Alex Patelis is the Chief Economic Advisor to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He has more than three decades of experience as an economist, strategist and analyst, working in a variety of positions in New York, London and Athens, including at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.
The FWA is pleased to announce the following additions to our lineup for the FWA's 2024 International Business Conference (IBC) in Greece. These speakers will share unique insights into the economic climate and innovative spirit that fueled Greece’s economic reinvention and path to success.
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Alex Patelis is chief economic adviser to Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He has over three decades of experience as an economist, analyst and strategist, working in a variety of positions in New York, London and Athens.
Alex started his career with the US economics research team at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York, where he worked under Bill Dudley, Chief US economist as well as a proprietary FICC trader in the same firm. In London, he joined Citigroup Asset Management as a quantitative economist. At Merrill Lynch, he held a variety of positions, including Global head of FX & Debt strategy, as well as Managing Director of Global Research, Head of International Economics. In this capacity, Alex managed the research teams responsible for the firm's outlook on all economies outside North America, including developed and emerging countries in EMEA, the Pacific Rim region and Latin America, as well as foreign exchange, local currency and external debt bonds. For their research, Alex and his team won a variety of awards, including from Extel and Institutional Investor. He was also Chief Economist at PSQR, a global discretionary macro hedge fund.
More recently, Alex was President of Patelis Macro, an independent research boutique he launched in 2010, which focused on global macroeconomic analysis to select clients around the world.
Alex earned a Ph.D. in Economics in 1997 from Princeton University, USA, where his thesis advisor was Professor Ben Bernanke. Titled “Asset returns and monetary policy”, part of his thesis was published in the Journal of Finance. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Mathematics from Sussex University, UK.
Maria Rita Galli is the CEO of DESFA (Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator) Until recently, she was Executive Vice President Business Development and Asset Management at Snam SPA, a leading global energy infrastructure company and was Chairman of the SENFLUGA Energy Holdings, SA. a consortium controlling two-thirds of DESFA's share capital.
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Maria Rita Galli is the CEO of DESFA (Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator). Until recently she held the position of the Executive Vice President Business Development & Asset Management at Snam S.p.A, a leading global energy infrastructure company and was the Chairman of the SENFLUGA Energy Holdings S.A., a consortium controlling 66% of DESFA's share capital.
Ms. Galli started her career at Eni in 1997, as a graduate in nuclear engineering from the Milan Polytechnic University. At Eni, she went through various roles within the International Business Development Department, joined relevant international projects and was involved in M&A activities. As a member of Eni's Board of Directors, she also oversaw the operations of some of the Group’s companies abroad (Galp, Distrigas, eni Gas&Power Trading BV, eni Gas&Power France, GVS GmbH, etc.)
Since 2006, she has been in charge of the International Business Development unit and, from January 2010, she has been in charge of the International Business Development and Assets Management department.
In October 2016, she joined Snam as the Head of Business Development and International Asset Management.
Eleni Bathianaki is founding partner at Halcyon Equity Partners. She has 23 plus years of experience in investment banking, strategic advisory and private equity positions. She holds Board positions in a number of Greek companies and is a mentor in Endeavor Greece.
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Eleni Bathianaki
Managing Partner
Founding Partner at Halcyon Equity Partners SICAR
Halcyon Equity Partners GP S.à r.l. is the GP manager of a private equity fund based in Luxembourg, Halcyon Equity Partners S.C.A. SICAR (the "Fund"), with a f € 117million total commitments, expected to reach € 170 million by the end of 2024. Halcyon Equity Partners S.C.A. SICAR is backed by private and institutional investors, including the European Investment Fund, the Hellenic Development Bank of Investments. Halcyon Equity Partners S.C.A. SICAR will invest in Greek non-listed mature Scale-up SMEs and Small Mid-cap companies with strong management teams depicting a competitive edge and a scalable business model, with an organic and/or inorganic growth potential. The Fund’s investment strategy seeks to identify investment opportunities that are driven by innovation and entrepreneurship, while focusing on implementing a strong value-creation roadmap for the investee companies, accelerating their growth and delivering superior value to all stakeholders. Halcyon is the first female led PE fund in Greece.
