Governors' Profiles
Tanya Zayat Christodoulides, Chairwoman
Tanya has a background in psychology and education and experience in working at four private schools across the country, teaching Primary children (EY1-Year 5) and Volleyball to Secondary Students. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Cognitive Science from the University of Westminster (British Psychological Society Pathway) and a Diploma in Pre-School Practice. She created, managed and taught at her own kindergarten school in Nicosia, the Wishing Well Private English Nursery School, which was fully accredited. She has also served as a member of the Junior School PTA for two years. She was proud to serve alongside the previous Board last year, undergoing training in Governance Leadership-Building and maintaining an effective governance body and Designated Safeguarding Lead Training. Tanya is the mother of two girls at the Junior School.
Tasos Ziziros, Treasurer, Chair of Financial Committee
Tasos is a seasoned Executive and Director with a 26 year diversified experience in industry and finance combining strategic direction with day to day management. He has extensive exposure in the construction sector, project development, corporate restructuring and technological transformation combined with significant financial experience in banking, treasury, project finance, risk management, macro-economic analysis, credit analysis and credit trading.
He has worked extensively in Asia, Europe and the Middle East for large international organizations including London Forfaiting, Morgan Stanley, J&P(Overseas) and Avax. He has participated in numerous Boards both as an executive as well as a non-executive and Chaired committees including Audit, Risk and Remuneration. He is currently the CFO and Board Member of Avax Middle East.
Tasos holds a BA (Hons) / MA Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD.
Elena Kyriakides, Vice Chair, Chair of Senior School Committee
Elena is a teacher trainer and a language and education consultant. She holds a BA in Education from the University of Cyprus, with postgraduate studies in Applied Linguistics (King’s College London). She wrote her PhD thesis on effective language teaching (UCL Institute of Education, University of London) and has worked as a primary school teacher in public schools and as a teacher trainer at the Department of Education of the University of Cyprus. She has also organised and participated in primary and secondary education in-service teacher training programmes as an external collaborator of the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute and has extensive experience as a language and education consultant in various research projects and for a number of private and public organisations, institutions and companies. Elena is a Senior School parent.
Georgia Apeyitou, Chair of Junior School Committee, Vice Secretary
Georgia is now Head of the General Secretariat of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cyprus. The General Secretariat's mandate includes supporting the Foreign Minister and the President of the Republic on EU-related issues as well as developing a national strategy for EU affairs and ensuring its implementation by government authorities. Her career as a diplomat with the Ministry started in 2006 and she has worked in several roles and divisions during this time. Her previous work includes with a fund management group, Centaur Financial Services Limited, and a global marketing research firm, ACNielsen Cyprus Limited (now Nielsen). She holds a BA degree with honours, Summa Cum Laude, in Political Science/International Relations from Clark University, USA, and a Masters in Business Management from the University of Leicester. Georgia is a Junior School mother.
Nedie Antoniades, Secretary
Nedie has worked as an actress and producer in theatre, television and film in the US, Greece and Cyprus for over 25 years. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Emerson College. Her most recent work has been as part of the core team behind the feminist theatre initiative Project SEASON Women, which aims to support, promote and provide a platform to the female narrative through theatre productions, discussions, workshops, lectures and performance-based events. An alumna of The Junior and Senior School herself, Nedie is a Senior School mother of two children.
Yioula Melanthiou
Yioula is an Associate Professor at the School of Business of the University of Nicosia, where she is also the Head of the Department of Marketing and Director of Doctoral Programs in the School of Business. She holds a BA in Business Administration (Marketing Major), an MSc in Marketing (University of Salford, UK), and a PhD in Marketing (University of Manchester, UK). With extensive expertise in the areas of marketing, social media marketing and consumer behaviour, she is also a part time lecturer at the Cyprus University of Technology (TEPAK), and the Cyprus Police Academy (Cyprus). Moreover, she is a Chartered Marketer, a certified trainer of the Human Resource Development Authority (Cyprus), as well as an Expert Evaluator for the European Commission (for KA1, KA2, and Horizon 2020 programs). Prior to joining academia, she has worked in the industry as a Research Executive, Research Account Manager, and Marketing Consultant. Yioula is a Junior School mother.
Petros Liasis
Petros Liasis is presently the Vice President Legal Affairs & Regulatory Compliance as well as the Corporate Secretary of Melco Resorts & Entertainment - Cyprus, a group listed in New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
An experienced Executive Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the aviation, construction, BOT/Concessions, and gaming industries, Petros is skilled in Strategy, Negotiation, Business Planning, Concession Contracts, Corporate and Competition Law, Employment and Tax. He is strong in Finance and equipped in working closely with Regulators and Governments.
Prior to his current role, he was the Senior Manager Legal Affairs, Ethics & Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary of Hermes Airports. Petros represented Hermes Airports in the Policy Committee of the Airport Council International (ACI) and also represents Melco Resorts & Entertainment in the Board and the Legal & Compliance Committee of the European Casino Associations (ECA). Both positions gave him the opportunity to interact strongly with the European Commission on legislative and policy matters.
Petros also served at J&P Overseas as the Legal Advisor, Corporate Finance, spending time in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region.
He graduated Law in England and did his legal training both in London and Cyprus. He holds an LL.M. in European Business Law from the Netherlands.
Petros is the father of a son in The Junior School.
Tina Pavlou
Tina is a family psychotherapist specialising in addictions. She holds a degree in Psychology and a postgraduate degree in Family Therapy. She has been the Clinical Director of the largest national drug rehabilitation organisation (Agia Skepi) for the past 21 years. She has been also running her own private practice since 2013. She has served as a board member of the Anti-Drug Council of Cyprus for five consecutive terms (2000-2015), working closely with a number of rehabilitation centres and contributing to the development of drug policies and budgeting initiatives on drug prevention. Since 2016 she is serving on the Parole Board of Cyprus, evaluating long term prisoners that are up for parole. Tina has been a mother at The Junior and Senior School since 2006, with a recently graduated daughter, two girls and a son.
Jacovos Christofides
Jacovos is an experienced strategy execution and organisational development consultant, facilitator and coach, who has worked in multi-cultural environments all over the world. He holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering from Rutgers University School of Engineering, and an MBA in Management of Innovation from Rutgers University Business School. He has held various positions in both industry and consulting. His experience includes telecoms, pharmaceutical, automotive, banking, energy, tobacco, FMCG and educational organisations.
He currently works in the Leadership Practice of BTS, where he engages with leadership teams in large MNEs to design and deliver strategy driven leadership and management development solutions. His focus is on strategy execution, leadership mind-set, organisational alignment, cross-functional, cross-departmental collaboration and innovation. He serves on the boards of Peace Players Intl., a youth leadership through sport organisation, and Potenzia Del’Arte, a performing arts school. In the past he also served on the board of The NGO Support Centre, an NGO capacity building organisation. Jacovos is a Senior School father.