Philipp is half German half Greek and he was born in 1980 close to Munich. After receiving a Diploma in International Business Administration from the Munich Business School in 2005, he decided to move to Greece to co-found travelplanet24.com with Kristof Keim. Currently he is still acting as the CEO of Tripsta/travelplanet24.

The company started in 2005 as one of the first “Online Travel Agencies” (OTAs) in Greece.

In 2010 in the middle of the financial crises in Greece, the company set the goal to expand abroad and to become one of the five leading OTAs in South-Eastern-Europe. Travelplanet24 currently employs more than 160 professionals working in several departments (Development, Design, Marketing, Operations, Finance, HR,..) in its three offices in Athens, Bucharest & Sao Paolo.

Since September 2012, he is a member of the board of PETAGA (Greek Union of Air Travel agencies).
Since July 2013, he is a member of the board of Spitogatos.gr a Greek website for real estate ads.
He loves his work; he is a tech enthusiast, an optimization junkie and a good old wine lover.

Participation to the discussion

Christodoulou Alex

Co-founder at Locish

Alex is co-founder and CTO at Locish, a Q&A mobile app enabling users to ask like-minded people for real-time recommendations on places to eat, drink, and have fun. Alex is leading the Locish technical strategy, while he is involved in every step of the product development ensuring a meaningful, pleasant and undisrupted experience for all Locish users.
Prior to Locish, Alex worked as an IT school teacher and took on, on a freelance base, the design and development of more than 100 websites. In 2005 Alex founded his first startup called “izzyrace”, a social web platform for sport enthusiasts.
Alex obtained his degree in Computer Engineering and Informatics at the University of Patras and completed his dissertation on Artificial Intelligence.

Fail fast, learn fast, overperform

The hard part about a startup, is to create something really useful, for a huge market, in a short period of time, with limited resources. You need to overperform, thus you need to learn fast, thus you need to fail fast.

Hiliarhopoulos Agis

Agis has worked since 2000 in private equity with regional mid-market funds Global Finance and Bancroft. Within this period he led or co-led more than 12 transactions (including 4 successful exits) and led the Boards of 8 companies in Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania and Greece. Prior to that he worked in management consulting with regional firm Kantor mostly handling strategy and corporate finance projects. He is currently with the Hellenic Republic Asset Fund overseeing the privatization of Greece's holdings in the energy sector.

Coordinator of the 1st Panel

Kalliagkopoulos Nikos

Financial Analyst at Dutch Expansion Capital and Investment Manager at Startupbootcamp HighTechXL, Netherlands

Nick has a background in Computer Engineering, Finance and Investments. Currently he works as a financial analyst at Dutch Expansion Capital (DEC), an independent Private Equity and Venture Capital firm investing in life-changing, sustainable companies that harness substantial growth potential. He is also an Investment Manager at Startupbootcamp HighTechXL, a seed investment business accelerator for global High Tech companies. Prior to that, he was working part-time at Rockstart Accelerator in Amsterdam, that invested in promising start-ups and provided them with office space and mentor coaching by entrepreneurs. Before that, Nick did an internship in the Financial Services and Risk Management, in the Advisory Services of Ernst & Young in Greece. Nick holds an MSc in Computer Engineering and Informatics from the University of Patras. He also holds an MSc in Finance and Investments (cum laude) from Rotterdam School of Management.

Accelerating early stage, high tech companies in Europe. The case of Eindhoven

Dutch Expansion Capital is a highly operationally involved VC firm and Startupbootcamp HighTechXL is Europe’s best accelerator program for High Tech companies. What are the differences of High Tech companies compared to a typical startup? How do we find the most promising High Tech companies from all over the world? What type of support do the companies receive? How does Eindhoven, the High Tech capital of Europe benefit startups and early stage companies?

Kitiris Simos

Founder, Yumbles, UK

Simos is an entrepreneur with a passion for online marketplaces and all things tech. He is the founder of Yumbles - an online marketplace that enables independent food producers to sell their products directly to consumers.
Simos has also co-founded PeoplePerHour and has served as CTO for 6 years, helping to make it one of the top online services marketplaces globally today.
Prior to Yumbles and PeoplePerHour, Simos has held a number of consulting and software engineering positions in leading companies and has worked across a variety of industries, ranging from healthcare to food/drink and travel.
Simos holds an MEng with first-class honours from the University of Cambridge.

Just do it!

Palandjian Onic

General Manager, Europa Aluminum Systems

Onic is the CEO of Europa, the premier aluminium extrusion corporation in Greece.
During the past 21 years, Onic has managed industrial corporations, venture capital funds and technology companies in Europe and the USA.

