Board of Trustees

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Stelios is best known for creating the easy family of brands starting with easyJet in 1994 when he was just 27. Six years later he floated the airline on the www.londonstockexchange.com in order to fund growth but he and his family remain the largest shareholders holding about 26% of the shares. The stock market currently values easyJet PLC at about £4.7 billion. When the COVID Pandemic struck the airline was carrying about 100 million passengers per year but the numbers are now substantially reduced… Find out more.

Nikos Mourkogiannis

Nikos is a business consultant, lawyer and writer. He is Member of the Board of the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and Honorary Visiting Professor of Practice at Cass Business School. He is known as the author of the book “Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies”, which is taught in universities and is considered an important asset for all businesses. It is a book about leadership and business strategy, in which there is a full analysis of the four primary business purposes: Discovery, Helping, Achievement, and Heroism. During his presidency of the Greek National Opera, the application of a restructuring program and the reorganization of GNO’s financial situation, saved the organization’s operation, leading to its continuous progress until today with great success.Find out more.

David Watson

David comes to the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation from Athens, Greece where he has been based for the majority of his professional career in commercial and institutional banking (primarily with Citibank) spanning nearly 4 decades, most recently serving as Managing Director of Piraeus Bank followed by Advisor to the EFG Eurobank Ergasias in Athens. Retired in 2005, David serves on three company boards as non-executive director including easyGroup Holdings, EFG Eurobank and J&P Avax in Athens. As an ‘adopted’ Greek – David holds both US and Greek citizenships and is fluent in both languages – David also earned an MBA from Northeastern University in Massachussetts, USA and a BA from Miami College in Ohio, USA. David brings considerable experience from his many years living and working in Greece to bear on the Foundation’s activities and infuses the quarterly meetings of the Conseil d’Administration with a Midwestern wit and a Mediterranean sensibility.

Donald Manasse

A practicing lawyer and prolific author of legal text, Donald has been based in Nice and Monaco for over 2 decades. Born in Italy, Donald was schooled in the US (Transylvania College and the University of Missouri), ultimately receiving his Juris Doctor from New York Law School. Since then, he has been admitted to a number of Bar Associations including New York and Connecticut in the US and Nice, France. Donald has also been admitted to the US Court of International Trade, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court, the US Tax Court and the US Supreme Court. He served as a member of the Jury for the 31st America’s Cup and has also been nominated a Chevalier de l’Ordre de St. Charles in the Principality of Monaco. Tri-lingual, dual nationality and multi-cultural, Donald brings a wealth of perspective and experience along with considerable savoir-faire to the activities of the Foundation.

Jean-Claude Eude

A graduate of Harvard Business School, the University of Pittsburgh and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Jean-Claude has had a long and meaningful career in the public finance sector – initially as an economist at the IMF, subsequently as an advisor to a member of the European Commission in Brussels and later became Controller of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC. More recently, Jean-Claude has been based in Monaco, serving first as Director of the Compagnie Monegasque de Banque and later as the Managing Director of the Monaco Bankers’ Association. Post-retirement, Jean-Claude serves as a non-executive director of easyGroup Holdings, is accredited since 2008 as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Latvia in the Principality of Monaco and is also a trustee of the Institute of American Universities ( IAU ) in Aix en Provence.

A multi-lingual French national – who has been appointed both Officier de l’Ordre de la Republique Tunisienne as well as Officier de l’Ordre de Saint Charles in Monaco – Jean-Claude brings his considerable French elegance as well as deep european knowledge to the quarterly meetings of the Foundation’s board.

Peter Barton

An alumnus of Oxford University (Magdalen College), Peter Barton preceded his professional career with military service as a 2nd Lieutenant in a British infantry regiment – stationed on the island of Cyprus at the time – and a Captain in the London Rifle Brigade. His executive career, based in the City of London, spanned over 20 years as a corporate lawyer, followed by 13 years as an investment banker. During the past 20 years Peter has held a number of non-executive and pro bono appointments, including Deputy Chairman of Alliance & Leicester plc and Chairman of Howard de Walden Estates Ltd, The Guinness Partnership, Bramdean Asset management LLP and The Leonard Ingrams Foundation. He is also a Director of Jupiter US Smaller Companies plc and easyGroup Holdings Ltd. His pro bono appointments have included Member of the Audit & Scrutiny Committee of Oxford University and Member of the Finance Committee of the Royal Commission for the 1851 Exhibition. Peter was the High Sheriff and subsequently a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London. As a Trustee of the Stelios Philanthropic Foundations in the UK and Monaco, he brings his years of business and pro bono experience to their meetings and activities.

Rena Rouvith Panou

Rena has extensive and diverse experience in financial services and the wider business sector. She graduated from the London School of Economics (B.Sc. Economics, Metcalfe Scholar) and continued with postgraduate studies at University of Cambridge (M.Phil. Economics) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Master of Science in Management, Fulbright Scholar).

From 1984 until 1991 she worked in Boston USA, where she held senior positions in management and financial services consulting offered to major multinational corporations. She subsequently worked at Laiki Group (HSBC associate bank) until 2006 where she was, among others, Group General Manager International & Treasury and Managing Director Laiki Bank Hellas, serving also as Board Member of Laiki Group in Cyprus and its subsidiaries in Greece and Australia. From 2008 until 2014 she was Chairperson of The Cyprus Development Bank. She was also Board Member of Vassiliko Cement Works Public Company in Cyprus and between 2014 and 2020 she was Independent Non-Executive Director of the Boards of Alpha Bank subsidiaries (Alpha Bank Cyprus, Alpha Bank Romania and Alpha Leasing in Greece).

In 2016 Rena was appointed Chairperson of CYTA (Cyprus’ leading electronic communications provider) for two consecutive tenures. During that period drastic corporate transformation and major investments in pioneering technologies took place, driving Cyta’s strategic and financial turnaround. She was also Chairperson of the Pensions & Grants Fund of the Personnel of Cyta and Board Member of the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation. Since 2020 Rena is Independent Non-Executive Director of the Boards of Eurobank SA and Eurobank Holdings in Greece. She is also Member of the Advisory Council of the School of Economics and Management at the University of Cyprus. In 2022 she was delighted to become a Trustee of UK-based Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and in 2023 she was appointed Independent Non-Executive Board Member of the Cyprus Asset Management Company KEDIPES, a position she held until June 2024.