Maria has a long standing experience and a successful track record in Capital Markets and Consulting Services and she has the responsibility of the strategic business development of the company and she leads the strategic communication and investor relations units.

Prior to this post, she was Managing Director in Kappa Securities the founder of NOVUS Finance SA, an advisory boutique with a focus on capital markets for medium and small caps and value investor relations strategy for the Board of Directors of Greek listed companies.

The company was founded in 2002 and sold successfully in January 2009 with a clientele which included over 70 Greek corporates across sectors and a portfolio of selling equity stakes, managing hostile takeovers, IPOs and minority rights. Novus was a pioneer in the market and has organized over 200 road shows across Europe, advised foreign asset management companies and private equity firms on deal sourcing and origination.

Prior to Novus, Maria spent time in Moscow as a Chief Economist and Fixed Income Strategy at Renaissance Capital. She has also been part of the TACIS/EU advisory team on Russia Monetary Policy and Banking Reforms, working closely with the IMF, the central Bank of Russia, the Central Bank of Ukraine and the Ministries of Finance. Post Russian market collapse, she was part of the team structuring and executing distress debt trading. She has also worked with Bear Sterns CDO/CLOs deals and EBRD on Eastern Europe Banking Reforms.

She holds a PhD from London School of Economics, an MSc and a BSc in Economics from Essex University. She speaks fluent English, French and Intermediate Russian.

Email: mnikolakaki@arator.gr