Anthony Steed is Head of the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics group and Deputy Head of Department in the Department of Computer Science at University College London. He has over 25 years experience in developing virtual reality and other forms of novel user interface system. He has long been interested in creating effective immersive experiences, and while originally most of his work considered the engineering of displays and software, more recently it has focussed on user engagement in virtual reality, embodied cognition, collaborative mixed reality and how to create more effective experiences through careful design of the immersive interface. He received the IEEE VGTC’s 2016 Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award

He is a Member of Gray’s Inn, of the Cyprus Bar Association and of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Investment Funds Association (CIFA). He is a licensed insolvency practitioner and he participated until recently in the Cyprus Bar Association Committee for Corporate and Tax matters as well as in bilateral business initiatives like the Cyprus – Canada Business Association.

He is a lawyer and Managing Partner of Prountzos & Prountzos LLC which he founded and is managing since 2010. From 2019 until 2023 he led the legal services of a Big4 firm for the Central, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe and Central Asia Region where he was in charge of teams in 32 different countries exceeding 500 people.

He has large experience in legal matters concerning regulated markets. He has handled important cases of competition law, mergers and acquisitions and personal data protection.

He has dealt with legislative and regulatory matters related to energy, both renewables and natural gas. He has consulted on many large infrastructure projects and is considered a leading figure in renewable energy and waste management projects.

Charalambos has successfully handled landmark Constitutional, employment and public procurement cases.

From 2011 until 2018 he has served as a Member and Vice Chairman for Administrative and Finance of the Governing Committee of the Open University of Cyprus. In 2018 he was elected as the first Chairman of the Council of the Open University of Cyprus. The Open University of Cyprus is one of the three public universities of the Republic of Cyprus.

He has also served as a Member of the Board of CYENS a, Research and Innovation Centre. CYENS is a Centre of Excellence which is a joint venture between the three public universities of the Republic of Cyprus, Max Planck Institute of Germany, University College London (UCL) and the Municipality of Nicosia.

He participated as a member of the Working Group on Governance and Power Sharing during the last negotiating process for the Cyprus problem between 2015 – 2017.

He is an active citizen with a rich social and cultural activity, numerous public interventions and articles in paper and digital media.

On July 1st, he took the helm as the first Mayor of the new Metropolitan Municipality of Nicosia, which was formed after the merger of the four municipalities of Nicosia, Aglantzia, Engomi, and Agios Dometios.

from the University of Leeds (2009).

His main research and teaching interests focus on sustainability marketing, corporate sustainability and responsibility, international marketing, and tourism/hospitality marketing. He has published widely and his articles appeared in Industrial Marketing Management, International Business Review, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of World Business, and Tourism Management, and other Journals.

He serves as Associate Editor of Journal of Business Research and is a member of the Editorial Review Board of Journal of International Marketing. He also reviews on an ad-hoc basis for many other academic journals and regularly presents his work in leading international academic conferences across the globe. He is an active member of the American Marketing Association, Academy of Marketing Science, British Academy of Management, and European Marketing Academy. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of CYENS Centre of Excellence and the American Marketing Association’s Global Marketing Special Interest Group.

He is currently the Academic Coordinator of the MBA programme at Open University of Cyprus and elected member at the University’s Council and Senate. He has taught on many undergraduate and postgraduate programs and served as an external examiner for the University of Glasgow and King’s College London. He has a successful track record in doctoral supervision, and currently oversees a number of students at different stages in the areas of sustainability, international marketing, and strategy. He has also supervised a plethora of undergraduate and postgraduate student projects and dissertations in these areas.

Marianna Hadjiandoniou holds a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Surrey, UK, and is an esteemed member of the CIPD. With over two decades of extensive experience, Marianna has successfully formulated and implemented HR strategies for various local and international companies. Marianna is dedicated to combating workplace discrimination and promoting women’s rights through comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. She is the General Secretary of the Cyprus National Paralympic Committee. Marianna is also an active member of the BPW Cyprus Federation of Business and Professional Women and an accredited trainer by Cyprus’s Human Resource Development Authority. She has been a Certified Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Professional since January 2021. From 2020 to 2023, she served as the Secretary of the CSR Cyprus Board. She is also a board member of the Limassol Red Cross branch and supports the association “One Dream One Wish,” contributing to significant community welfare projects. Marianna is also an Executive Committee Member of the Cyprus International Businesses Association (CIBA), a Member of the Committee and Vice Presidency for Technology and Innovation within the Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and a non-executive Director of the Board of Directors of CYENS Centre of Excellence. Her outstanding leadership in HR was recognized in 2023 at the international ‘The Leadership Awards’, in London. She also received the title ‘Woman of the Year’ at the prestigious international awards, Rewards 2024. 

He is currently serving as chairman for the University of Cyprus’ Entrepreneurship Council (2023) and has served as founding director of the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship (2015-2021) and chairperson of the Computer Science Department (2010-2014). He is also the director of the Laboratory for Internet Computing, which he established at the University of Cyprus in 2001, attracting numerous research projects (2001-2023) with a total budget over 7 million Euros, mentoring over 80 research scientists and students, publishing more than 200 papers in scientific conferences and journals and several software artifacts released as open source. Prof. Dikaiakos has also worked at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, and held short-term visiting positions at Rutgers University, USA; the National Technical University of Athens, Greece; Université de Paris – Cité, France; the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas, Greece, and Digital Equipment Corporation, USA/France. He has served as chair in several international scientific conferences, including EuroPar 2023, IEEE/ACM CCGrid 2019, the 2012 Annual Privacy Forum, and AxGrids 2004; Associate Editor of the ACM Computing Surveys and Springer’s Computing journals; an independent evaluator of European and Asian academic and research institutions, a reviewer and evaluator for research proposals submitted to the E.U. and to several national European science foundations, and an independent observer of proposal evaluation at the E.U. During his term as director of the University of Cyprus’ Centre for Entrepreneurship, he led the design and implementation of the Centre’s training and innovation programs, international relations, publishing and outreach activities, including the annual Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF), the University’s Certificate in Entrepreneurship program, the acceleration program of the Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition, and the yearly nationwide Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study (GEM). Prof. Dikaiakos is a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and has been a member of ACM’s Distinguished Speakers Program (2012-2015). More information: http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/mdd/

IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE ICDCS, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, and ACM Transactions on the Web.

He has extensive experience leading EU-funded projects. Specifically, he was the technical manager of the ReCRED project (Horizon 2020 Innovation Action – 2014) and the coordinator of the ENCASE project (Horizon 2020 Marie Curie RISE – 2015).

His work on fringe web communities, hate speech, disinformation and disturbing content on YouTube had extensive coverage in major news outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, New Scientist, Business Insider, Quartz, Wired, and El Pais.

He is also the co-director of the Network Systems and Science Research Laboratory and a member of the Board of Directors of the Research Centre of Excellence on Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging technologies (RISE).

Ugne Buraciene is Group CEO of payabl., a European financial technology company helping businesses take control of their money flow. Since joining in 2021, Ugne has led the company through a period of rapid growth, expanding its reach across Europe and broadening its product suite with payabl.one, the unified financial platform that brings acquiring, business accounts, and card issuing together in one connected view.

With almost 20 years of leadership experience in fintech and banking, Ugnė has built her career on navigating complex regulatory environments and scaling cross-border operations.

Beyond payabl., Ugne actively champions the growth and innovation of the payments industry. She serves as a board member of TechIsland and CYENS Centre of Excellence, an advisor to Bivial AG, the Cyprus Country Ambassador for the European Women Payments Network, and a Money20/20 Europe RiseUp mentor.