nicholas G. Kikis is a former Senior Executive with the Department of Defense with 33 years of U.S. Government service, culminating a career spanning all aspects of organizational leadership, risk management, and global operations. He provided leadership in the areas of national security, crisis management and advanced technologies. Mr. Kikis served on the front lines at US Embassies, war zones and contingency operations in support of the International Olympic Games.
Mr. Kikis began his government service with the Department of State in 1986 and joined the Department of Defense in 1988. His has a deep understanding of U.S. government organizations. A seasoned cross-cultural professional, Mr. Kikis has broad work experience in Europe, the Balkans, Asia and the Middle East, fostering partnerships with foreign military and civilian services, including law enforcement, to mitigate strategic surprise. In August 2019 he transitioned from government service.
Mr. Kikis is founder and President of KRYPTOS Consulting Group, LLC, where he brings energy and experience as an executive advisor. He serves on numerous industry boards, in the areas of defense, technology, academia, healthcare and financial entities. His approach with clients is to cultivate business relationships, optimize interdependent capabilities and recommend cutting-edge solutions to complex issues.
Mr. Kikis lives with his family in Northern Virginia, USA. A native of New York City, Mr. Kikis earned a BA in Political Science Cum Laude from Pace University, an MA in International Affairs from George Washington University and completed numerous executive leadership seminars including Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
Dr. Konstantinos Koutras
Consul General of Greece in New York
From early 2013 through May 2016, Konstantinos Koutras served as the spokesperson of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, heading the Ministry’s Information and Public Diplomacy Department. These duties were initially entrusted to him by the then Foreign Minister and current EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos.
Subsequently, under the then Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos, he took on the additional duties of spokesperson and communication strategy coordinator for the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the EU, in the first half of 2014, finishing his term as Foreign Ministry spokesperson under the then Foreign Minister, Nikos Kotzias, who entrusted him with the post of Consul General of Greece in New York. He was also spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the election run-up of August and September 2015, under the caretaker Foreign Minister, Ambassador Petros Molyviatis.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Koutras served a four-year tour (2003-2007) at the Greek Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, headed the Justice and Home Affairs Department of the Greece’s Permanent Representation to the European Union from September 2007 to the summer of 2011, and, from June through December 2012, was the Diplomatic Counsellor to the Minister at the newly established Ministry for Shipping, Maritime Affairs and the Aegean.
He is a graduate of the School of Humanities of the University of Bonn (Germany) and holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Informatics from the University of Athens and a PhD from the University of Bonn.
Mr. Koutras and his wife Popita have a son, Dionysios.
As of May 2016, he is the Consul General of Greece in New York.
Nick Larigakis
The American Hellenic Institute (AHI), is a non-profit Greek American public policy center. During his tenure with AHI, Nick Larigakis has organized more than 70 legislative conferences, two trade conferences on "Doing Business in Greece," nine conferences on the Future of Hellenism in America (2002-2010), and two congressional fact-finding delegations to Greece (1993 & 1997). He works with the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Greece-Cyprus relations, where he has provided witness testimony before congressional appropriations committees on foreign aid policy; and as liaison to the grass roots community, traveling the U.S. to educate the public about AHI’s public policy issues and other aspects of its mission. Moreover, Larigakis frequently visits Greece and Cyprus to meet with government officials.
Also, Larigakis serves as President of the Greek American Political Action Committee. He is a founding partner of 3NJ, LLC, a Virginia-based real estate development company. Prior to AHI, he worked at the National League of Families for POW/MIA’s from Southeast Asia where he helped coordinate its grass roots network. He has also served on the Boards of the Greek Orthodox Young Adult League for four years (president in 1989); and the Delian League, an organization of young Greek American professionals, for three years (president in 1992). Larigakis received his B.A. in Political Science from the College of New Jersey, formerly Trenton State, and did post-graduate work in International Affairs at the American University in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Yanni Alexander Loukissas
Assistant Professor of Digital Media, Georgia Tech
Yanni Alexander Loukissas is a Lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is also a Principal at metaLAB, a research project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, created to explore digital futures for scholarship in the arts and humanities. Originally trained as an architect at Cornell University ('99), he subsequently attended MIT, where he received a Master of Science ('03) and a Ph.D. ('08) in Design and Computation. While at MIT, he worked with the Initiative on Technology and Self, the Media Lab and the Center for Bits and Atoms. He also completed postdoctoral work at the MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society. His areas of expertise include social studies of design and technology, urban studies and information design. He is the author of Co-Designers: Cultures of Computer Simulation in Architecture (Routledge, 2012) and a contributor to Simulation and its Discontents (MIT Press, 2009). Before teaching at Harvard, he taught at MIT and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Cornell University. He graduated from ACS Athens in 1994.
