Cyprus Intellectual Property Conference

Partner, Tax Advisory, PwC Cyprus

Stelios Violaris is the Partner leading the International Tax Services in the Tax Advisory Department of PwC Cyprus. He has studied Accounting and Finance (BA Hons) at South Bank University in London, and is a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of the UK and the Cyprus Institute of Public Accountants whom he has served as a member of its taxation committee for a number of years. Stelios handles the tax affairs of listed, multinational and local client groups as well as private equity companies who are mostly active in the fields of pharmaceuticals, technology, retail trading, real estate as well as financial services/investments. He dedicates significant time in advising clients in their cross-border structures/set-ups, group reorganizations/restructurings, due diligence work and merger & acquisition transactions they get involved in. Stelios is also the partner responsible for the U.S. market sourced business of PwC Cyprus. Stelios is currently also a Board Member of the Cyprus American Chamber and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING), offering his personal expertise pro-bono for all the good causes the Chamber and the Institute stand for.

Tony Hadjiloucas is in charge of Private Wealth Services at PwC Cyprus. He advises wealthy individuals and families from around the world on protecting, managing and growing their wealth. Areas of focus include family office services, residency, domicile and immigration, trust, estate and succession planning, family governance, support with management of liquid assets investment portfolios, personal and business Intellectual Property (IP), M&A and philanthropy. Tony has 25 years’ financial advisory experience with PwC in three countries, including around 10 years in London, where he headed a group providing valuation and strategy advice. He has served for many years on the core faculty of the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization and authored several thought leadership pieces. Tony has been a visiting lecturer at several universities, including Imperial College and London Business School in the UK and Kellogg School of Management in the US. Tony has provided expert witness testimony at a number of international courts on financial matters.

Spyros A. Evangelou LLB (Hons) is the Partner in Charge of Legal Practice at PwC Cyprus. He is Barrister of Gray’s Inn, a TEP (Trust and Estate Practitioner) and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Cyprus. He was called to the English Bar and acquired work experience in the UK before return- ing to Cyprus, where he has been in private practice since 1991 when he set up his own legal firm. Since 2008, Spyros has been the partner in charge of the PwC Network’s Legal Practice in Cyprus. He speaks Greek and English and his practice areas include Company Law, Trusts and Succession Law and Tax Law. Spyros has a special interest in Trusts and he has been advising clients in setting up Trusts among others for personal, succession, asset protection and commercial purposes. He is regularly invited to speak at local and international seminars and conferences on Trusts, tax and related matters.

Christos S Charalambides is a Partner in the Tax Advisory Department of PwC Cyprus with more than 18 years’ professional experience in handling the tax affairs of a diverse portfolio of international and local clients, including large multinationals and private equity groups with a particular focus in the US and European markets. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a graduate of the University of California with a BA (honors) in Economics. His industry specialization includes Technology, Communications, Financial Services, Real Estate/ Construction, Funds, Commodities and Retail. Christos has, inter-alia, been advising clients on their cross-border structures, local and international transactions, IP planning, mergers and ac­quisitions. He is the Mergers & Acquisitions and Intellectual Property champion Tax Partner and a core member of the International Tax Services, Real Estate, Tax Policy and Tax Technical teams of PwC Cyprus. Christos is also a member of a number of business associations set up under the auspices of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Dr. Nikolas Mastroyiannopoulos has extensive experience and a doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology. He also has a degree in Biomedical Sciences. He has been working at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics from 2006 and in 2012, he was appointed Lecturer and later Assistant Professor at the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine (CSMM). On March 4th, 2020 Dr. Mastroyiannopoulos was appointed Chief Scientist of Research and Innovation by H.E. the President of the Republic of Cyprus and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. Dr. Mastroyiannopoulos was also appointed as a board member of the JRC Board of Governors, the National Board for Research and Innovation, member of the steering investment committee of the Cyprus Equity Fund in collaboration with the European Equity Fund (EIF) and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Research and Innovation.

Theodoros Loukaidis is the Director-General of the Cyprus Research & Innovation Foundation (RIF), the national funding agency responsible for supporting and promoting research, technological devel- opment and innovation in Cyprus. Prior to joining RIF in 2020, Theodoros held strategy and business development roles in large multi-national corporations, including CKHH and Colt, in Group offices in London. He holds an MBA from Warwick Business School (UK), an MSc degree in Communications and Signal Processing from Imperial College London and a BEng (Hons), First Class, in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from UMIST (UK).