Posted on

From “Brain Drain” to “Brain Gain”: Business Week 2016

Organized by the academic societies from the School of Business at Deree, the much anticipated annual Business Week begins on Tuesday, March 15 and will run until Friday, March 18. This year’s forum tackles the ever growing phenomenon of “brain drain”, which stigmatizes the Greek economy. Professionals and academics will hold a discussion concerning the measures that could be implemented in order to turn “brain drain” into “brain gain.”

“The youth is extremely vulnerable to unemployment, which makes students feel insecure about their professional future. For this reason, they are in continuous search of the best resources and the latest information on new perspectives toward entrepreneurship, while also trying to develop skills and competencies that will help them enter the job market, but that will also enable them to create job opportunities for others,” says Dr. Annie Triantafillou, Dean of the School of Business commenting on the 2016 Business Week.

Business Week 2016’s keynote speaker is Alexandros Nousias, interim head of the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award, an initiative which rewards and supports innovative ideas. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Athens University of Economics and Business, and a M.Sc. in Shipping, Trade, and Finance from the Cass Business School of London. The speakers will share their experience from various fields of entrepreneurship, ranging from the management of health units, to communication; from tourism, to digital technology, and from shipping to sports management.

The list of distinguished speakers includes David Blumenthal, vice president of Astenbeck Capital, Dimitris Tsigkos, pioneer in the development of entrepreneurship and startups, Thanos Mondanos who chose to open his own business in Greece rather than leave abroad, as well as Varvara Avdi, president of the Organization of Historic Hotels of Europe. Attending Business Week, students have the opportunity to take part in thought-provoking workshops, and to participate in a live simulation of stock exchange in the Deree computer labs.

Business Week is a long standing Deree tradition, with the aim of creating an open dialogue between the academic society of students and professors, and the business world concerning issues that require an immediate and collective approach for the benefit of the society.