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Gold Magazine February IssueTRANSCRIPT
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ISSUE 23 FEBRUARY 2013PRICE €6.95
POWERED BY:
THE INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT, FINANCE & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MAGAZINE OF CYPRUS
Maria IacovidouVice President, Barclays Bank Plc- Cyprus Intermediaries &
International BankingIrene Psalti
Member of the Board of Directors, Ernst & Young
Cyprus Ltd
Androulla PittasPartner, Head of Financial
Assurance Services, Nicosia office, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd
Maria Lambrou-Paschalis
Partner, Deloitte Ltd
Maria KyriacouAdvocate/Partner, Andreas
Neocleous & Co LLC
Maria A. Papacosta Board Member, KPMG Ltd
Demetra KalogerouChair, Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission
50It’s a WOman’sWorld Leading Financial
Services Professionals
LATVIA Proof that austerity works?
PLUS: MONEY / BUSINESSECONOMYTAX & LEGALLIFESTYLE / OPINION
GEORGE VASSILIOU “Money laundering? Don’t be ridiculous!”
INTERVIEWSConstantinos ChiotisAngelos GregoriadesYiannis Retsos
+ NICOS ANASTASIADES, GEORGE LILLIKAS, STAVROS MALAS
Anastasia AnastassiadesHead of Investment
Consulting in Cyprus, Aon Hewitt
Maria KaffaPartner & Member of the Board, Baker Tilly Klitou
Helen Hadjichristoudia
Director, Abacus Ltd
Eleni EllinaChief Compliance Officer,
FxPro Financial Services Ltd
Maria DionyssiadesGeneral Manager/Executive Director,
Emporiki Bank Cyprus Ltd, Credit Agricole Group
Yiota Kythreotou-Theodorou
Managing Partner, Pamboridis LLC
©2013 KPM
G Lim
ited, a Cyprus lim
ited liability company and m
ember of the KPM
G netw
ork of independent mem
ber firm
s affiliated with KPM
G International C
ooperative (”KPMG
International”), a Swiss entity. A
ll rights reserved.
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KPMG Academy Upcoming Seminars: February - June 2013
The Memorandum of Understanding and its ConsequencesDate: 07/02/2013
Administrators, Receivers and Liquidators Date: 11/02/2013
Profitable Market Analysis Dates: 18-19/02/2013
A Global Perspective on Today’s Insurance Challenges: Solvency, Capitalization and Available Restructuring Tools
Date: 27/02/2013Cash Management in Stressed Scenarios
Date: 11/03/2013Business Process Reengineering
Date: 08/04/2013Accounting and Finance for Non Accountants
Date: 15/04/2013Tax updates 2012*
Date: 20/05/2013International Tax Principles
Date: 03/06/2013Cyprus as a Jurisdiction For Alternative Investment Funds and Asset Management: ICIS Funds, Cyprus
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For more information please contact:
Persa PapademetriouT: +357 22209053
F: +357 22513294 E: [email protected]
Visit our website at: www.kpmg.com.cy
6 Gold the international investment, finance & professional services magazine of cyprus
08 1020
Issue 23 February
2013
FEATURES
MAking ThE MoST oF ThE UnAvoidAblEBy viktoria soltesz 42
FEMEnoMicSBy persella ioannides 58
chAngE iS no longER An opTion By mike mccormac 68
SEEing STARS And hEARing SilEncEby peter economides 98
+ opinion
34 | ”MonEy lAUndERing? don’T bERidicUloUS!“Interview with former President George Vassiliou
38 | iF i bEcoME pRESidEnT… How the three main presidential candidates plan to revive the financial services sector
60 | how To SolvE ThE coMpETiTivEnESS pRoblEMComparing Cyprus, Malta and Luxembourg
64 | boUncing bAckGreek tourism is ready to grow again
76 | bAck on TRAckAngelos Gregoriades, the new Chairman of KPMG, on Cyprus’ strengths and weaknesses as a financial centre.
80 | FEEl ThE pAinLatvia’s turnaround since the 2008 financial crisis could be a model for the faltering countries of southern Europe. But they may not like it...
82 | cEo conFidEncE in gRowTh downThe majority of CEOs expect the global economy to remain stalled
EdiToRiAlUp FRonTFivE MinUTES wiTh…
3486 {money}
88 {business}
90 {economy}
92 {tax&legal}
94 {lifestyle}
22
8276
50It’s a WOman’s World
lEAding FinAnciAl SERvicES pRoFESSionAlS
if What do the three
presidential candidates plan to do to revive the island’s
financial services sector?
