The ‘UK Cyprus Enterprise Council’ has been established in London this week.
With offices in Mayfair and Hertfordshire, the Council has been set up by British Cypriot entrepreneurs and professional people and is intended as a vehicle for the promotion of bilateral trade between the UK and Cyprus, the development of UK/Cyprus partnerships in a variety of fields, as well as inward investment into the island.
The Council will also support cultural initiatives aimed at enhancing co-operation and economic development between the UK and Cyprus as well as philanthropic causes linked to its entrepreneurial activities.
Announcing the establishment of the Council, Peter Droussiotis, Chairman of its Board of Directors,
said:
“The UK is home to a significant number of highly successful and prominent British Cypriot
entrepreneurs and professional people of the highest calibre. These people are keen to help
strengthen ties between the UK and Cyprus, at every level, and to work with the Cypriot and UK
authorities and other UK and Cyprus-based partner organisations in order to promote the
development of bilateral trade, enterprise and investment co-operation between these two
historically close countries.
The Council has been set up in order to leverage the entrepreneurial talent of the British Cypriot
community in the interests of mutually beneficial co-operation between the UK and Cyprus.”
The founding Board of Directors and Secretary will consist of the following volunteers. Additional directors will be added in the future.
Mr Peter Droussiotis, Chairman
Mr Stelio Stefanou OBE, Vice Chairman
Mr Andreas Rialas, Vice Chairman
Mr John Michael Mouskos, Vice Chairman
Mr Noel Josephides, Director
Dr Lakis Andronicou, Director
Dr Andreas Kyriacou, Director
Mr Peter Tasou, Secretary
(Short biographies of the founding directors and secretary are given below)
His Excellency the Cyprus High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Mr Euripides Evriviades, has been named as an Honorary Founding Patron of the Council.
‘Honorary Patrons’ and ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ from diverse backgrounds and with high profiles will be identified and invited to lend their names to the Council and to promote its work.
Taking into account the economic crisis in Cyprus, the Council’s initial focus will be on inward
investment and bilateral trade activities with an emphasis on Cyprus’s priority sectors for
development, mainly tourism, energy, the Arts, education and services.
The Council will be entirely independent and will engage with the UK and Cyprus Governments, as well as UK and Cyprus-based semi-governmental organisations and other stakeholders and experts in these fields, in order to facilitate its promotional work.
An inaugural event with the involvement of UK and Cypriot partners is planned for 2014.
For more information, in the first instance, please email uk.cyprus.enterprise.council@gmail.com .
Biographies of the Founding Directors and Secretary appear below:
- Peter Droussiotis, a barrister by training, founded and is current Chairman of PGD
Strategy Limited, a specialist corporate finance and strategy consulting firm; he also serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of City-based insurance sector improvement and software solutions provider Sequel Business Solutions Limited. Peter has previously held senior positions with Credit Suisse, Minet Group (now part of Aon) and Price Waterhouse (now PwC). He is also the elected President of the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK and also of EPISTEME – The Association of British Cypriot Professionals.
- Stelio Stefanou, OBE, moved to the UK aged 6 with his Cypriot parents. After a business career in the oil, construction and public services industries, culminating in the sale of his business, Accord plc, in 2007, he has established two charities, the Stefanou Foundation in the UK and the Stefanou Foundation Cyprus, which aim to break new ground in addressing social and economic challenges. Stelio is also a Board member of the employment charity ‘Tomorrow’s People’ and one of Hertfordshire’s Deputy Lord Lieutenants. He has held various industry roles, including CBI Regional Chairman and Chairman of the CBI Local Government Panel, and was awarded the OBE for services to business in 2004.
- Andreas Rialas is Chief Investment Officer of Argo Group Ltd a specialist emerging markets asset management firm. He has 20 years’ experience in emerging markets trade finance and distressed investing. He has undertaken recovery work in many difficult jurisdictions and over the last 10 years has invested more than USD 1.3 billion in special situations, private credit and private equity in emerging markets. Before founding Argo in 2000 he worked for the emerging markets proprietary trading division of Deutsche Bank and London Forfaiting Plc. He is a lawyer by training and was called to the Bar in 1992.
- John Michael Mouskos, Architect and Chief Executive of Mouskos LLP, founded the J M Mouskos Foundation supporting initiatives for young people in the Arts, Health and Education. Chairman and founder of The Breathing Life Trust, Breathing Life Lung Centre for Children and Art for Life Prize, he is currently developing an International Bi-Communal Museum of Contemporary Arts within the old walls of Nicosia, Cyprus. As an International poet, mountaineer and film maker his interests spread across the arts and natural world.
- Noel Josephides is Chairman of ABTA having previously served as a Director of the organisation for several years. He is also Managing Director and Founding Partner of Sunvil Holidays, established in 1973. He has served in a variety of capacities for AITO, the Association of Independent Tour Operators – Deputy-Chairman, Chairman, Director and Chairman of the AITO Trust. He is also Chairman of the Trustees of The Travel Foundation, the travel industry’s sustainable tourism charity and Chairman of AGTA (Association of Greek Cypriot Travel Agents and Tour Operators in the UK). In December 2007 he received the Guild of Travel and Tourism Award for outstanding services to the travel and tourism industry. In April 2008 he was honoured by the Cyprus Government for 35 years of service in respect of environmental tourism to the island.
- Dr Lakis Andronicou is the Manager of the London Energy Operations–Lloyd’s Register EMEA. He has more than 30 years’ varied experience in the oil and gas industry which includes research and development, consultancy, risk analysis and appraisal of land based and offshore structures associated with energy projects on a worldwide basis.
- Dr Andreas Kyriacou, a chartered engineer, has spent the last 25 years working in the oil and gas sector, both close to home in the North Sea and on international offshore engineering and construction projects around the world. He has worked for major contractors including Saipem and Kellog Brown and Root in senior corporate positions and is currently consulting for Petrofac, the largest UK-listed oilfield services provider. He has previously held the position of President of the Association of UK Cypriot Scientists and Professionals (EPISTEME).
- Peter Tasou graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2003 (BSc Economics) and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC in 2006, where his clients included Investment Management, Private Equity and Real-Estate companies. Between 2007 and 2010, Peter worked as a fixed income derivatives trader, spending the majority of those years within the Investec Capital Markets division. In early 2011, Peter joined the Research Team at Investec Wealth and Investment (IWIN), where his current areas of responsibility include UK/European Banks, Real Estate and Structured Products.