Maria Vassilakou started her political career as Secretary General of the Austrian Students’ Union. In November 1996 she became Member of the Vienna Provincial Parliament and in 2004 Head of the Parliamentary Group of the Green Party. From November 2010 until July 2019 Maria Vassilakou served as Deputy Mayor of Vienna and Executive City Councillor for Urban Planning, Traffic & Transport, Climate Protection, Energy and Public Participation. Maria Vassilakou is Austrias first Executive City Councillor with a migration background. She was born and grew up in Greece and migrated to Austria as a student in the mid 80s. She studied Linguistics and Psychology at the University of Vienna (Magister degree, 1994) and acquired 2019 an MSc degree from the London School of Economics (LSE Cities Programme) focussing on urban sociology, urban development and design, strategy and management. Maria Vassilakou envisages cities as open, modern, affordable, family friendly and diverse places for life. In her 9 years serving as Deputy Mayor Maria Vassilakou was responsible for a vast transformation agenda comprising numerous innovative projects including among others the 365€ annual public transport card (resulting in a major modal split shift in favour of sustainable transport), several pedestrianisation and shared space projects, community co-creation projects, conversion of former brownfield areas into modern urban quarters with up to 2/3 affordable housing units, citizens´ solar power plants etc. She pressed successfully for law amendments in favour of subsidised housing and the protection of historical housing buildings in Vienna, was responsible for Viennas smart city framework strategy and several further strategic development plans and policies including Viennas climate protection program, Viennas energy strategy, and Viennas strategic concepts for green and open spaces, public spaces, mobility, industrial and manufactural areas etc. Maria Vassilakou now works worldwide as a strategist and global advisor on urban transformation, devoted to the SDGs and the vision of climate neutral cities : She shares her experience and know-how from Vienna, the worlds most liveable city, with cities, NGOs, organisations and corporations developing strategies, agendas and solutions, organising transition management and capacity building for liveable, sustainable and inclusive cities. Since September 2019 she is also a member of the experts board advising the European Commission on the future design of the EU Horizon Mission on climate neutral smart cities.

Tassos is an experienced property investment professional with 24 years of experience in the fields of property investment and management. He is the founder and managing director of 8G Capital Partners Ltd, a private equity real estate firm. Through offices in London, Nicosia and Hong Kong, 8GCP has activities in property, renewable energy and proptech. Prior to this, he was a founding director of the European arm of HSBC Property Investments, the principal property investment arm of the HSBC Group in London and a director at Prudential Real Estate Investors. Tassos holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics & Accounting from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Land Management from the University of Reading. He is a CFA charter holder and a Chartered Surveyor (MRICS) He is a regular speaker at conferences in Europe and Asia and a contributor to the financial press on matters related to property investments and non-performing loans.

A Director with international exposure in residential, hotel, golf and mixed-use development projects in city and resort locations. Currently Commercial Director at Lamda Development S.A. for the Hellinikon project (former International Airport of Athens, Greece).

Eri is responsible for the coordination of Savills European Research and for providing advice to Savills clients on their strategy and activity in the European property markets. Eri has over 20 years of experience in the European Property Markets and her opinions are regularly quoted in the international property press. Over the recent years Eri has focused on the impact of technology and demographic change on the use of space, and the rising importance of the living sectors on investment strategies. She frequently presents her views in conferences, podcasts and blogs. She is a qualified Architect and has completed the MSc in European Property Development and Planning at UCL and the Investment Property Forum Diploma at the City Business School. She is currently the Chair of ULI Greece and Cyprus National Council. In addition she is a Mentor of the Savills Mentoring Scheme. She is fluent in Greek, English, Italian, German and Romanian and has a good understanding of Spanish and Dutch. She is currently based in Athens, working regularly from the London office and she has worked previously from the Savills offices in Bucharest, Amsterdam and London.

Konstantinos Santikos is a hospitality entrepreneur. He holds a Business & Finance Degree from Babson College. He has worked at UBS bank in Zurich Switzerland and CondeNast Traveller in New Work both in their product and marketing department. Since 2010 he has been involved and leading the Santikos Collection hospitality group as General Manager for the Princess Resort until 2012, head of Sales until 2018 and Managing Director since 2018. In 2019 he founded Santikos Hospitality, a hospitality consulting agency with long term mentality.