Dr. Ioannis Miaoulis
President and Director, Museum of Boston
Ioannis (Yannis) N. Miaoulis has been President and Director of the Museum of Science, one of the world’s largest science centers and New Englands most-attended cultural institution, since 2003. Dr. Miaoulis came to the Museum from Tufts University, where he was Dean of the School of Engineering. In 2004, Dr. Miaoulis led the creation of the Museum's National Center for Technological Literacy® (NCTL®) to enhance knowledge of engineering for people of all ages and inspire future engineers and scientists. The NCTL's curricula have reached more than 55,600 teachers and 4.2 million students worldwide. In 2011, to transform itself for the 21st century, the Museum launched a campaign to raise $250 million by 2015, and has reached $225 million to date.
Dr. Miaoulis earned bachelor's and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering and a master’s in economics at Tufts, receiving a master's in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published over 100 research papers and holds two patents. Miaoulis has been honored with the Presidential Young Investigator award, the Allan MacLeod Cormack Award for Excellence in Collaborative Research, the William P. Desmond Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Education, and Tufts University Alumni Association's Outstanding Service Award. A 2012 recipient of the Science Club for Girls Catalyst Award and is the 2011 winner of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Ralph Coats Roe Medal.
Chris Minoudis
Vice President, Bank Hapoalim (BHI)
Mr. Christos Minoudis has been Vice President of Bank Hapoalim (BHI) since 2014. Mr. Minoudis has over 30 years of operations, financial management, treasury and banking experience in various industries. His banking experience includes employment with Bank of America, and Wells Fargo Bank, in the commercial and private banking sectors. He has also extensive experience working with privately held companies as Chief Financial Officer. He served as the CFO for Information Management Resources, Inc. (IMRI) from 2000 to 2004, and 2009 to 2014. He was also the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at American Farm School & Perrotis College during 2004-2009. Mr. Minoudis holds a B.S. degree in Business Finance, from Chapman University, and an MBA degree from Middlebury College.
Dr. Panetha Theodosia Nychis Ott
Director of Admission, International Recruitment, Office of College Admission, Brown University
Panetha Theodosia Nychis Ott graduated with a BA in Ancient Greek from Bryn Mawr College and completed most of the requirements for a doctorate in Classics at Brown. She will be pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania in Fall 2014. She has taught Latin in secondary schools, and Modern Greek in addition to Classics courses at Brown, and participated in the excavations at the Agora of Athens. In the late '80s she was appointed Assistant to the Dean of the College at Brown where she worked with the Curricular Advising Program and the Resumed Undergraduate Education Program. In 1989 she joined Brown’s Office of Undergraduate Admission, where she has enjoyed seeing students at their very best applying to Brown. Panetha has been advising students for 25 years, both as an academic advisor and as a friend of many of the international students at Brown. She also works with pre-college students who attend Summer@brown.edu for which program she teaches a TOEFL prep course.
Outside of Brown, she works primarily with international organizations to make the dream of a US education a reality for students around the world, and the goal of international peace and understanding a reality for students everywhere. She served for several years as Chair of the Higher Education Committee for CIS (Council for International Schools), and has served as a member of national committees for NAFSA (Association of International Student Advisors), for OACAC (Overseas Association for College Admission Counselors), for TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Languages), and currently serves on national committees for the IB (International Baccalaureate) and for NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counselors). For the past seven years, she has worked with the Office of Overseas Schools of the US State Department to represent US higher education in international schools in the NESA countries, including Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. She considers her work in inspiring students her most important contribution to education.
Leon Stavrou
Executive Director, Co-founder, The Next Generation Initiative
Mr. Stavrou is well-known as the founder of the AHI Business Network, the first international network for young professionals and business leaders in the global Greek community. In addition to his work with the AHI Business Network and his service as the Director of Membership and Development for AHEPA, Mr. Stavrou has also served as a national sales representative for the National Small Business Association, a manager in the high-tech industry, and regional marketing director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Stavrou originally joined the American Hellenic Institute in 1974, where his leading role in a nationwide grassroots efforts to introduce and pass legislation in the U.S. Congress during the Cyprus crisis led him to become the first registered Greek American lobbyist. Mr. Stavrou went on to work at the Republican National Committee during the Reagan Administration. Leon Stavrou first came to Washington, DC as a staff assistant to the late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Infamous for nearly being killed in the Plaka in Athens during an act of civil disobedience against the Greek junta, Leon Stavrou was featured along with many of his friends in “The Greek Americans,” a documentary which aired on PBS throughout the U.S. in 1998. He graduated from Northern Arizona University.
