WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 @ 2 P.M. EDT

Photis Photiou
Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Overseas Cypriots

Born in Larnaca, Mr. Photiou graduated from the American Academy of Larnaca and fulfilled his military service as a reservist lieutenant. He studied Accounting and Marketing at Eastern Michigan University U.S. and he is member of the Institute of Financial Accountants and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus. He has worked in several big auditing firms and the Inland Revenue Department of the Ministry of Finance and in 1992 started his own office as Business Consultant. As a member of Democratic Party he served it from various posts. He has been for many years member of the Central Committee and member of the Executive Committee of the Party. He was the spokesman of the party of the period 2008 until February 2013. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of Electricity Authority for the period 1993 – 1999 and Member of the Board of Directors of Cyprus Tourism Organization for the period 2000 - 2003. On 1 August 2003, he was appointed by the Council of Ministers Chairman of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation. In June 2006 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment by the late President Tassos Papadopoulos, a position he held until February 2008. In March 2013 he was appointed Minister of Defence by the current President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, a position he held until March 2014. In September 2014, was appointed Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Overseas Cypriots, position held until today, after his reappointment as Presidential Commissioner, by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr Nicos Anastasiades on the 1st of March 2018. He participated in many international seminars and working groups both in Cyprus and abroad related to the European Union, energy tourism, agriculture, the environment, the common security and defense policy of the EU, the geopolitical and geostrategic developments in South Eastern Mediterranean, international business strategy and other economic and social issues. He has published many articles in the Cypriot and international press. He is married and father of three sons.

Xenophon Kallis
Director of Service for Missing Persons

He studied in the U.K. at the University of Kent at Canterbury, Sociology, Social Policy and Administration. During his time in UK he was involved and active in exposing human rights violations in different countries. He returned to Cyprus in 1989 and he was appointed and served until 2016, as a First Assistant to the Greek Cypriot Member of the Committee on Missing Persons, which operates under the auspices of the UN. At the same time, he served as the Director of Service for Missing Persons, Director of the Division of Humanitarian Affairs at the Foreign Ministry as well as in other positions after relevant decisions of the Council of Ministers. He was also highly involved in the running at the technical level, of the program of exhumation and identification of remains of the Government of Cyprus in the areas under its control. The program started in 1999 and still continues. In the last six years he is serving and an Advisor on issues relating to missing persons and exhumations to the Presidential Commissioner Mr Photis Photiou.