Speaker

Ioanna Sappho Pepelasis is Professor Emerita in the Department of Economics
at the Athens University of Economics and Business. Her research specialisation
lies in the history of economic development, institutions, and entrepreneurship in
the long run, as well as in the emergence and evolution of Greece’s start-up
ecosystem. She has co-edited four international volumes, published by Berg,
Palgrave Macmillan, and Alpha Bank, on the history of entrepreneurship and
banking. She has published articles in international edited volumes and peer-
reviewed journals. She is the Scientific Coordinator, at the Department of
Economics of the Athens University of Economics and Business, of the project
“Mapping Greece’s Start-up Ecosystem during the Economic Crisis.” She was the
Scientific Coordinator of diaNEOsis’s study mapping Greece’s start-up
ecosystem, published in January 2022. Her recent work at ELIAMEP, where she
is a Senior Research Fellow, includes a case study of the MITEF Greece start-up
accelerator from 2015 to 2022, focusing on internationalisation and innovation.
The study was published on 19 November 2025. Her current research at
ELIAMEP focuses on the defence start-up ecosystem. She was also a member of
the Board of Directors of the Centre of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE)
from 2010 to 2013.