I BecOmePresident...
38 80
gEndER EqUAliTy iS no longER ThE ExcEpTion in ThE pRoFESSionAl SERvicE SEcToR, SAy 50 SUccESSFUl woMEn
SpEciAl SUpplEMEnTS43 | coRpoRATE SociAl RESponSibiliTy69 | invESTMEnT FiRMs
EDITORIAL
John Vickers,Chief Editor
Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves
It used to be called the “glass ceiling”, the invisible yet unbreachable barrier that kept women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. It still exists to a greater or lesser degree all over the world but while one might expect that, in a patriar-chal society such as Cyprus, women would not have equal opportunities in many sectors of the economy, things are nowhere near as bad as they once were. It is a fact that women are under-represented in Cypriot politics and, as the majority of the 50 female professionals featured in this month’s cover story told us, the proportion of women CEOs, Chairpersons and Senior
Partners continues to be unfairly low. The glass ceiling may have been cracked but it still remains to be completely shattered.
That said, the role of women in the business community of Cyprus has been grow-ing steadily and they have especially proved themselves in the services sector, nowhere more impressively than in the legal profession where the numbers of lawyers and judges are almost equal. While many of the practising lawyers who spoke to Gold were happy to admit that a good blend of men and women in a firm tends to make for the best outcome in negotiations, they were also keen to point out that in this so-called “man’s world”, women possess unique qualities that make them if not superior then certainly equal to their male counterparts. The descriptions of women’s particular traits that you will find in our cover story include “proficient at multi-tasking, possessing intuition, great emotional intelligence, excellent communication and managerial skills, being less aggressive, less competitive, better organised, more pragmatic, thorough, persuasive, honest and hardworking than men, having a calm and consistent approach and display-ing greater perseverance…” The list, if not endless, is extremely long and one cannot help but wonder why it has taken women so long to get where they are today (and, of course, we all know the three-letter answer: men).
Our feature on women in the professional services sector focuses on just 50 indi-viduals. Were it not for space and time constrictions, we could easily have found 500 successful women entrepreneurs, company owners, high-ranking lawyers, accountants and financial consultants. The professional services sector is not only the one that is cur-rently driving growth in the economy; it is also the one in which women are best repre-sented in comparison with their male counterparts. Whether this is merely a coincidence or something more significant is a question for the sociologists. What it certainly does show is that more and more young women in Cyprus are studying subjects at university that were once considered an exclusively male domain and they are subsequently using their academic qualifications to carve out a successful career.
There is probably more than meets the eye to Christine Lagarde’s amusing remark of three years ago that “Ιf Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, today’s economic crisis clearly would look quite different”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel may not be everyone’s favourite, even in her own country, but the mere fact that she is the leader of the most powerful country in the European Union says a great deal for Germany’s electorate. We look forward to the day when Cyprus, too, will have high-profile women politicians. For now, we are pleased and proud to pay tribute to at least some of the women who, thanks to their professional abilities and skills, are making a major contri-bution to the country’s prospects and prosperity.
8 Gold THE INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT, FINANCE & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MAGAZINE OF CYPRUS
MANAGING DIRECTOR: George Michail
GENERAL MANAGER: Daphne Roditou Tang
MEDIA MANAGER: Elena Leontiou
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: John Vickers
SENIOR EDITOR: Kyproula Papachristodoulou
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE: Irene Demetriou,
Peter Economides, Persella Ioannides, Mike McCormac,
Chloe Panayides, Glen Richards, Viktoria Soltesz.
ART DIRECTION: Anna Theodosiou
SENIOR DESIGNER: Maria KyriakouPHOTOGRAPHY:
Olesia Constantinou, Jo MichaelidesMARKETING EXECUTIVE:
Kevi ChishiosSALES & BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE: Phivos Karayiannis
ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES: Irene Georgiou, Christopher Constantinou
OPERATIONS MANAGER: Voulla Nicolaou
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Kevi Chishios
PRINTERS: Cassoulides Masterprinters
CONTACT:5 Aigaleo St., Strovolos 2057, Nicosia, Cyprus
Mailing address: P.O.Box 21185, 1503, Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel: +357 22505555, Fax: +357 22679820e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.goldmagazine.com.cysubscriptions: [email protected]
ISSN 1986 - 3543PUBLISHED BY IMH
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editorial.indd 8 01/02/2013 12:28