ABOUT US

Dimitri Papalexopoulos has been the Chair of the Board of Directors of Titan Cement International S.A. since 1 January 2023. Dimitri started his career as a business consultant for McKinsey & Company Inc. in the USA and Germany. He joined Titan Cement Company S.A. in 1989 and served as the Group’s CEO between 1996 and 2019. From 2019 until 2022, he served as Chair of the Group Executive Committee of Titan Cement International S.A. He is Chair of the ERT’s (European Round Table for Industry) Energy Transition and Climate Change Committee and member of the Boards of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and Endeavor Greece. In September 2024, he was elected Alternate Member of the General Council of the Bank of Greece. He holds a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Kyriakos Riris completed his high-school education in Cyprus, before continuing his higher education and professional qualifications at Birmingham Polytechnic. He completed his professional exams with the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) in the UK in 1975, becoming a Fellow of the Association of Certified Accountants in 1985. Since 1976 he has worked mostly in Greece. He was a member of the Executive Committee of PwC Greece and became a Partner in 1984. His responsibilities have included that of Managing Partner of the Audit and the Advisory/Consulting Departments respectively, and later Deputy Territory Senior Partner. In 2009, he was elected as Chair of the Board of PwC in Greece, retiring from that position in 2014. With a career spanning some 40 years, Kyriacos has accumulated vast experience with both domestic and multinational entities in a variety of sectors and industries, including manufacturing, shipping, commerce, food and beverages, construction, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and information systems.

Michael Colakides started his career at Citibank Greece where he worked for 14 years, and over time held the positions of Head of FIG and Head of Corporate Finance and Local Corporate Banking (1979–1993). In 1993, he was appointed Executive Vice-Chair of the National Bank of Greece responsible for the Corporate and Retail Banking business, the domestic and international branch network, and was Chair/member of senior committees. In 1994, he joined TITAN Cement Company S.A., where he held the position of Group CFO and executive member of the Board until 2000. He was also responsible for a number of cement company acquisitions in Southeast Europe, Egypt and the USA.
From 2000 to 2007, he served as Vice-Chair and Managing Director of Piraeus Bank S.A. overseeing the domestic Wholesale and Retail Banking business, as well as the group’s international network and activities. In 2007, he joined EFG Eurobank Ergasias S.A. assuming the position of Deputy CEO – Group Risk Executive Officer (2007–2013) overseeing the risk management functions of the Group in Greece and abroad. In January 2014, he returned to TITAN Cement Group assuming the position of Group CFO and executive member of the Board of Directors. In July 2019, he was also appointed to the position of Managing Director of Titan Cement International S.A. As of November 2021, he is non-executive Chair of Alpha Bank Cyprus. He holds a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and an MBA from the London Business School.

Marcel Constantin Cobuz has been Chair of the Group Executive Committee of Titan Group since 15 October 2022. He has more than 20 years of experience in international leadership, innovation and transformation roles. He started his career in the field of investment banking and as an entrepreneur in Romania. In 2000, he joined Lafarge, a major multinational company in building materials, where he served in various leadership roles in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. His last role was CEO Europe for LafargeHolcim. During his career he has also served on Boards of different businesses, and not-for-profit education organizations. He studied Law and Economics in Bucharest, completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program and attended executive programs at INSEAD, IMD and Singularity Group.

William Antholis is director and CEO of the Miller Center, a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history. From 2004 to 2014, he was Managing Director of the Brookings Institution. He has also served in government, including at the White House’s National Security Council and National Economic Council, and at the US State Department’s policy planning staff and bureau of economic affairs. He has published two books, as well as dozens of articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces on US politics, US foreign policy, international organizations, the G8, climate change, and trade. He earned his PhD from Yale University in politics (1993) and his BA from the University of Virginia in government and foreign affairs (1986).

Andreas Artemis has been an executive member of the Board of Directors of Commercial General Insurance Group since 1985 and Chair since 2002. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation, as well as of the Council of the Cyprus Red Cross Society. He has served as member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Cyprus Group (2000-2005), Vice-Chair (2005-2012) and Chair (2012-2013). He has also served as member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (1988-1994) and as Honorary Consul General of South Africa in Cyprus (1996-2012). He studied Civil Engineering at the Queen Mary and Imperial College of London University and holds a BSc (Engineering) and a MSc degree.

Leonidas Canellopoulos is the Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer of TITAN Group. He is also responsible for Group Corporate Affairs. Since 2012, he has covered various roles within the Group’s Finance and Strategic Planning functions and has served as Cement Operations Director of the Group’s Greek Region. Prior to that, he worked for Separation Technologies LLC. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (ΙΟΒΕ) and of Junior Achievement Greece. He holds a BA in Economics with Honors from Harvard University and an MBA from INSEAD, where he received the Henry Ford II Prize.

