Antonios Trakakis graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Dept of National Technical University of Athens in 1989 and carried out graduate studies at von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in the field of Turbomachinery.

He started his professional career as Cadet Engineer in 1989 and continued in 1993 as 3rd Engineer. He worked in shipping companies initially as Superintendent Engineer and since 2000 as Technical Manager, while in October 2020 he joined RINA as Technical Director, Marine Greece

Antonios has extensive experience with the regular and irregular matters involved with the technical operations of a shipping company, as well as with new building projects, sea trials and factory testing of engines. He has studied extensively the challenges and benefits associated with the application of natural gas as fuel.

George Teriakidis is a naval architect and currently holds the position of Area Manager for East Mediterranean & Black sea for DNV. 

He has completed studies of B.Eng. in Naval architecture at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne as well as of a M.Sc. in Ship Production Technology at Strathclyde University of Glasgow. Upon completion of his studies, he joined Det Norske Veritas office of Dubai, UAE as surveyor. During his 8 year stay in Dubai he took various roles and responsibilities. 

In August 2008 he joined Det Norske Veritas Piraeus and since 2013 he was responsible for the business development for Det Norske Veritas’s region of South East Europe and Middle East. From June 1^st 2019, he holds the position of Area Manager for East Mediterranean and Black sea. In December 2019 he was awarded the “New Generation Award” from CAREER4SEA. He is member of the board  (Governor) of Propeller Club Port of Piraeus and the secretary of the board of directors for DNV Hellas.

He is married and is the proud father of a young princess. During his free time he still enjoys photography, reading books and listening to music. 

Mr. Dimitris Theodossiou is the co-founder, Managing Director and a member of the board of Danaos Management Consultants S.A., since 1986.

Mr. Theodossiou graduated as a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer from National Technical University of Athens and holds an MSc with distinction in Marine Engineering from the University of London. He has also done postgraduate studies in Computer Science and Industrial Marketing.

As the Managing Director of Danaos Management Consultants, has managed several composite maritime projects and has been internationally acknowledged as the Franz Edelman’s Award finalist, ORISMA and the WAVES Lloyd’s Big Data Awarded, winner.

Konstantinos Karamanos was born in Athens in 1966. He is retired Captain, of the Hellenic Navy, he has graduated from the Hellenic Naval Academy and the Supreme Joint War College. He has served in several warships and staff positions in Greece and NATO. He holds a Master Degree from the National Technical University of Athens and he has participated to European research programs.

During the last 8 years his professional activities are focused in the shipping industry. Additionally, he is working on the final stage of postgraduate studies in Environmental, Disaster, and Crisis Management Strategies.

His interests are occupational safety, environment and geopolitics, activities related to the sea and photography.

Konstantinos Petropoulos is General Manager responsible for the Shipping and Structured finance Lending Units within Corporate and Investment Banking Group of Piraeus Bank.

Having worked for several financial institutions domestically and abroad, he has extensive experience in various areas of banking including project finance, shipping, corporate and real estate. Before joining Piraeus Bank in 2013, he was Director of Special Loans and Project Finance at Cyprus Popular Bank in Athens. Prior to that, he worked for 11 years at Hypovereinsbank in Athens in various managerial positions with emphasis on Project Finance and Advisory.

He started his career in banking in 1994 as an Assistant Vice President at Citigroup in New York in Global Operations & Technology. In 1996 he joined the Risk Management Unit of Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

Konstantinos Petropoulos holds an MBA in Finance and an MSc in Electrical Engineering, both from Columbia University in New York, and a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.

MICHALIS PANTAZOPOULOS, has more than 30 years working experience in shipping and offshore industries in Greece and United States.  Graduating with a PhD in Mechanical/Ocean Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, he joined EXXON Corporation where for the next ten years served in engineering and managerial positions in offshore and marine engineering fields including 2 years of service as technical support to Exxon’s legal team in the EXXON VALDEZ trial.    Upon returning to Greece, he joined ABS Consulting (American Bureau of Shipping) in managerial positions serving the shipping and offshore industry in Greece and south Europe.  Cooperation with AVIN INTERNATIONAL as Manager of the Fleet Services Division started in 2000. 

Since 2004, Michalis is part of the Liberian Registry, serving in their Piraeus office as Senior Vice-President. 

A regular speaker and contributor to shipping conferences and technical magazines, Michalis has been affiliated with several shipping and technical committees including INTERTANKO Associate Members Committee, Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers of USA and Greece, Technical Chamber of Greece, HELMEPA, Propeller Club etc.   