Before joining Europa, Onic was the CEO of Herco which, under his leadership, became the most efficient clean-tech corporation of its kind in Southeast Europe. He concurrently served as the investment Director of Capital Connect, a pioneering Venture Capital fund.

Previously, Onic led the international expansion of Velti, the global leader in mobile marketing. Prior to that, he founded two technology companies, ihavemoved (acquired by Royal Mail) and ichziehum (acquired by Deutsche Post).

As an advocate for socially-responsible growth, Onic often speaks at Universities and conferences. His three TEDx talks and volunteer work with UP Greek Tourism gained international recognition.

He studied in Boston and earned a BSc in Management from Bentley and a CSS in Business Administration from Harvard.

Coordinator of the 2nd Panel

Papadakis John

Co-Founder & CEO at Pollfish

Studied Computer Engineering at University of Patras. Previously founded Pajap Inc and now proud founder of Pollfish.com. Passionate about platforms and businesses that scale.

Insights from Pollfish

Pilitsis Loukas

CEO, Piraeus Equity Advisors

Loukas Pilitsis is the Head of the Piraeus Venture Capital and Private Equity Group(VC-PE Group), and Chief Executive Officer of Piraeus Equity Advisors, the vehicle in charge of all the Private Equity and Venture Capital activities of Piraeus Bank Group. Loukas is a founding member of the VC-PE Group. Also, he is a member of the BoD of SEN-Junior Achievement Greece organization and member of the Committee of Innovation, Education and Entrepreneurship at the Greek-American Chamber of Commerce, both promoting the new entrepreneurship and innovation in Greece.

Loukas joined Piraeus Bank in early October 2009. Previously, he was with State Street since 1995. He held senior positions in investment banking, corporate venture capital & private equity, strategy development and risk management in Boston, US and London, UK. His most recent role with State Street was the Pan European Chief Administrative Officer, European Executive Board. In that role, he was responsible for Pan European strategy development, M & A and Private Equity supervision, and co-management of the European corporate functions.

Loukas holds a Law degree from Athens University Law School, an LLM in international financial services law from Boston University Law School and an MSF from Boston College, and he is a graduate of the Executive Development Program from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, USA and a frequent speaker in investment related events.

Assisting new entrepreneurs establish and grow globally their start up

Pogkas Dimitrios

Journalist, Senior Startups & Entrepreneurship Editor, EMEA.gr

With a Communications and Mass Media background, Dimitrios is in his mid-20's a senior editor at Greek online business news portal EMEA.gr. Dimitrios is documenting extensively the greek startups, entrepreneurship and VC ecosystems of Greece. The rest of his interest include digital economy, EU issues and data journalism. Connect with Dimitrios on Twitter at @pogkas.

Coordinator of the 3rd Panel

Raptopoulos Emmanouel

COO Head SAP South Europe, MD SAP Hellas, Greece, Cyprus & Malta

Emmanouel (Manos) Raptopoulos began his career as an Engineer in Motor Oil Hellas and works in SAP Hellas since 1998.
During 2000-2003 he worked as Project Manager on projects - regarding supply chain - and then undertook the establishment of the Business Development Division under the Sales Manager.
From 2006 to January 2008 he was Sales Director, and from January 2008 his company entrusted him the position of Managing Director.
Since January 2013, Manos Raptopoulos took over the position of COO Head for South Europe (Greece & Cyprus, Iberia, Italy, Turkey & Israel), while still remains the Managing Director for Greece and Cyprus.

Welcome Notes

Sarikas Omiros

Director, Mergers and Acquisitions, AHV Associates LLP, UK

Omiros D. Sarikas is a Mergers and Acquisitions financier at AHV Associates LLP, an award winning London-based advisory firm. Prior to AHV he was mainly involved in private equity transactions, such as Cinven’s acquisition of Sebia for €800 million.

Omiros has worked on projects in London, Zürich and New York for venture capital and private equity funds of various types and sizes (from $200 million to $20 billion of assets under management), including Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, Ares Life Sciences (Ernesto Bertarelli’s fund), Cinven, ECI Partners, Silverfleet Capital and Hutton Collins.

In addition, he has advised on strategic M&A business projects for IntraLinks, Deloitte Corporate Finance, AMEX (S&P 500 serial acquirer with $147 billion assets), Credit Suisse (First Boston) Investment Bank and Lyceum Capital private equity fund.

