Bio

Zoi Stolaki is the head of regulatory and corporate affairs of DEPA’s legal department. Prior to joining DEPA, Zoi worked at the Brussels office of the international law firm Dechert in the fields of EU Competition Law and EU Energy Regulatory. Zoi has also worked as an intern in the Brussels office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, in the legal department of a major Greek bank and in the legal department of the Permanent Representation of Greece to the European Union.

She holds an LL.B. from the School of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) and an Advanced Master of Laws in Energy and Environmental Law from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). She is a native Greek speaker and is fluent in English and French and has a basic knowledge of German.

Zoi is a member of the Athens Bar Association and a member of the Strategy Committee of EUROGAS representing DEPA. Zoi is lawyer with over 15 years of experience in energy, M&As, antitrust, competition and merger control, corporate, EU and regulatory law in Greece and abroad, in the private and public sectors. As in-house counsel of DEPA, Zoi advises on EU and Greek energy regulatory law and corporate law matters, including advising on the legal, regulatory and corporate law aspects of natural gas projects, project financing, energy contracts, antitrust and competition law matters, M&As and corporate restructurings. Zoi has represented DEPA and led the legal team and legal workstreams advising on all legal issues and aspects of DEPA’s restructuring and privatisation process as well as M&As, including inter alia the acquisition of three companies developing RES projects of a total of 800 MW, the acquisition of stakes in Gastrade, which develops the FSRU Alexandroupolis project, in Fier Thermoelectric SHA, which develops the first in Albania natural gas-fired unit with a capacity of 174 MW and in Alexandroupolis Electricity Production, which develops an 840 MW CCGT power plant. Zoi also manages the legal aspects of project financing relating to the development of the RES projects, the FSRU Alexandroupolis project and the Alexandroupolis CCGT project, as well as overseeing DEPA group’s subsidiaries’ legal supervision and coordination.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

The role of in-house counsel is to stand by the company’s management and services and give them balanced legal advice factoring in the company’s needs and interests, business and the need to protect the people of the company. always need to strike a balance. Be simple, be available and goal driven. We need to be pragmatic and assess all parameters and get in the shoes of the management. In the end of day, we are the ones who must give comfort to the management and company people.

Considering the above, it is important that the in-house counsel demonstrates flexibility and resilience and innovative “out of the box” thinking during periods of crisis and instability. We have been through such periods over the past years and especially, for example, during the energy crisis experienced by all European countries.

Moreover, in view of the rapid developments in the energy market with the entry of new forms of energy (inter alia renewable energy), all stakeholders are required to be able to adapt quickly and continuously to the new era. Modern developments have created new conditions for the operating needs of companies and the needs of market regulation, making imperative the need for a new legislative and regulatory framework in the “post fossil fuels” era, to facilitate investments and provide incentives for the entry of companies in these new markets, with the cooperation of all interested parties. The above highlight, among other things, the need for continuous, experienced, and specialised legal and regulatory support and as DEPA’s in-house counsel we need to decisively contribute towards this direction.

In your opinion, what are the main trends that are salient in your country currently (these can be legal, political, economy or business-based)?

Energy has been in the spotlight of the developments in South-Eastern Europe over the past years and Greece is turning into a considerable energy hub contributing to the energy security of the whole region. Major gas infrastructures of great geopolitical importance have been built in which DEPA also participates. Apart from being a considerable natural gas supplier, DEPA has also entered the RES and electricity markets thus becoming an integrated group and an important player in the region. As in-house counsel I advised DEPA in all related transactions ranging from acquisitions of companies or stakes in companies, project financing to setting up new companies, ensuring their corporate governance et al. I believe energy will continue play a pivotal and decisive role in the political developments of the region and this is when DEPA – with the continuous help and support of its in-house counsels’ team- needs to be ahead of the curve providing innovative business solutions to the benefit of consumers and the country in general.