Cyprus Economy and Competitiveness Council

Takis Klerides - Chairman

Mr Klerides, first Chairman of the Council, has served as Minister of Finance during the period March 1999 to February 2003. He studied Business Administration in the UK and then qualified as a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). He is now a Fellow of the ACCA – UK. After graduation, Mr Klerides worked for a few years in England and Greece and returned to Cyprus in 1977 to join Metaxas Loizides, Syrimis & Co (KPMG), where he became a partner in 1981. He has been member of Boards of Directors, in public and private companies, both in Cyprus and abroad...

Dr. Andreas Ashiotis - Vice Chairman

Mr Ashiotis holds a B.Sc. in Management and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Economics from Southern Illinois University in the USA. He is the Head of the Retail Banking Department of the Hellenic Bank Group, one of the three systemic banks in Cyprus. He also serves as an academic associate at the University of Cyprus with a number of publication on macroeconomics. He is also a Board Member of the Cyprus Blockchain Technologies Centre.

Pavlos Photiades - Member

Mr Photiades studied Economics at Harvard University and he also holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School in France. He is Managing Director of the Photos Photiades Group since 1990. As of 2016 he serves as President of the Brewers of Europe, a union representing 8500 breweries and national representatives from 29 countries.

Dr. Elena Andreou - Member

Ms. Andreou holds a B.Sc. in Economics and Statistics from the Queen Mary College of the University of London, an MBA in Finance from the University of Nottingham and a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester. Since 2000 she has been working as a professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Cyprus and she has publications on econometrics and economics. As of 2016 she also serves as the Director of the Economic Research Center of the University of Cyprus...

Dr. Charalambos Papageorgiou - Member

Mr Charalambos Papageorgiou received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Athens, a MA in Philosophy from the King's College in London and a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from the University College London. In 1991 he joined the European University's Research Centre, heading its socio-economic and political research department. During the period 2011-2016 he served as a Member of the Parliament sitting on the Finance Committee and also the Parliament’s Audit Committee. He also serves as a fellow of the Davos World Economic Forum for the competitiveness programme.

Tasos Anastasiou - Member

Mr Anastasiou holds a B.Sc. in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics. He worked at PwC and he is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW). He holds an Advanced Corporate Finance Qualification of the ICAEW and of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments, and a diploma in corporate governance from the Institute of Directors. He is Managing Director of a Group operating in the field of international financial services. He was member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority.

Georgios Kitazos - Member

Mr Kitazos holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the Warwick University and a M.Sc. in Economics from the Cambridge. During the period 2009-2014, he worked as an analyst and economic officer at the Central Bank of Cyprus. As of April 2014 he holds a managerial position in a group of companies in the tourism sector.

Evangelos Tryfonos - Member

Evangelos Tryfonos holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington and an MBA from the University of Kansas as well as the Advanced Certificate from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. He offers advisory services specializing in Trade Credit Insurance, Risk Management and Business Intelligence. He initially worked in the field of primary market research with AC Nielsen in the markets of Cyprus, Lebanon and Morocco, before moving to the financial services sector, first as an officer with the Cyprus Stock Exchange and then as a manager in Francoudi & Stephanou Financial Services. In 2005 he joined Logicom Public where he stayed until 2021. Among other things, he established the company’s Credit Risk and Collections Department, which he leaded across more than 20 countries.

Marios Stephanides - Member

Marios Stephanides has a degree in Economics and an MSc in Monetary and Financial Economics from the University of Cyprus. He has been working at the Ministry of Finance since 2006, as an Economic Officer. The main focus of his work has been EU economic affairs. As Financial Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Cyprus to the EU, during the period 2009-2014, he coordinated issues pertaining to the EU ECOFIN Council, including the period of Cyprus’ Presidency of the Council of the EU. Upon his return to Cyprus, he worked on financial and economic affairs at the Presidency of the Republic, until 2018 when he returned to work at the Ministry of Finance, where he currently holds the position of Economic Officer A’ at the Economic Policy, European and International Affairs Directorate. During the period 2003-2006 he worked as a Research Associate at the Economics Research Centre of the University of Cyprus, where he participated in a number of economic research programmes, studying Cyprus’ economy.

Council Composition ( Members)