My role
At Vestas, I am the general manager for Greece, Cyprus and our business units in some of the Balkan countries. In this role, I am responsible for all parts of the business, focusing primarily on our core activities, which namely are our Sales unit, Construction unit and Service of wind turbine generators. Vestas is the market leader in our region, as we have more than 50% of the market share in Greece and own the entire 100% of the market in Cyprus. There is a great potential in both markets as they are expected to grow 7 or 8 times their current levels. Up until 2020, we aim to reach a capacity goal of almost 10000 MW.
My career path
My first degree was a BSc in Physics from Athens University in Greece, which also included a 3-months exchange project at Uppsala University in Sweden. Upon my BSc, I went to the UK to pursue a PhD degree, also in Physics, at the Durham University and in the following years, I worked as University Professor in both the UK and Austria. From the academic world, I changed to the private sector, where I spent 18 years with Shell International working in various global, regional and local roles, mostly based out of our global head quarter in London. In my last job, I worked as a regional General Manager for the Mediterranean, Africa and Middle East region, being responsible for Sales and Operations of Shell Marine Products. I was then based in Athens. I left in 2008 to become CEO of the only Railway operator in Greece, before finally joining Vestas in my current position in 2009.
My network
In Greece, Vestas is a young, growing and ambitious company. It is a great place to work! I often share with my own personal network the excitement of working within the renewable energy sector and wind in particular. By participating in various professional associations (e.g. EASE, the Association of General Managers in Greece), I also try to help Vestas to acquire some of the professional skills that are often found in more mature companies and industries, such as the Oil & Gas world where I came from.
My Vestas
As a member of the regional leadership team in Vestas’ Sales Business unit in our Mediterranean region, I work very closely with our President and the functional VPs who are responsible for the various parts of our business, especially Sales, Finance and Operations. Locally, my internal role is to lead my own team towards achieving our set business targets towards our global Triple15 vision, while externally I work with customers and industry stakeholders in promoting wind energy and of course Vestas’ business interests.
My life
I spend most of my free time with my family; my African wife and our 3 children. By engaging with my children in various sports and travel activities as the main means, I try to teach them how to be good and responsible citizens, while also developing a global mind-set, which I all think is very important today. For instance, all of them are bi-lingual in Greek and English, all the while learning Spanish and Chinese in school.
