Sofoklis Yiannacou, FCCA

An organization’s leadership can make or break the organization. As such diverse and inclusive leaders with a clear purpose and strategy should be chosen wisely. I have always believed that the best leadership team should include people with passion, care, commitment, power, decisiveness but also humor and the right culture. In the 28 years of my career, I have been trying to develop those qualities and make them an integral part of my professional capabilities.

The reason I have decided to apply is that I am keen to support organizations with the appropriate mission and purpose and values. In all my professional career I have been acting as a proactive business partner and I have managed to safeguard both the mission of the organizations that I have served but also to shape and contribute to their strategy.

Given the diversity and multinational presence of the organizations that I have worked for as well as my diverse cultural and professional background I believe that I can recognize the differences from other organizations while being agile enough to challenge, harmonize, provide best practices, & sound advice to any Management Team. I would be happy to allow me the opportunity to contribute to a different vision, being armed with strong ammunition from my long business management experience.

In addition to degrees in Finance and Banking Management, as well as Accounting, Auditing and Taxation from the University of Piraeus and the Athens University of Economics and Business I am also a fellow member of A.C.C.A. I bring extensive experience leading large international organizations while I have served as Senior Manager in KPMG Consulting / M&A / Strategy / Finance for 10 years. I have also worked early in my career in Banking, Consulting, Tobacco, and Food Retail, performing several M&A transactions but also worked heavily on risk and controls, internal audit, systems implementation, and org. restructuring. During the last 10 years I have been extensively involved in creating and reporting ESG plans while I deeply value D&I being an executive leading multinational and multiculture organizations.

Since 2012 I have participated in many Boards of Directors and the last 3 years, I have been Chairman of the BoD of the AB Vassilopoulos Group (member of Ahold Delhaize Group) and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Group Public Retail / Media Markt where we have achieved a memorable turnaround in financial results, processes and controls. I am still serving in this latter position. I have also been a member of several Audit, Governance, Risk and Compliance Committees. As such I can contribute with a strong track record leading and managing Boards of Directors while at the same time, I have a strong sense of and application of corporate governance and managing committees in large organizations.
As a professional but also as a human I am known for my passion and results driven mentality focused always on the external or internal customer. I am energized by hardworking teams and individuals who strive to accomplish a commonly agreed objective, and I can overcome any obstacle when I feel that they need my assistance in achieving our mission.
I have a long experience from managing organizations with more than 15.000 employees in strategy formulation, business planning, communication with internal and external stakeholders, ESG in practice supporting communities, employees, shareholders and suppliers while at the same time I have long experience in managing investor relations and setting and supporting the appropriate corporate governance.

The time is ideal for a new challenge, and I am ready to take my expertise and talent to a new level.
I am looking forward to having the opportunity to have a discussion with you and I am confident that all the above will become evident and that you will understand the good fit for the specific assignment.

Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to hearing from your team.
Best regards,
Sofoklis Yiannacou