Dr. Daniele C. Struppa
President, Chapman University
Chapman University is pleased to announce Daniele C. Struppa, Ph.D. as its thirteenth president starting September 1, 2016. Previously, Dr. Struppa held the position of Chancellor at Chapman University for the last nine years.
Daniele C. Struppa, Ph.D., joined Chapman University in 2006 as provost, responsible for creating and implementing academic priorities for the University and for the allocation of resources to support those priorities. In 2007, with the addition of further leadership responsibilities, he was appointed as Chapman’s first chancellor.
Dr. Struppa came to Chapman University from George Mason University, where he served as director of the Center for the Applications of Mathematics, as chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, and as associate dean for graduate studies. In 1997, he was selected dean of George Mason’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Prior to his tenure at George Mason, Dr. Struppa held positions at the University of Milano (Milan, Italy), the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy) and the University of Calabria (Calabria, Italy).
Dr. Struppa earned his laurea in mathematics from the University of Milan, Italy in 1977, and received his doctorate degree in mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1981. In recognition of his work, he has been awarded the Bartolozzi Prize from the Italian Mathematical Union (1981), and the Matsumae Medal from the Matsumae International Foundation of Tokyo (1987).
In 2006, the BIO-IT Coalition (a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., and dedicated to the support of bioinformatics) established a new prize in Dr. Struppa’s honor – the “Professor Daniele Struppa Award” – which is designed to honor high school teachers in math, science and technology.
Dr. Struppa is the author of more than 200 refereed publications, and he is the editor of several volumes. He has edited or co-authored more than ten books, including Bicomplex Holomorphic Functions (2015), Regular Functions of a Quaternionic Variable (2013), Noncommutative Functional Calculus: Theory and Applications of Slice Hyperholomorphic Functions (2011), Analysis of Dirac Systems and Computational Algebra (2004), Fundamentals of Algebraic Microlocal Analysis (1999), and The Fundamental Principle for Systems of Convolution Equations (1983).
While serving as chancellor, Dr. Struppa continued his scholarly research focusing on Fourier analysis and its applications to a variety of problems including the algebraic analysis of systems of differential equations, signal processing and pattern recognition. Some of his recent work applies these ideas and methods to problems ranging from denoising to bio-contaminant protection to proteomics of cancerous cells.
Stavros N. Yiannouka
CEO, World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE)
WISE is a a major initiative of the Qatar Foundation; it is a multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary platform dedicated to building the future of education through innovation. WISE flagship programs include an annual summit dubbed the "Davos" of education and the WISE Prize for Education, the first global prize of its kind to recognize an individual or team for making a major contribution to education.
Prior to joining WISE, Mr. Yiannouka was the Executive Vice-Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) at the National University of Singapore. He joined the LKY School in June 2005 to spearhead the implementation of an ambitious growth strategy, which he had helped develop as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Today, the LKY School is widely recognized as the leading global policy school in Asia.
Together with Kishore Mahbubani et al. Mr. Yiannouka is the co-author of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy: Building a Global Policy School in Asia, World Scientific (2012). Before joining the LKY School, he spent five years with McKinsey & Company from 2000-2005 serving private and public sector clients in Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Canada, predominantly in finance, healthcare and education. Prior to joining McKinsey, he practiced corporate law in the City of London from 1995-1998 with the firms Gouldens and Mayer, Brown & Platt.
Mr. Yiannouka holds an MBA (with Distinction) from the London Business School and an LLB (with Honours) from the University of Bristol. He is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and an Adjunct Professor and Advisor at the LKY School.
Mr. Yiannouka will be the 2014 ACS Athens Commencement speaker.
Troy D. VanAken
President, Elmhurst College
Troy D. VanAken, Ph.D., began his term as the 14th president of Elmhurst College in July 2016.
Since his arrival, the College has seen historic enrollments and record fundraising results, and has achieved a stable financial foundation on which to build.