Harry David earned his BS from Providence College and began his career as a certified investment advisor with Credit Suisse in New York. He then served in several executive positions within Leventis Group Companies in Nigeria, Greece and Ireland. Today he serves as the Chair of Frigoglass S.A. and is on the boards of A.G. Leventis (Nigeria) PLC, the Nigerian Bottling Company Ltd, Beta Glass (Nigeria) PLC, Frigoglass Industries (Nigeria) Ltd, Pikwik (Nigeria) Ltd (a joint venture with Pick n Pay, South Africa) and Aristeus Financial Services Ltd. Harry David is director of the Board of the Anastasios G. Leventis Foundation, Cyprus, Chair of the A. G. Leventis Foundation’s Olympic Preparation Scholarship Committee and Board member of Cyprus Seeds for Technological Innovation. He has served on the boards of Alpha Finance, Greece’s Public Power Corporation and Emporiki Bank (Crédit Agricole). He has been honored with the rank of Taxiarches of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and with the Chieftaincy of Sulkin Keffi in Nigeria. A collector of Contemporary African and African Diaspora art, he is a Member of the TATE Modern’s Africa Acquisitions Committee as well as a Member of the Global Council of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Lyn Grobler is an experienced executive with a strong track-record in technology and IT roles.  She was appointed Group Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Howden Group Holdings (formerly Hyperion Insurance Group) in 2016. Prior to this she was Vice-President and CIO Corporate Functions at BP where she led the transformation of both the organization and the digital landscape through introducing sustained change in process, capability and technology, having held a variety of roles across IT and global trading over 16 years. She is also Vice-Chairperson of Bank of Cyprus. Before BP, Lyn Grobler managed large scale global technology projects and strategies within banking and trading based in both London and South Africa. She holds a Higher National Diploma in Computer Systems from Durban University in South Africa and a National Diploma in Electronic Data Processing from Cape Peninsula University (South Africa).

Paula Hadjisotiriou has extensive and wide-ranging banking and managerial experience in Europe, with special expertise in finance, strategy, governance, remuneration and corporate transactions. Following qualification as a chartered accountant in London and working with PwC, she joined the Latsis Group in Greece as Deputy Group Internal Auditor and then embarked on a long banking career from 1990 to 2015 with Eurobank Ergasias (Group CFO, Head of Strategy and Governance and Company Secretary) and National Bank of Greece (Group CFO and Deputy Group CEO also responsible for Treasury and Operations). Since then, she has been advisor to the Group CEO of EFG International in Zurich, served as an independent non-executive member on the board, member of the Audit, Risk and Technology Committees and Chair of the Risk Committee of the Bank of Cyprus from 2018 to 2023, and currently also serves as a non-executive member on the board and member of the Nominations Committee of EFG Private Bank in London and as an independent non-executive member of the board, member of the Risk Committee and Chair of the Audit and Remuneration Committees of Credit Suisse Bank (Europe) in Madrid. Paula holds a Foundation diploma from the North London Polytechnic and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales as of 1981.

Natalia Nicolaidis brings to the Board a deep risk management combination in governance, regulatory and legal matters. Based in New York and London during her 30-year career, she advised on international transactions, projects and high-level regulatory relationships. Natalia worked in Credit Suisse for 24 years where she served as global General Counsel for the Investment Banking and Capital Markets Division. Prior to that she was the Head of Risks and Controls for CS’s Investment Banking Division. Her work in private practice in New York law firms from 1991 to 1996 focused on corporate finance. She currently holds the following non-executive positions: Non-Executive Director of Aegean Airlines S.A., where she chairs the Remuneration and Nominations Committee and Sustainability Committee, Non-Executive Director of Mytilineos S.A., where she serves on the Sustainability Committee, and Non-Executive Director of SMCP S.A., a French-listed company, where she is a member of the Audit Committee. She graduated in Economics from Yale University and has advanced degrees in Law (Juris Doctor) and International Affairs (Masters) from Georgetown University and in European Union Law from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium).

