Described by nominators as an ‘experienced in-house counsel with excellent management and communication skills’, Periklis Stroumpos established and is now leading the legal department of Fraport Greece, the local operations of one of the leading players in the global airport business. ‘Taking advantage of some departures, I renewed the legal team recruiting from the open market three excellent and experienced lawyers who have already made an impact to the company,’ he states.

‘If you want good results you need to appoint the best people you can find. Legal selection is crucial for the success of the legal team’. Within just seven months of his appointment as head of legal at the company in September 2016, Stroumpos had an instrumental role in Fraport Greece’s takeover of 14 regional Greek airports, and has been credited for his smooth management of the project thereafter. ‘I was blessed to work with five excellent in-house counsels and an army of external lawyers performing specific tasks’, Stroumpos shares.

‘Here I learned that nothing is impossible, but in order to do the impossible you need to work with huge commitment with people you trust and understand’. Prior to joining his current employer, Stroumpos worked at Aegean Motorway SA (AMSA), where he received credit for his handling of a major rock-fall incident which resulted in the closure of the motorway connecting the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki for six months and created 20 court cases and a major arbitration. Stroumpos explains: ‘All cases were won through hard work and coordination of a big team of lawyers and experts. In this case I learned that some cases cannot be won without proper delegation and coordination’.

Other achievements during his tenure at AMSA include the 2013 restructuring of the €1bn-valued Maliakos Kleidi Concession Project, and winning the ACC Value Challenge in 2016 in recognition for his implementation of an efficient revenue recovery process that allowed AMSA to recover approximately €5m from lost tolls while in parallel saving €2.5m in legal expenses.