- 23+ years of experience in investment banking, strategic advisory and private equity positions
- Previously, she was a Partner and a member of the founding team of EOS Equity Partners, since 2016, a Greek Private Equity Growth Fund with € 150m assets under management. She was a Key Executive of the fund, member of the Investment Committee and a Board member of the fund’s manager
- She was responsible for the souring, origination, operational, structuring and strategic advice throughout the investment period and divestment of the portfolio companies. She was also responsible for the legal, operational (reporting to LPs) functions of the fund as well as key relationship with the supranationals (EIF/EBRD)
- Prior to this role, she was a Senior Manager at Piraeus Bank Group Strategy/Transformation unit, leading several strategic projects for the Group including a number of M&A and capital issuance transactions during the period 2009 to 2016, for a period of 7 years
- Eleni worked in the Investment Banking Group of Morgan Stanley being responsible for the origination, advisory and execution of M&A and capital market transactions for public and private sector corporates in Greece and CEE region for 2 years
- She started her career at Citigroup Global Market Investment Banking Unit in 2002, being involved in multiple M&A, privatization and capital market transactions across a very diversified number of sectors and a regional focus on Greece, CEE and North Africa, for 7 years
- She holds a Banking and International Finance Degree from City University Business School London and a MSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics
- She holds Board positions in a number of Greek companies. She is a mentor in Endeavor Greece and a Member of the Board of Directors in the Greek NGO, Desmos
The FWA's International Business Conference (IBC) is a week-long executive-level experience designed to raise your international business awareness while immersing your senses in a dynamic culture. This year, we are traveling to Greece to learn about Reinvention as a Path to Success while socializing, networking and enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of Athens and Santorini. Join us May 11-18, 2024!
Register now - expand your worldview and raise your professional profile!
Registration Deadline: April 1, 2024
For months, FWA Executive Director Alissa Desmarais and I had been building toward something incredible: a six-day International Business Conference in the UAE, complex and high-stakes, the kind of undertaking that requires you to hold a hundred things in your head at once while also holding your team together, your partners together, and yourself together. The FWA has more than 40 years of experience organizing international conferences around the world; what we were doing was not new. But as we stepped into our new roles as the conference organizers, with the support of a great IBC committee, this one felt different. More meaningful, because it was ours. We were proud of what we were creating. And then the world changed around us. I won’t pretend the decision to pivot was easy, because it wasn’t. There is a particular kind of grief that comes not from losing something you already had, but from letting go of something you had worked so hard to build and had not yet gotten to experience. We had to look at the geopolitical reality of the region, at what was happening, at what we could not control, and make a call. The kind of call that no planning document prepares you for. We chose to pivot. On May 5th and 6th, FWA will host the Global Capital and Leadership Forum in New York. A virtual lunch panel, followed by an in-person morning program at Akin, right in the heart of the city. Smaller in scale, yes. But not smaller in purpose. We kept the questions we had always meant to explore: how shifting alliances and energy transitions are redrawing the map of global capital, what resilient leadership looks like in a world that will not hold still, how women are shaping the future of finance across cultures and geographies. Her Excellency Amna Almheiri, Consul General of the United Arab Emirates in New York, will close our forum. The relationship did not end when our plans changed. The dialogue did not stop. It just found a different room. What I have learned from this experience is something I keep coming back to: a pivot is not the opposite of commitment. Done with clarity and care, it is one of commitment’s truest expressions, because it means you care more about the mission than about being right about how you planned to serve it. It means you can look at the people who gave months of real effort to a plan that changed and help them see that nothing they did was wasted, because it wasn’t. It means you can let go of the version of success you had pictured and trust that a different shape can carry the same substance. I think about the women in this community who have had to do this in their own careers and lives. Who had to walk away from something they had built toward for years, not because they failed but because the world shifted and they were honest enough to shift with it. That takes courage. It takes the kind of steadiness that is very easy to admire from the outside and very hard to practice from the inside. The forum is still taking shape. The work continues. And I am proud of what we are making, not in spite of how we got here, but because of it.
The MENA Capital Landscape: Risk, Resilience & the Road Ahead May 5–6, 2026 Join the Financial Women's Association for a timely conversation on sovereign capital, energy transition, AI, and the geopolitical forces reshaping global finance. When our UAE trip was cancelled, we immediately looked for ways to bring the experience to our community here in NYC - this forum captures the spirit, substance, and strategic importance of that journey. Registration details coming soon - save the date on your calendar now! Virtual Lunch Panel · Tuesday, May 5 In-Person Morning Program in New York City · Wednesday, May 6 One registration. Two experiences. One conversation.
FWA members are invited to participate in a personal finance workshop on April 29th, 2026, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, at the High School of Economics and Finance. The school is located at 100 Trinity Place, near Wall Street. The workshop will involve the FWA high school mentees at HSEF. We will have a training prep session the week before, either on April 21 or 22, depending on availability of the volunteers. If you are interested, or would like more information, please contact Suzanne Matthews, Committee Co-chair, at [email protected] .
by Robert Brown Every March, Women’s History Month invites us to reflect on the women who challenged expectations, opened doors, and changed the course of industries that once excluded them. For the Financial Women’s Association, that reflection is personal. As the organization celebrates its 70th anniversary, the story of FWA mirrors the broader story of women’s progress in finance. What began in 1956 with eight determined women has grown into a global community that has helped generations of women enter, navigate, and lead in an industry that once shut them out. Those eight enterprising women did something quietly radical. They were working inside investment banks and financial institutions at a time when their talent was welcome, but their presence in leadership circles was not. The established associations of the day did not admit women. Access to the conversations, relationships, and influence that shaped the industry flowed through rooms they were not allowed to enter. So they built their own.
