Board of Directors

Ivi Nanopoulou is a founding member of MedINA and Chair of the organisation’s new Board of Directors. She has studied architecture in Paris. Since 1999 she is the managing director of the architectural and planning firm TPA, where she became full partner in 1987. Ivi is a member of several social organisations. Committed to the social role of her work, she focuses on interdisciplinary approaches for a sustainable development that recognises the importance of cultural values in environmental protection.

Maria Florou was born in Athens and is a graduate of the School of Law and Economics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. During her time as a lawyer in the office of the late George Papadimitriou, Professor of Constitutional Law and one of the founders of environmental law in Greece, she completed the special annual training programme for Judicial Candidates of the Council of State. However, she chose to practice law and has been a member of the Athens Bar Association since 1988, already a lawyer before the Supreme Court. As an attorney, mainly in administrative law, she specialises in environment-related fields, including Environmental Law (natural and cultural environment), Spatial and Urban Planning Law, Building, Energy and Renewable Energy Sources Law, Aquaculture, Tourism, Public Procurement Law.

Since 2011, Xenophon Kappas is the General Director of Captain Vassilis & Carmen Constantakopoulos Foundation, promoting and supporting sustainable development in Greece. He has extensive experience in sustainable development, social cohesion and participation, having worked with various institutions and civil society organisations, and representing organisations in institutional bodies. Since his youth he is an active volunteer, the last years mainly as Board member at national and international organisations with humanitarian and environmental focus. His studies are on Business Administration, and he holds MAs on European Studies and Latin American Studies, specialising on politics and development.

Maria Iakovou, Professor of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology in the University of Cyprus, is a founding member of MedINA. She is primarily a landscape archaeologist engaged with the study of Mediterranean island cultures in the longue durée. Maria is the founder and field director (since 2006) of the Palaepaphos Urban Landscape Project, author and editor of various works on the archaeology and the historical cartography of Cyprus.

Jean Jalbert is a biologist with an MSc in agricultural engineering. After various professional experiences in the fields of agriculture and environment, he joined the Tour du Valat, a Research institute for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands, in 1994 as a project leader. A few years later, he took the position of Conservation Director and was nominated Director General of Tour du Valat in 2004. Over the years he has developed various fields of expertise such as training, development and management of local, national and international projects, development of partnerships and networks, strategic planning, team management and corporate development. He is a Board member of various nature conservation organisations.