Experienced Leadership Team

Manos Papadopoulos has been in the shipping industry for over 20 years. In July 2011, he set up the Chartering Department at Almi Tankers and was promoted to Chartering Manager in June 2016.

He completed his MSc in International Transport at the University of Wales in Cardiff, in 2000 and then went on to join the Graduate Scheme of an oil major in the UK. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.

In 2003 Manos moved to Greece and since then has worked with various entities in the tanker industry ranging from clean trading to dirty. He worked in the Chartering department of a major trader and also as a Competitive Broker in a brokerage firm.

He joined Almi Tankers S.A. prior to the Suezmax newbuilding program deliveries in 2011 as Chartering In-house Broker and since then has been responsible for the chartering out of the fleet via spot, time or bareboat employment. He has grown his team which includes the Post Fixture Analyst since September 2014.

With over 23 years’ experience in the shipping industry, Fanis Valvis has been serving as our Navigation & Communication Systems Manager since February 2014.

He graduated from the University of Greenwich, having gained a Master’s degree in ‘Scientific & Engineering Software Technology’ and a Bachelor’s degree in ‘Electrical & Electronic Engineering”. He has gained two degrees in the Chinese language (HSK1 & HSK2) and also holds the Royal Yacht Association (RYA) Yachtmaster Coastal qualification.

He joined Fairsky Shipping and Trading S.A. in February 1999 as IT Manager where he set up the IT infrastructure from the beginning and installed the ERP software. He was responsible for the bridge equipment on board the vessels – installation, maintenance, updates.

He joined Almi Tankers in February 2014 in the capacity of Navigation, Communication and Automation Manager. In February 2019 he was named Navigation and Communication Systems Manager with a new person added to the team. His team is responsible for the planning, organisation and maintenance of all bridge equipment through a holistic approach addressing all safety concerns.

With 28 years’ experience in Information Technology in the shipping industry, Theofilos Vetsikas has been serving as our IT Manager since the establishment of Almi Tankers in 2009.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics from the Athens Technological Institute, now University of West Attica.

From 1995 he worked at one of the leaders in Shipping Software as a Support Engineer for 10 years. In 2005, he joined a Nasdaq listed Tanker Management Company as IT Manager.

In April 2009 he joined Almi Tankers in the capacity of IT Manager. He is a member of the initial team that established the company, designed the corporate & vessel IT Infrastructure, is responsible for the vessels’ communications systems and for the Company’s overall Information Security.

With over 28 years’ experience in the shipping industry, Manya Aloumani has been serving as our Accounting Manager since the beginning of the Company, in April 2009.

She graduated from the University of Piraeus having obtained an MBA in Shipping as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Shipping. In parallel she also attended a Masters in Technoeconomics at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA).

She spent 25 years working in shipping companies, starting off in the Chartering department and then moving to Accounting – Finance where she also undertook the D/A’s Checker responsibilities (Operations department). She then moved on to become the Internal Controller.

In April 2009 she joined Almi Tankers, as the Accounting Manager and her department has since doubled along with the fleet. In February 2013, she became the Sponsor for Almi Explorer.

With almost 29 years’ experience in Procurement in the shipping industry, Theodoros Theodorakopoulos has been serving as our Purchasing Manager since the establishment of Almi Tankers in 2009.

He has a Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering degree from the Athens TEI, now University of West Attica. As part of this degree he worked at the Hellenic Inspectorate of Merchant Marine as a trainee Inspector for 6 months. He then moved on to obtain a second Bachelor’s degree in Maritime Studies from the University of Piraeus. Parallel to his studies he worked at a Technical company on UTMs (Ultra Sonic Thickness Measurement) in shipyards.

From 1997 up to now, he has steadily been working in Procurement in shipping companies serving multiple types of vessels such as bulk carriers, reefer vessels, containerships and tankers.

He joined Almi Tankers in 2009 as Purchasing Manager and since then has been delivering to all the newbuilding projects, routine deliveries, special negotiations and agreements for all procurement related issues and grown the Purchasing team.

With almost 23 years' experience in the legal profession, of which over 14 years in the shipping industry, Grigorios Androutsopoulos has been with Almi Tankers since day one.

He graduated from the University of Vienna having gained his Law degree in 2000 and then proceeded to obtain a Master of Laws (LLM) from New York University (NYU). He also holds an MBA from the Athens University of Economics and Business. He is a member of the Piraeus Bar Association.

He has worked at major corporate law firms in Vienna and New York as well as at a large multinational company based in Athens as an in-house Lawyer; where he was also responsible for Compliance and the Project Management Framework.

In April 2009 he joined the Almi Tankers team in the capacity of Legal Counsel. He was a member of the initial team that established the Company and has seen it through the different phases of growth and expansion. He is responsible for all legal matters including Sale & Purchase and newbuilding contracts, finance agreements and the Company’s corporate structure. He is also a member of the Board of Directors.

With 28 years’ experience in shipping, Ms Tonia Kallona has been serving as our Insurance & Claims Manager since June 2013.

After finishing her BSc in Physics at the University of Athens, she completed her MBA degree at the Bradford University School of Management with specialisation in Finance. During her employment years she completed several courses on shipping and insurance matters.

In 1994 she started her career in a shipping company with a fleet of 14 bulk carriers where she soon assumed the responsibility of Insurance Manager. From this position she acquired a broad experience on charter party disputes, cargo claims, collisions, groundings, hull & machinery matters etc. Over the years she gained extensive knowledge on all aspects of a shipping company and was promoted to the position of Deputy General Manager.

In 2013, she joined Almi Tankers in the capacity of Insurance & Claims Manager. She develops and maintains an extensive network of all stakeholders of the shipping insurance industry.

With 18 years’ experience in Strategic Project Management, Carolina Bachariou has been serving as our Strategy Management Director since October 2016.

She graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) having obtained an MSc in European Political Economy and holds a BSc in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School of City, University of London.

Before joining Almi, she had a varied career in strategic reorganisation and project management, working in London, Luxembourg and Athens managing projects with a Prince2 Practitioner qualification.

She joined Almi Tankers in May 2016 as Communications Development Officer and was promoted to Strategy Management Director in October 2016. She has been responsible for the use of the Balanced Scorecard amongst the departments as well as for the Strategic Focus Groups and is the Editor of the Company’s quarterly magazine ‘Making Waves’.

With over 18 years' experience in the Software Development industry, George Panagakis joined Almi Tankers in November 2019 to serve as our Head of Software Development & Research.

He graduated from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 2004, obtaining an MEng in Software Engineering.

He spent over 15 years working in software development companies, starting off in the UK working on fuel management and retail solutions and then moving to Greece to ultimately manage a team working on ERP solutions of Notaries. He then went on to an energy sector startup to bring energy management and monitoring solutions to the cloud and finally worked on integration cloud services and solutions for a leading automotive industry ERP provider.

In 2019, he joined Almi Tankers to set up and head our new Software Development & Research Department aiming to cover the ever-growing need for software solutions by creating new and integrating existing ones.