With this positive momentum, President VanAken is focused on the future of the College. In 2021, Elmhurst will celebrate its 150th year of educating students and preparing them for meaningful lives and careers. In anticipation of this anniversary, President VanAken led the development of a collaborative strategic plan that engaged the entire Elmhurst College community. The Elmhurst College 2021 Strategic Plan will serve as the blueprint for the future of the College.
Before coming to Elmhurst, he served as president and professor of mathematics at Thiel College in Greenville, Pa. Among his accomplishments at Thiel, President VanAken oversaw a major capital campaign that exceeded its $60 million goal 10 months early.
Previously, President VanAken served in a number of roles at Albion College, including executive vice president, vice president for finance and management, vice president for information technology, and athletic director. Along with his extensive background in higher education, President VanAken was a successful business entrepreneur and owned a number of technology companies.
He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics from Bowling Green State University and a bachelor of science degree from Hillsdale College. President VanAken and his wife, Dr. Annette VanAken, have two adult children, Trey and Gabriella.
Dr. Julie E. Wollman
President, Widener University
For more than 25 years, Dr. Julie E. Wollman has been a passionate, fearless, and effective advocate and leader in higher education. She is the tenth president of Widener University, a role she assumed in January of 2016. Guided by a relentless pursuit of excellence, she has articulated a clear vision and distinct goals for the university focused on providing an unparalleled learning experience.
Leading with enthusiasm, authenticity, and a strong respect for others, Dr. Wollman is nationally recognized specifically for her commitment to building community and bringing people from varying perspectives together to engage in conversation. In the fall of 2017, Dr. Wollman launched Common Ground, an ongoing university-wide initiative designed to encourage reasoned civil discourse on challenging topics.
Dr. Wollman serves on the boards of local, regional, and national organizations, including the Riverfront Alliance of Delaware County, an economic development organization, where she serves as Board Vice-President; the Global Philadelphia Association; the Middle Atlantic Conference of the NCAA where she serves as Board Secretary; the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia where she chairs the President’s Alliance; the Baldwin School; and the American Association of University Administrators.
Prior to joining Widener University, Dr. Wollman served as president of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and she has held academic leadership positions at Wheelock College, Worcester State University, and Rhode Island College. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, her master of science from the University of Pennsylvania, and her doctor of philosophy from New York University.
Dr. Wollman is a frequent commentator and dynamic speaker on education-related public policy issues, higher education affordability, and leadership, appearing regularly in print, online, and broadcast media outlets. She is the recipient of numerous teaching, academic, and professional awards and recognitions. Most recently, she was named by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a “2017 Women of Distinction” and one of its “People to Watch for 2018,” as well as one of Main Line Today magazine’s 2017 “Women on the Move.”
Dr. Eric A. Zillmer
Athletic Director, Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Drexel University
Dr. Eric A. Zillmer is the Director of Athletics, Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology, and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Now in his 21st year as Athletics Director, Zillmer oversees all components of the Athletics Department and also teaches in the University’s Pennoni Honors College.
Zillmer’s books include Principles of Neuropsychology, which has been used in over 500 Universities worldwide. The Quest for the Nazi Personality has been summarized as the definitive psychological analysis of Third Reich war criminals. Military Psychology examines the psychological contexts involved in geopolitical events. Zillmer was invited by the Pentagon as a Distinguished Visitor to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the Pennsylvania National Guard to visit war-torn Bosnia, and he has most recently served as the prosecution mental health expert in the high-profile murder trial of Eric Frein who was sentenced to death in April 2017. Dr. Zillmer is also the author of several psychological assessment procedures, including the Tower of London-Drexel test and the d2 Test of Attention. His work has been translated into Czech, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese.
Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center has been voted the No.1 City Gym in Philadelphia and was also ranked No. 7 in the nation by College Magazine. Zillmer also founded the Drexel Sports management major in 2001 and he is a member of the NCAA U.S. Olympic Liaison Committee. Drexel’s athletic teams have won many city, conference and even a national championships (women’s basketball WNIT 2013). Zillmer has an international background. He was born in Japan and grew up in Europe. He attended the Werdenfels Gymnasium (Abitur) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Maximilians University in Munich (Physics), both in Germany. In the USA he attended Rutgers University (BA), the Florida Institute of Technology (MS, PsyD), Eastern Virginia Medical School (Residency) and the University of Virginia Medical School (Post Doc). Zillmer comes from an international sports family. His sister Bibi was a member of the German figure skating team in 1968 (Grenoble, France) and his father played baseball and football at the Unites States Military Academy at West Point.