The Greece Chapter was launched with a Zoom welcome event on Thursday 15th April 2021. The welcome was given by Professor Ian Walden, CCLS Director and Dr Loukas, Mistelis Professor of Transnational Commercial Law and Arbitration.
Committee member Naya Boltetsou (Banking and Finance Law LLM, 2003) spoke on behalf of the Committee sharing:
‘The CCLS Greece Chapter is for both alumni who reside in Greece and those who live overseas. So far, 148 alumni have joined the CCLS Greece LinkedIn group. Please join if you have not done so already. The Chapter is organised by alumni for alumni and there are eight of us on the new Committee.
The objectives include encouraging alumni to network and participate in activities, to establish mutually beneficial relationships between the Chapter and CCLS whilst bringing together alumni from across the years to share their expertise and to connect everyone in CCLS and with the wider Queen Mary community.
We are in the very early stages of thinking what kind of activities we might plan. If you have any ideas, please get in touch with any of us. There will be a poll launched towards the end of this event, so please share your views, to help us with our planning.’
Professor Loukas Mistelis shared ‘Hello everyone! It is so nice to get a Greek chapter off the ground and I am delighted to see so many of you and that you are all doing well and thriving.’
He highlighted that there is an interesting strand and some of the Greek alumni work in compliance, banking and finance, shipping, dispute resolution, etc. It is inevitable that not all events will be of interest to everyone but the group will be big enough to support different initiatives. There will likely be opportunities for alumni to interact with other Chapters also. He is keen that we work collectively to make sure that future generations can have a good experience studying at CCLS.
Miriam Goldby (Professor of Shipping, Insurance and Commercial Law) attended to greet alumni from the International Shipping Law LLM programme, whom she said it had been a pleasure to teach. She went on to say: ‘An International Shipping Law graduate is needed on the committee, so do come forward!’
Michael Saralekos (International Business Law LLM 1988) said ‘As a 1988 graduate, I am the oldest here. It will be good to be together again. I would like to see some more alumni from the 1987 year soon.’
Yiannis Timagenis (Comparative and International Dispute Resolution LLM, 2006) said ‘One always feels some connection when you come across another CCLS alumnus. Same experiences, same city, same university. In Greece there are many alumni who have gained their LLM qualification with Queen Mary University of London. The numbers can definitely increase as alumni get to learn about the Chapter. Quite efficiently the Chapter offers connection, knowledge exchange and wide international experiences shared by and among alumni who work in different disciplines and all of this largely within Greece. A great initiative worthy of CCLS’s history and reputation.’
Athina Psaraki (International Business Law LLM, 2013) shared ‘I’m working as an in-house lawyer. What I want to mention is that now we have an organised initiative, it is important to be creative, to use the tools we are being offered, such as this poll, to the benefit of the Greek Chapter community. We need to be driven by you.’
Please join other alumni on the CCLS Greece LinkedIn.
You can read more about the Greece Chapter.