Oriol Peña is Senior Director Asset Management at Hotel Investment Partners (HIP). With more than 11 years of experience in corporate finance, he began his career at Deloitte Netherlands, where he worked on several due diligence projects for hotel groups such as AccorHotels. He later moved into the FMCG sector, taking part in the acquisition and sales process of different branches among companies including Sara Lee, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Moreover, between 2012 and 2014, he helped create and launch Next Urban Hotels, a company which focuses on hotel management and provides consulting services for urban hotels. Oriol holds a degree in International Business Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht (HU International) and a Master’s in Finance from the London Business School.

Ioannis is an experienced investment management and advisory professional in real estate and sustainable investing. In Arbitrage RE, Ioannis is sourcing, assessing and underwriting high-yield asset management and development investment projects in commercial and hospitality real estate in SE Europe with a suitable profile for distress and added-value funds. In the past, Ioannis worked for Europa Capital in London, where he oversaw its real estate development investments in Europe. Prior, Ioannis worked for Deloitte in London, where he was involved in a variety of advisory assignments focusing on real estate occupation, management and capital programmes. Ioannis has also conducted consulting work for Citigroup in Rome. In the early stages of his career, Ioannis worked for a major infrastructure contractor and a residential development firm. Ioannis has a civil engineering background and holds an MBA from ESCP Europe and an MSc in Construction Economics & Management from UCL.

Trevor leads the Global Planning, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture practice for the firm, and guide major infrastructure initiatives where placemaking is the foundation of creating livable, sustainable and advanced urban environments. Trevor is a leading urban planner and urban designer of international repute and a recognized expert in Urban Design, Master Planning, Transit Oriented Development, Public Private Partnership (P3), and Smart City Planning. He has more than 30 years of experience in complex, multi-disciplinary design projects carried out in Canada, United States, Europe, The Middle East, South America and Asia.

Nikos Hadjos is Director of International Hotel Development for Marriott International and is based in Athens. He is heading the development efforts of all Marriott’s brands in Greece, Cyprus and Malta. Before joining Marriott in the headquarters for Middle East and Africa in 2013, Nikos worked for hotel investment companies in the Middle East such as Kingdom Hotel Investments and Abraaj Capital, as Vice President of Acquisitions, covering Middle East, Africa and Southwest Asia. Nikos has also held positions within the fields of consultancy with industry experts HVS in New York and operations with Marriott and Intercontinental in New York. He is a graduate of the University of Guelph, Ontario and holds an MBA in Finance & Investments from City University of New York. He is also a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in the UK.

Aleksandra (Sasha) Njagulj is the Global Head of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). Ms Njagulj joined CBRE Global Investors in 2019 and is based in London. She has overall responsibility for developing and communicating global ESG priorities and strategies across all business lines in EMEA, APAC and the U.S. She supports the global, regional and business line Responsible Investment Management Committees (RIMCos). Ms Njagulj is a qualified architect with over 20 years of practical experience in architectural design, design management and sustainable built environment. In 2017, she joined CBRE Global Workspace Solutions as the Lead for CBRE Global Investors with responsibility for designing and delivering ESG policies and strategies tailored for country-specific and global funds. Prior to CBRE, Ms Njagulj was head of the Sustainability, R&D and Innovation department at Bouygues UK. Ms Njagulj earned a Master’s degree in Architectural Design from the University of Belgrade in 2002 and a Master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge in 2017. She is a BRE Academy Fellow.

Lina Liakou leads the resilience practice in Europe and the Middle East for the Global Resilient Cities Network pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation (formerly 100RC), working with the 21 member cities across the region in developing their resilience thinking through long term City Resilience Strategies and actionable initiatives. Before joining the Network, Lina was Deputy Mayor and Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Thessaloniki, Greece. As a Deputy Mayor, Lina Liakou initiated collaborations with the European Commission, the EIB and the World Bank. Prior to this, Lina was Chief Executive of the Metropolitan Development Agency of Thessaloniki, an intermunicipal company that coordinates national and international research projects. Lina Liakou is an architect and urban designer from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London and a Marshall Memorial Fellow (2015) of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Born in 1961, Mr. Dimitris Andriopoulos has significant experience in the real estate, tourism, shipping and food industries. For more than 30 years he has been the head of major operations and projects in Greece and abroad for Intracom, Elliniki Technodomiki - Teb, Superfast Ferries and Mc Donald's.

Mr. Chang is a Managing Director within the Investment Management team at Hines, based in London. He joined Hines in July 1999 and throughout his 21-year career has held various roles ranging from construction manager, to project manager, to asset manager to portfolio manager.