Yanni Paniaras studied Civil Engineering at Imperial College (BSc, MSc) and Business Administration at INSEAD (MBA). He started his career at Knight Piésold, an international mining and engineering consultancy headquartered in London. Between 1998 and 2015, he held senior management positions in Greece and Germany in S&B Industrial Minerals Group and – in 2015 – in its new parent company, Imerys. He concluded his term there as Vice President of the former S&B Division and Managing Director of S&B Industrial Minerals S.A. In January 2016, Yanni Paniaras joined the management of TITAN Group, where he has led, since 2020, its European business as well as Group Sustainability. From 2016 to 2021 he served as Chair of the Business Council for Sustainable Development of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV). Since 2022, Yanni is serving on the Board of Quest Holdings S.A. as an independent non-executive director and Chair of its Board Sustainability Committee.

Alexandra Papalexopoulou is an Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Titan Cement International S.A. and Chair of the Board Strategy Committee. Her career began as an analyst for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and later as an associate at the consulting firm Booz, Allen & Hamilton in Paris in the early 1990s. Joining TITAN Group in 1992, she started out in international trading and business development, then headed Strategic Planning, before becoming Deputy Chair of the Group Executive Committee. Currently she is an independent, non-executive director of Aegean Group and of Coca-Cola HBC, a FTSE 100 company. She is also a member of the Board and Treasurer of the Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Foundation and serves on the Board of Trustees of INSEAD Business School. She holds a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College, USA, and an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Sandra Santos is a senior professional and was, until very recently, the CEO of BA Glass, a multinational glass packaging producer with €1.6B in revenues and +5,000 employees working across nine countries in Europe and Mexico. A tenure of 10 years, during which she led a multi-continent M&A agenda, managing challenging cultural differences and integrations, developing a top management team, and disrupting the business path towards a more sustainable and digital focus. Currently, Sandra holds a non-executive position at BA Glass and in two publicly listed companies. In Navigator, an integrated pulp & paper company and Europe’s largest manufacturer of uncoated woodfree paper, €1.9B revenues, and in EDP, the global leading renewable energy producer, €5.0B EBITDA, operating in Portugal, Spain, USA, Brazil, and Singapore. Before becoming CEO of BA Glass, she was the company’s CFO, leading the Finance, IT, and Supply-chain teams. She also had other leadership responsibilities, including running the company’s biggest manufacturing site and holding positions in HR and Finance leadership. She began her career in commercial banking roles. In 2020, she was a founding member of the Business Roundtable Portugal. She has an MBA from Porto Business School and an undergraduate degree in Business Studies from Porto University.

Dimitris Tsitsiragos has over 30 years of extensive international experience in emerging markets finance across industries, sectors, and products. He started his career in 1985 in New York as a corporate bond evaluator at Interactive Data Services, Inc (former subsidiary of Chase Manhattan Corporation). In 1989, he joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group as an Analyst and retired in 2017 as Vice President, leading IFC’s global business operations and stakeholder relations with a global network of governments, financial institutions, and private-sector clients. He also chaired IFC’s Corporate Credit Committee. During his progressive career at the institution, he held the following positions: Vice President, Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa (EMENA) (2011-2014) based in Istanbul; Director of Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe (MENA) (2010-2011) based in Cairo; Director of Global Manufacturing and Services Department (2004-2010); Director of South Asia (2002-2004) based in New Delhi; Manager, New Investments, Central and Eastern Europe (2001-2002); Manager Oil & Gas (2000-2001) and held a number of investment positions in the same unit (1989-2001). From 2018 to 2022, he served as Senior Advisor, Emerging Markets at the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO). Currently, Dimitris Tsitsiragos also sits on the Board of Alpha Bank (Greece) as an independent director. He holds an MBA from George Washington University and a BA in Economics from Rutgers University. He has also attended the World Bank Group Executive Development Program at Harvard Business School.

Bill Zarkalis, in addition to his responsibilities as President and CEO of Titan America LLC and Chairman of Separation Technologies (STET) since 2014, has assumed the broader leadership role of Group Chief Operating Officer (COO) and oversight of joint venture Apodi in Brazil.

He is a business executive with an international career, having led diverse global teams across all continents while located mostly in the USA and Switzerland. He dedicated 19 years to The Dow Chemical Co., where he started in commercial roles, growing in experience through a fast succession of global Marketing and Product management responsibilities, culminating into global business-unit leadership roles. Among others, he served as Vice President of Dow Automotive, M&A Leader for DuPont-Dow Elastomers, Global Business Director for Dow Specialty Plastics & Elastomers, and Global Business Director for Dow Synthetic Latex. He joined TITAN in 2008 as Group Executive Director for Business Development and Strategic Planning. In 2010 he became the TITAN Group Chief Financial Officer, where he served until 2014 before moving into his current role leading Titan America. He holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a MSc from Pennsylvania State University. He has completed advanced leadership, business management, and industrial marketing programs at INSEAD, IMD, and Michigan Ross.