/ Hello
Who am I you might ask?
Not your typical consultant is the straight & honest answer.
A fresh workstyle, a light demeanour, a growth mindset, an always positively inclined attitude towards interactions with people and a stress-free approach to difficult situations is what I represent and who I am. I embrace high-paced working environments & am a super fast learner. I ensure that my deliverables are always of the highest quality - something I hold dear as a core belief in my work.
I don't pretend to be someone I am not and I don't pretend to know something that I don't. When I know, I share the knowledge, when I don't know I ask questions to learn.
I have two quite opposite sides to me. On the one hand, I have a strong academic & business ‘numbers’ background (MSc. Operational Research & business planning analyst) that guarantees structure, logic and thus clarity. I also have a creative side that brings out the explorative & adventurous aspects of me, the need to think differently and discover new paths. In my world, these two seemingly different traits, co-exist very harmoniously.
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It took me a while to realise that my generalist background is actually my superpower and without which I don’t believe I could have successfully taken on my latest corporate role as Chief Transformation & Operations Officer role and my newest endeavour as a transformation consultant and executive trainer.
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/ Why work with me...
Because....
I bring structure and clarity to chaos
I make things simple and clear
I ask questions, the right questions
I adapt easily & quickly to new surroundings, clients and audiences
I am a doer. I roll up my sleeves and get things done
I can do strategy but I am also the person that then goes and implements
I am a numbers person but also creative at the same time
I lighten the atmosphere
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It's the combination of being 'schooled' for over 25+ years in multinational corporate environments (Vodafone and Microsoft) and 'graduating' with an immense wealth of knowledge and experience but more importantly having then moved on to more impactful, hands-on experience in a smaller local company.
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It's the 'having been there done that' in both worlds. Having learnt from the best and knowing what and how to apply it to smaller local companies.
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/ My life's Philosophy
My life's philosophy is 'A bit of betterness every day'
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So whatever you do, try to be just a little bit better than yesterday from the workout at the gym, to the tennis game you played and lost, to parenting, to friendships, to helping others …whatever it is you do.
You don't have to the best at anything.
But you have to be that tad bit better than yesterday.
/ My Career in a not-so-small nutshell
Phase 0
I studied Management Science (BSc) at Kent University &Operational Research (MSc) at Lancaster University in the UK. I also did a full Erasmus year in Lyon, France studying Business Administration.
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Phase 1
I entered the telecoms area as a result of my Master's thesis at British Telecom (BT) back in 1997 and continued in this industry for 17 years in total. My first 2 working years were in London with Telecoms consulting firms.
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In 2000 I moved back to Athens from London and started as a business analysts in the Finance department at Vodafone Greece. After 5 years of excel overdose, I moved to the commercial side of business, in product development, terminals marketing and finally as the Terminals Commercial Lead travelling to Luxembourg weekly for global vendor negotiations for Smartphones. I was responsible for Greece and Romania.
Phase 2
After 14 years at Vodafone, I joined Microsoft where - at the age of 40 - I landed my dream job. I found immense purpose and excitement and amazing new learnings.
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You know the saying "If you're the cleverest person in the room, you're in the wrong room"....well I was in the RIGHT room. The brain power was thrilling. At 40, I realised I have still so much to learn. Couldn't believe my luck how at 40 you can become so re-energized.
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In the 9 years at Microsoft, I went through product (local role as Office 365 Business Group Lead), Azure Marketing Senior Manager (regional role) and SMB Sales Lead for Greece, Cyprus & Malta and boy did that 3D combination of product-markeitng-sales really come together to solidify a very strong commercial foundation.
Phase 3
After one of the oh-so-many Microsoft layoffs I got made redundant in 2023 and at 50 (-1 ), I realised this was a blessing in disguise. I was lucky to have been 'forced' to rethink what I really want from my next role. I have written a ‘trilogy article’ about this job (soul) searching journey (see Articles section) but in brief, after much reflection, I decided to take a very different turn in my career -> leave the structured Multinational world and seek to help a local Greek company in its transformation journey where I can put to practice all the invaluable learnings from the big corporate world.
Phase 4
And so we meet @ Phase 4 of my professional journey. My I-know-exactly-what-I-want-to-do-when-I-grow-up phase. Yeah…took me 50 years. But hey! Better late than never.
Never really thought I'd get to Phase 4. I used to be someone who was a pious evangelist of FOREVER remaining an employee. I used to say…whatever happens you get your pay check at the end of the month. Financial crisis, capital controls, covid…whatever the crisis, the pay check still came in at the end of the month. HOWEVER, since life is all about TIMING, I have never felt more confident, more excited and more sure of leaving the secure world of paycheck month-in-month-out to enter this final chapter of re-inventing myself as a freelance consultant and executive trainer.
As I told some students at a speech I was delivering at Deree College of Athens:
Your 20s are all about EXPLORATION
Your 30s are about GROWTH
Your 40s are about MASTERY
And finally, your 50s are either a continuation of your mastery (until death do us part) OR it's your last chance for RE-INVENTION
So, me being me (restless and needing a new territory to explore) I decided to grab that chance because I felt that the time is NOW. It's my 'last chance' to re-invent myself.
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So here we are folks!