Roundtable with the Government of Cyprus: Foreign Investors Discuss with the Government of Cyprus the Strategy for Attracting Business and Talent to the Island

Constantinos Petrides assumed office as Minister of Finance of the Republic of Cyprus on the 3rd of December 2019. Prior to his appointment, he served as Minister of Interior (1 May 2017 - 3 December 2019) and Deputy Minister to the President of the Republic of Cyprus (1st March 2013 – 30 April 2017). From September 2011 to February 2013 was the Director of the Office of the President of the Democratic Rally. In 2006 he was hired at the European Commission in Brussels where he worked as an economist at the Directorate-General for Agriculture and the Directorate General for Competition until September 2011. He studied Economics at the University of Nottingham and then acquired an MSc in Political Economy of Transition in Europe from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.

Minister of the Interior, Republic of Cyprus

Nikos Nouris has been Cyprus Minister of Interior since December 2019. From 2013 to 2019, he was a member of the House of Representatives in Cyprus for the Democratic Rally. He served as Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Trade and coordinator of the Democratic Rally Parliamentary Group in the Labor and Social Security and Home Affairs Committees. He was Vice President of the Democratic Rally and a member of the Political and the Executive Office of the party. He also served as Municipal Councilor of Nicosia, Deputy Mayor of Nicosia and Chairman of the Urban Planning Committee of the Municipality. Additionally, he dealt with issues of development of the urban center of the capital, issues of culture, education and entrepreneurship. For a number of years, he was President of the Cyprus Pharmaceutical Association.

PR Director, BrainRocket

Hamza Afifi, PR Director at BrainRocket, is an efficient marketing professional who has recently joined the company and will take care of establishing a positive image of BrainRocket in Cyprus. Under Hamza’s careful guidance, BrainRocket’s goal is to create a successful, yet safe haven for the upcoming IT development in Europe. Hamza has impressively delivered quality work through his extensive career with different companies, made striking upgrades in BrainRocket’s reputation, profitability, and image in the public eye. He has an extensive background in devising, developing, and carrying out public relations strategies and campaigns, programs, and advertising leads. To support sales and marketing efforts, Hamza has set up and maintained cooperative relationships between BrainRocket and the media to achieve and maintain client/company reputation.

COO, TheSoul Publishing / Board Member, Techisland

 

Arthur Mamedov is the Chief Operating Officer of TheSoul Publishing, one of the world’s largest and most popular online media companies. Arthur runs global operations of TheSoul, including strategy, partnerships, finance, legal, sales, and communications. Since joining the company in 2016, Arthur has played a crucial role in fostering strong, trusted relationships with the world’s largest social media companies, cementing a growing list of global distribution partners including Facebook and YouTube. The company's continued expansion among additional social leaders, Snap, TikTok, and Instagram, is a result of Arthur's ongoing close collaboration with TheSoul Publishing's platform partnership team. Within the dynamic fast-paced environment of TheSoul Publishing, Arthur is surrounded by a skilled international team of 3000 people across 70 countries that successfully adapts to the always-evolving social media landscape.

Group Managing Director and CEO, MSC Shipmanagement Limited Prabhat is the Group Managing Director and CEO of MSC Shipmanagement Limited, Cyprus. MSC Shipmanagement Limited is the biggest in-house Ship Management company in the world and has a proud policy of exclusively managing only MSC-owned vessels. Today it manages over 300 vessels and ensures the highest technical standards and a first-rate commitment to safety and punctuality. It is part of world’s 2nd largest container shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. MSC Group has one of the youngest and greenest fleets among the world’s leading shipping lines. MSC Shipmanagement is among few companies whose entire fleet is certified with ISO 9001,14001, 50001, 26001, 27001 and 45001 standards. Prabhat is a Marine Engineer and his career at sea was on various kinds of vessels up to the rank of Chief Engineer. After stepping ashore as Technical Superintendent, he continued to pursue his quest for knowledge and completed MBA in General Management & Finance from University of Liverpool and Advanced Management Program from IESE Barcelona. He has played a key role in set-up of MSC Shipmanagement Limited Hong Kong in year 2005 and subsequently MSC Shipmanagement Limited, Cyprus in year 2008. MSC Crewing Services Limited India and MSC Crewing Services Ukraine are under his direct responsibility and he is board member of all these companies. Under Prabhat’s leadership, company has increased its managed fleet nearly ten times since its inception in 2008 and has highest crew retention rate (98%) in industry. Prabhat is also member of the Board of Directors of Cyprus Chamber of Shipping, the Cyprus Marine Maritime Institute and CMMI Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute Ltd., Vice Chairman of the Cyprus Maritime Academy and Vice President of Shipowners Association of Portugal.

Petr Valov founded Exness in 2008 with a vision of creating a company driven by strong ethical values and a science-based, algorithmic product approach. A software developer since his school days, Petr studied IT and programming at university, and in the early days of Exness he acted as the sole creator of its technologies. Today, after taking the company from strength to strength over a span of 13 years, he runs one of the world’s most successful and respectable online brokerage companies, headquartered right here in Cyprus. Petr’s vision is to see Cyprus become the Silicon Valley of the Mediterranean: an IT centre fit to attract the biggest tech talents of the world. His faith in this vision is one of the reasons for his investment on the island and decision for Exness to be headquartered here.