12/05/2009
8th LEADERSHIP FORUM
The eighth Leadership Forum to be staged at our Kamari plant in Boeotia was held on 11th May 2009. The successful event was the latest in a series launched back in 2002 as part of the TITAN Cement centenary programme. To date eight Forums have been organized at the Kamari plant, and four in Thessaloniki.
The objective of these Forums is to help future managers of our economy to appreciate the real conditions they will be meeting in the business world and in international markets. They are also given the opportunity to exchange ideas and concerns with representatives of the business and academic communities.
The recent Kamari Forum was attended by 120 students in postgraduate programmes at the Athens University of Economics, the University of Piraeus, the National Metsovio Polytechnic, the University of Athens and the ALBA Graduate Business School.
Students and speakers were welcomed by Dimitris Kemos, Manager of the Kamari plant, and listened to a speech by Dimitris Papalexopoulos, Managing Director of the TITAN Group, in which he discussed the concept of corporate social responsibility and the way in which it is put into practice by the company. Mr. Papalexopoulos drew connections between CSR and the objectives of the Leadership Forum – which in fact represents one facet of the company’s CSR activities.
The Forum featured two round-table discussions on topics selected by the students themselves.
The first session, on the subject The current global economic crisis and its impact on companies and the labour market was introduced by Ioannis Stournaras, Professor at the University of Athens and Academic Director of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research, and addressed by the speakers Apostolos Tamvakakis, Vice President of Lamda Development S.A., Eftychios Vasilakis, Vice President of Aegean Airlines and Doros Konstantinou, CEO of Coca-Cola Hellenic Group.
The second session – Women and careers: two sides of the coin – was introduced by Grigoris Prastakos, Chancellor of the Athens University of Economics, and addressed by Niki Panotopoulou-Koutsiana, Chairman of Apivita S.A. and Despina Passari, Director of External Relations at Procter and Gamble.
The students were also given a tour of the Kamari plant, while during lunch they had the opportunity to talk informally with the coordinators, guest speakers and TITAN executives.