Omiros is a regular conference speaker and author of a number of articles on M&A and PE. He holds several awards, degrees and qualifications including the CCF from CISI and read, amongst others, technology, business and finance at the London School of Economics (LSE), Cass Business School (CBS) and the London Business School (LBS) respectively. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (MCISI) and the UK’s Hellenic Bankers Association as well as Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Omiros has been recognised as the first ‘M&A Young Gun’ of the year by ACQ magazine and is admitted to the Worshipful Company of International Bankers.

How to get your company funded by international private equity funds, boost growth and global exposure: A Guide for SMEs

Siokos Stavros, Ph.D

Chief Executive Officer, Sciens Alternative Investments, UK

Dr. Siokos is Chief Executive Officer of Sciens Alternative Investments and is responsible for the general management of Sciens in its capacity as investment advisor and asset manager for the fund of funds and the managed account platforms. He also serves on the board of directors, advisory boards and investment committees of several prominent companies, institutions and academic establishments.

For 13 years, he served as managing director within the equities division of Citigroup in London, where he was global head of alternative execution sales (program trading, algorithmic trading, Direct Market Access), global head of pre and post trade analytics (responsible for Best Execution Consulting Services - BECS), global head of portfolio trading strategies, as well as European head of the company's pension funds and insurance companies’ structured solutions for equities. During that period, he and his teams were top ranked in most of the major global and European investment quantitative research surveys.

Subsequently, he was head of investment management for the Piraeus Bank in Greece. He was Chairman of Piraeus Asset Management and Piraeus Equity Advisors, the private equity and venture capital arms of the Piraeus Group, both of which he initiated and implemented. He was also Chairman of Piraeus Wealth Management, a joint venture between the Piraeus Bank and BNP Paribas Wealth Management. He initiated and established this joint venture for the provision of wealth management services in the countries where the Piraeus Group operates.

Dr. Siokos holds an electrical and computer engineering diploma from the University of Patras, Greece, as well as a master's degree in the same field and a Ph.D. in operations research (with focus on financial engineering) from the University of Massachusetts. He is the author of several academic and professional papers, as well as a number of international books.

Myths and realities of Private Equity Investments in Greece

Trachanis Spyros

Odyssey Venture Partners, Greece

Spyros Trachanis is a Managing Partner of Odyssey Venture Partners. A venture capital investor since 1999, Spyros has in the past served as a director of Oxygen Capital Management and NBGI Venture Capital. He has invested in a number of early stage technology companies in Greece and internationally. Spyros holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Patras and an MBA from Insead.

One year after the first ignition

Tziralis George

Partner, OpenFund, Greece

George (b. 1982), Partner, is an engineer by training, turned entrepreneur turned venture capitalist.

He has founded a couple of software companies, one specializing in prediction markets and another in data mining; in both times he failed. He is widely recognized as the initiator the Open Coffee community in Greece, hosting monthly meetings in Athens since 2007.

In 2009, he co-founded Openfund, which he now serves as a Partner. He is mostly focusing on the business side of the operations, while serving in a number of boards of portfolio companies.

George holds a PhD in Operations Research and a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, both from the National Technical University of Athens.

He blogs at gtziralis.com, and can be reached at gt@theopenfund.com

Greek Facts and Figures: The Openfund case

Verginadis Yiannis

Co-Founder & CEO of PeekInToo

Yiannis Verginadis is the CEO and one of the three co-Founders of Peekintoo - an anonymous social-network that allows smartphone users to exchange real-time 12 second videos (called Peeks) from anyplace around the world. He has more than ten years of experience in ICT as a senior researcher at the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) of Athens, Greece, where he has worked in several research areas such as software engineering, workflow management, e-Government and cloud computing. He holds diploma and doctoral degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. His PhD thesis was on inter-organizational workflow management systems in e-Government. In addition, he has worked as an adjunct lecturer in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering of the University of Thessaly and as an adjunct assistant professor in the Technological Educational Institute of Kalamata.

Starting up: The Peekintoo Experience

Peekintoo is a Greek startup that was officially launched on December of 2013. It offers an exciting new way of virtually experiencing and witnessing anything that is happening around the world, captured in real-time and upon request. Peekintoo is an anonymous social network which enables users to request and upload visual content. Users can request “Peeks” (12 second videos) from any desired location around the globe, view “Past Peeks” (videos uploaded up to two hours ago), and contribute “PeekShouts” (voluntary Peeks capturing interesting incidents or events) using their mobile devices.

During this presentation I will discuss:
• The main challenges of the global market we are addressing
• How Peekintoo works
• Our major highlights, experiences and difficulties thus far

June 13, 2014

Cotsen Hall

organized by

PRIVATE EQUITY & VENTURE CAPITAL

Speakers / Presentations

Speakers of Panels

Coordinators of Panels

Brinkmann Philipp