Our team
Credits: Fill in the Gap / Vasilis Kouroupis
THE PRESIDENT OF THE DELEGATION
LORA PAPPA
Laura Pappa, Founder and President of METAdrasi, studied International Relations at the University of Geneva and the Institut de Hautes Etudes Internationales et du Développement (IHEID), from which she was awarded the first ever Alumna Award in 2016.
Since the early 1990s it has been involved in the reception and integration of refugees and migrants. Through her extensive experience, Laura Pappa has always sought ways to better coordinate efforts to improve the living conditions of refugees and migrants and, in particular, children. In 2010, after seven years at the UNHCR and 13 years at UNHCR and the National Youth Foundation, he founded METAdrasi in order to cover basic gaps in the management of migration through innovative actions.
In 2015, Laura Pappa was awarded the “North-South” award of the Council of Europe for promoting solidarity and human rights. In 2016 he was awarded the title of “Grand Officer” of the Order of Freedom by the President of the Portuguese Republic. In 2017 she was awarded the Medal of the “Legion of Honour” 2017, by the French State.
VICE-PRESIDENT
SASKIA FLOROU-BALKE
Saskia Florou-Balke is METAdrasi’s vice president. She was born in the Netherlands and has been living in Greece since 1989. She has studied history at the American College of Greece and has a Master’s degree in European Studies from the London School of Economics. She has worked for years as a journalist in Athens and since 2014 has been archiving wild flora for the Goulandri Museum of Natural History. She has been part of METAdrasi’s mission since its creation in 2009 and her contribution has been crucial in strengthening safe escorting missions for unaccompanied minors during the years 2012-2013.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MARKOS Komondouros
Markos Komondouros is the Treasurer of the Organization. It deals with fundraising and advocacy issues. He holds a degree in Mathematics from Imperial College London and postgraduate degrees in Business Administration and Applied Linguistics from Birkbeck University, London. He has extensive investment banking experience and a long career at UBS in London, Paris and Istanbul, among others. Since 2006, he lives and works in Athens. He speaks Greek, English, French, Italian, Spanish, French, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.