Meet the Team
George Karamanos
Managing Director
A professional of acknowledged high calibre, George Karamanos is a visionary executive with 20 years of international experience in Aviation, Marketing and Communication, having worked in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
He studied in Economics at Athens University and obtained a M.Sc. in Transportation Management, specialising in Aviation Management and Strategy from the University of New York.
He started his career as a consultant with Speedwing/ORCO in 1992. He joined Virgin Atlantic in Athens in 1995 as Marketing and Administration Manager.
In 1999 he moved to Hong Kong as Virgin Atlantic’s Business Development Manager for Asia, responsible also for all the off-line stations in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
George crossed over to airports in 2000, becoming Athens International Airport’s first Marketing Manager. In July 2005, he took the role of Director of Communications & Marketing, streamlining all marketing and communications activities under one umbrella.
In October 2009, George became Vice-President Corporate Marketing & Communications in Abu Dhabi Airports Company, responsible for Aeronautical, Non-Aeronautical and Corporate Marketing, together with Communications, Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility.
In January 2013, George established KPI. Aviation Marketing Solutions, an independent specialised marketing consultancy firm, and is currently working on selected projects focusing mostly on airport, airline, and tourism marketing and business development. George had previously lead consultancy and advisory projects for airlines, airports and tourism authorities, including Cronus Airlines, and Budapest Airport.
During his 9-year tenure at Athens International Airport, he contributed in making Athens one of the fastest growing airports in Europe, developing and implementing an innovative and holistic marketing approach, which resulted in 5 consecutive OAG/Routes Airport Marketing awards (2005-2009). In 2011, he won for Abu Dhabi Airports Company the Overall OAG/Routes Airport Marketing Award across all regions, while lead the project of Abu Dhabi International Airport becoming the first airport outside Europe to receive the Airport Council International (ACI) Airport Carbon Accreditation.
George is a member of the ACI World Economics Committee and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.
Mark Povall
Senior Business Development Director
Mark is the Senior Business Development Director at KPI. Aviation Marketing Solutions, a specialised marketing consultancy company, providing tailored marketing support to airports, airport operators, airlines and tourism organisations across the world.
Mark has more than twenty years experience in the Airport sector in a range of commercial and strategic roles at airports in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, with a primary focus on route development and improving a Region’s connectivity.
Having started his career at British Aerospace, Mark has since worked at Liverpool John Lennon Airport during its rapid expansion in the early 2000’s, Brussels Airport as it successfully entered the low cost airline market, and Abu Dhabi Airports Company where Mark worked to attract global airlines to the rapidly expanding Emirate.
Most recently Mark returned to Liverpool and was the Airport’s Strategy Director responsible for developing the Airport’s long term Vision and Masterplan, and developing it’s links with the Region’s stakeholders.
Mark has a Masters degree in Air Transport Management from Cranfield University in the UK, and a Bachelors degree in Air Transport Engineering from City University in London.
Panos Parginos
Managing Partner
Panos Parginos is an experienced project manager with a diverse background acquired in the last 25 years in Europe and the Middle East in the areas of retail, transportation and market research. He is a systematic and reliable trouble-shooter committed in delivering results, even in the most challenging projects.
He started his career at Cafetex S.A. in Athens in 1985 and during his 20-year tenure he was responsible for different units of the company including production, sales and marketing. In 1998 he took the role of Director of Retail Sales, managing Cafetex’s stores in Athens, turning the flagship store to the largest coffee retail outlet in Europe in terms of turnover.
Panos joined Marine Bay in 2006, a transportation consulting company, focusing on business development opportunities mostly in shipping, as well as other transportation modes. He initiated, designed and managed market intelligence and survey projects.
In November 2009, Panos moved to the United Arab Emirates and in December 2010 he was appointed Project Manager for the Passenger Survey conducted at Abu Dhabi International Airports Company by Athens International Airport in cooperation with Alternative Research and TNS Middle East. He also undertakes market intelligence and survey projects working as a freelancer, such as the Mystery Shopping Programme of SSP at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
In January 2013, he established KPI. Aviation Marketing Solutions with George Karamanos, and is responsible for the market research and intelligence projects, as well as event management.
Scott Koenig
Senior Operations Director
Scott, Senior Operations Director at KPI, started his career in market research in 2000 after a brief – yet successful – career in B2B sales. Scott’s curiousity as to why some prospects bought and others balked, led drew him to make a career change into market research so that he could further understand consumer behaviour.
Over the course of his 16 year career he has worked both as an analyst and strategist and has directed hundreds of market research studies. He has consulted with product development teams for Tahitian Noni International, Frito Lay, and Kraft Foods and was one of the pioneers and early adopters of online qualitative research methods.
In addition to his experience in consumer packaged goods and shopper insights, he was a member of the project team for a comprehensive segmentation and branding study with Dallas Ft-Worth International Airport from 2014-2015.
Scott holds an MBA from University of Utah and has been on faculty for Western Governor’s University, Texas Wesleyan University, and Brigham Young University, has been published in industry publications Quirks, Views, and Vue, and has held leadership positions in the Dallas chapter of the American Marketing Association.
Vivi Tsagkroni
Slot Coordination Specialist
Vivi Tsagkroni is a seasoned specialist in Slot coordination. Vivi started her career in Olympic Airways and was the Slot Coordination Manager coordinating 33 airports, out of which the 22 were fully coordinated during the summer months with significant capacity constraints.
In 2000 she joined Athens International Airport, as a Capacity Declaration and Slot Manager, being the liaison of Athens International Airport with the Greek Slot Coordinator and IATA, as well as the project manager for the slot coordination process for the Olympic Games 2004 (August 2004) and the Athens Champions League Final game (May 2007).
During the same period, she project managed the introduction and the implementation of the slot monitoring and slot reporting processes at Sydney Airport.
In 2015 she too the responsibility of the General and Business Aviation flight slot allocation at all Greek Regional Airports
for the period 2015-2016.
Vivi Douli
Market Research Manager
Vivi is a skilled analyst with over 9 years experience in international and Greek market research projects. She is systematic and reliable trouble-shouter committed in delivering results. She has been an active member of cross-functional and culturally diverse teams with an excellent track record in managing challenging market research activities. She is an expert in using statistical tools, transforming results into valuable information for decision-making.
Vivi was from 2006 to 2014 a Market Research Analyst at Athens International Airport and a free lancer in airport related projects. She has been engaged in international market research assignments, worked on the set up and smooth implementation of Market Surveys at Athens International Airport (AIA), while delivering to AIA’s Business Units the accurate analysis of the collected information.
She successfully project-managed the 2-year Passenger Survey conducted at Abu Dhabi International Airport and contributed in improving passenger satisfaction at AIA through the effective coordination of Quality Monitoring. She coordinated and supervised AIA’s market surveys, securing the most effective cooperation with the research agencies. She is a skilled market researcher specialising in validation of information, and conducting qualitative & quantitative research studies.
From 2014 to June 2016 she was a free lancer working with KPI in the projects of Hamad International Airport, Sofia Airport and Dubai Airport. Since October 2016 she is a full time KPI employee responsible for the Hamad International Airport, Bahrain International Airport and SSP Middle East Accounts.
Vivi holds a BA in Business Administration from the Panteion University, School of Social & Political Sciences in Athens.