With nearly 35 years in the Government of Canada as a career Foreign Service Officer,
Ambassador Peck has held a number of important roles in Canada and abroad.

In Ottawa these have included Press Secretary and Departmental Spokesperson to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chief of Protocol of Canada. Mr. Peck was Canada’s Ambassador to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria from 2004 to 2007.

He recently returned to Canada following his tenure as Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic and High Commissioner to the Republic of Cyprus from 2011 to 2015.

Ambassador Peck was recognized as a tireless champion of Canada-Greece relations, including the promotion of enhanced bilateral trade/investment and cultural relations. He and his Greek-born wife, Maria Pantazi-Peck, continue to be ardent supporters of several humanitarian organizations including ELPIDA and Aghia Sophia Hospital in Athens, chronic care facility Asylon Aniaton, and Greek NGO “The Smile of the Child.”

Mr. Peck has been recognized with numerous awards including the Foreign Minister’s Citation for Foreign Policy Excellence, the Minister’s Merit Award and the Grand Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the Hellenic Republic.

Steve Vranakis is an award winning creative who has worked on the launch of the iPhone and Amazon in the UK with NASA (Space Lab), The United Nations, UNICEF and headed up the Creative Lab at Google in EMEA for 8 years. Most recently he was appointed as the Chief Creative Officer for Greece to help develop a new country narrative as a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister.

Some of his projects include: a machine learning musical instrument called the NSynth Super, Assembly of Youth, an installation giving youth a voice at the United Nations, Inside Abbey Road – a virtual tour of the iconic music studios, Project Jacquard – an interactive wearables fabric and Chrome Web Lab, an installation connected live to the internet from the Science Museum in London.

Steve also worked on the launch of project Bloks, a physical coding platform that teaches kids to code for which he was granted two Google patents and bringing dinosaurs back to life in Virtual Reality at the Natural History Museums in London and Berlin. In 2015 Steve went to the island of Lesvos to build a mobile information site (refugee.info) to help Syrian refugees fleeing civil war keep safe.

Steve’s work has been recognised by the D&AD (33 including 2 yellow pencils), Cannes Lions (12 including a Grand Prix and Marketer of the year), ADC, One Show’s, Campaign Big, Webbys, Lovies, FWA, BIMA and Clio’s. Two of his projects are also in the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York (Sketchbots and Jaquard).

His work has been featured in WIRED, The New York Times, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Creative Review, Huffington Post, FT, Design Week, Adage and he’s written columns for Adweek, Marketing, Campaign and conducted interviews with the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Lürzer’s Archive and Shots.

Steve has spoken at TEDx in Athens about ‘Making technology matter’ and at the Palais in Cannes on ‘What creativity can do’. Steve also serves as an advisor to one of the world’s hottest fashion technology startups unmade.com.

In 2018 he was president of D&AD where he made it his mission to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds get into the creative industries.

Tula held senior positions at the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) for 16 years, retiring December 2015.  As Director of the Office of Domestic and International Affairs, she strengthened relationships to advance securities reform initiatives, provided advice on a broad range of securities issues, negotiated international agreements and worked with Canadian and international regulators and governments to develop standards and laws in securities regulation.  Tula represented the OSC at the International Organization of Securities Commissions and at the Joint Forum of Securities, Banking and Insurance Regulators.

Prior to the OSC, Tula served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Ontario Minister of Finance.  She also had the honour of serving as a Citizenship Court Judge.

Tula is currently Vice-President of the Hellenic Heritage Foundation.

Jenny P. Mboutsiadis is a lawyer who represents taxpayers in their disputes with Canadian tax authorities. She is an expert tax litigator with almost two decades of trial experience and has appeared before the Tax Court of Canada, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Federal Court, and the Federal Court of Appeal. She has expertise in corporate tax matters and issues affecting high net worth individuals. Recently, Jenny spent eleven years as a tax litigator for the Department of Justice Canada.  Prior to that, she was a tax litigator at another leading Bay Street law firm.

Jenny was called to the Ontario Bar in 2001. She holds a Master of Laws in tax law from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, an LLB from the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University, and a BA (Hons) in Political Science and History from the University of Toronto.

Along with her parents and brother, Jenny has been an active member of Toronto’s Greek community since childhood. She has been involved with the Society of Kastorians and Suburbs (Toronto), the Greek Community of Toronto, the Hellenic Heritage Foundation, and the Hellenic Canadian Lawyers’ Association.

Elias Retsinas specializes in real estate law and is a senior partner at Fasken Martineau’s Montreal office. His practice is focused on the acquisition, financing, development and leasing of real estate assets such as office and residential complexes, shopping centres, resorts, wilderness estates and hotel properties.

Elias regularly acts on behalf of domestic and foreign family offices, lenders, property owners/investors, developers and hotel banners and has extensive knowledge and understanding of the technical and business aspects surrounding the real estate industry.

Elias recently led various high-profile real estate transactions including the conclusion of construction and term financing arrangements exceeding $3B with some of Canada’s most active lenders and real estate developers.

Katerina Sokou is Principal at News Intelligence, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Future Europe Initiative and the Washington Correspondent for Greek daily Kathimerini and SKAI TV. She is a contributor to American and European media on Greece, the U.S. and transatlantic relations. She has also covered the Eurozone, interviewing senior officials and prominent economists, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Piraeus, researching the US role in the Greek debt crisis.
Previously, she was a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, worked at the business desk of the Washington Post, was International Financial News editor at Kathimerini and a financial reporter at To Vima newspaper, where she covered Greece’s entry to the Eurozone. Ms. Sokou obtained a B.A. in History with Honours from the University of Ioannina, Greece, an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Warwick, UK, and an M.A. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism.

Mr. Zisis Haritos, Economist, has served in his career as Staff and Consultant at a number of national and international organizations including the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments, United Nations Secretariat, European Union Commision, World Bank (IBRD) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). His international experience includes: public project management, public infrastructure planning, privatization of state assets and crown corporations, (i.e. Air Canada, CNR, airports and ports), and regulation and pricing of transport infrastructure. His field project experience covers over 30 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia as welll as Canada. He held long-term assignments as Adviser to Governments: of EU Candidate Countries with the purpose to assist them in fulfilling conditions for becoming members of the EU (acquis communautaire); of developing countries in transport planning in Africa; and of countries-in-transition in East and Southeast Europe, Caucuses and Central Asia on behalf of the United Nations Secretariat.

He held University appointments as Honorary Adjunct Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa, and Visiting Professor and Research Associate at the University of Toronto and York University Joint Program in Transport. He is member of international professional associations. He is author of a book in transport economics and of a number of articles in international refereed learned journals.

His education includes: BASc (Electrical Engineering), MA (Economics) and PhD (Economics).

He has a daughter and lives in Toronto, Canada.