You must feel happy, but also relieved, now that everything is over.

To be honest, the Leadership 100 staff in New York is so well prepared, they’ve done it so often, that they really make it easy to us! I was in very good hands and I enjoyed doing it. I got to know members much better and I came to realize that it’s a group of people that I share common values with, common goals, and common dreams for our community. I’m very happy with the way the conference turned out. From beginning to end, from learning about the stolen Parthenon marbles, to listening to Andrew Liveris and Nicole Petallides, to the Veteran’s Tribute, to Mario Frangoulis’ concert, I was overwhelmed!

Would you do it again?

Would I do it again? Well, Charles Cotros happens to be one of my favorite people in the whole world, and his wife Connie, and I will have hard time not helping him in whatever capacity he likes me to help. He is a really special person and I think we are very lucky to have him as Chairman the next two years. It’s going to be great.

It was your idea to have Mario Frangoulis…

Yes, and he put together an amazing, international program with emphasis on Greek composers. When I introduced Mario, I only talked about his life, how he was brought up and the way he started singing, because he basically lost his voice for a period of months. He has an amazing story. I also believe Mario was a huge draw in getting more people at the conference; in fact we did better than last year, which was a feat in itself. But the response to the conference in general was overwhelming, because it was so positive, so genuine.

Mario also marked an upgrade, at least when it comes to music, for the conference.

We should constantly challenge ourselves to offer new speakers, new events, new music. I think we should mix it up a bit and offer a variety of things and from a greater geographic area. And we should introduce more new people to Leadership, like the young guy with the “Mnimi” project. There are a lot of people out there whose work must be presented at the Leadership.

Last but not least, many people here are concerned with the situation in Greece.

I think that the people here love Greece, but often times they are not sure how to help, so they are looking for someone to reach out to. Of course, they have their own ideas and they have tried their own things, in their own way, like starting companies there, and meeting with the leadership of Greece. I think everybody is heavy-hearted about what’s going on there and I think they will do more things to help. And I think they are committed.