Founder and Managing Director of Alpha Shipping Advisors Ltd with offices in Athens, Oslo and exclusive partners in Shanghai and Singapore.

Former senior banker with a leading western traditional ship finance bank- London and Piraeus and former Head of Greece of a Chinese Finance Shipbroking Company.

Over 25 years of experience in shipping, dept finance transactions and unique expertise in leasing transactions (Chinese, Japanese, Finance, Operating), equity, ECA finance, joint ventures and commercial advisory. Has successfully led the completion of high profile and notable transactions for private and US listed shipping groups.

BSc from Southampton Solent University and MSc from University of Wales, Cardiff.

Member of Piraeus Propeller Club, Hellenic Ship Broker Association, Association of Greek Bankers and Financial Executives and Chios Marine Club.

"Stamatis Tsantanis is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the shipping company Se- anergy Maritime Holdings Corp., listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York (NASDAQ: SHIP). With over 23 years of experience in shipping and capital markets, he has been leading Seanergy since 2012, overseeing its significant growth into a globally recognized capesize company with a transportation capacity of over 3.0 million dwt.

Prior to Seanergy, he served as Chief Financial Officer and board member in private and listed shipping companies. Before entering the shipping industry, he worked as an investment banker at Alpha Finance, specializing in initial public offerings and particularly those in New York markets.

Stamatis Tsantanis is also a board member of Breakwave Associates with two ETFs listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BDRY & BSEA). Additionally, he is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS), holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Shipping Trade and Finance from Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School in London, and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Shipping Studies from the University of Piraeus."

Harry Vafias founded Stealth Maritime Corp in 1999. Stealth Maritime Corp has invested in new generation newbuilds between  for the renewal of its tanker fleet and today operates twenty five 50,000 – 170,000 dwt modern double hull oil tankers.

In 2004 he founded Stealthgas which was listed on the NASDAQ in October 2005 and up to today has raised approx $500 mill from the capital markets. Stealthgas owns  45 gas ships (including newbuilds)  and is the largest company, in number of owned vessels, in gas transportation worldwide.

In 2021 he founded Imperial petroleum which was listed on the NASDAQ in December 2021, and is the 7^th most traded stock on any US stockmarket!

In 2023 he founded C3iS inc which  listed on the NASDAQ in the summer of 2023.

In 2005 Harry Vafias founded Estates Corporation Inc, a real estate company, investing in Greece, London, New York, and Switzerland.

Dr. Christos Sigalas has approximately 20 years of undergraduate and graduate teaching experience in the academic fields of strategic and financial management at various state and non-state Greek Universities. Currently holds the position of Associate Professor at Deree-The American College of Greece. His main research interests include strategic management, corporate finance, management accounting and maritime financial management, with more than 20 manuscripts published in academic journals, journals for practitioners, book chapters, conferences proceedings and economic press. He received the 2014 Highly Commended Paper Award by Emerald Publishing, for publishing in the Journal of Strategy and Management. He also received the IAME 2019 – Best Paper Award for the special session ‘Financial Risk Management and Investments in Maritime Transportation’ at 27th Annual Conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists. In addition, two of his publications are mentioned in two articles published by TradeWinds, one paper is included in the World Health Organization COVID-19 Research Database, and one paper is linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Dr. Christos Sigalas was also a business executive with more than 20 years of management, finance and accounting working experience in maritime shipping, investment banking, telecommunication, and management consulting industries. He has significant experience in public equity offerings on U.S. capital markets, debt financings, debt restructurings as well shipping investments. For 14 years he had served as Finance Executive at Seanergy Maritime Holding Corp. (Seanergy), a maritime shipping holdings company listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market.

Publications:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=el&user=CHirLosAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

Publications Mentioned in Press:

https://www.tradewindsnews.com/bulkers/tradewinds-articles-help-build-dry-bulk-sentiment-gauge/2-1-1074936

https://www.tradewindsnews.com/finance/bigger-is-better-when-it-comes-to-conflicts-of-interest-paper-shows/2-1-937875

Publication Mentioned in World Health Organization Covid-19 Research Database:

https://search.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/?output=&lang=en&from=&sort=&format=&count=&fb=&page=1&skfp=&index=au&q=Christos+Sigalas&search_form_submit=

Publication Linked to The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.martra.2022.100064