Maria Lekakou

Maria Lekakou

Professor in Maritime Economics

University of the Aegean, Greece

Dr. Maria Lekakou is Professor in Maritime Economics in Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport, and Dean of the School of Business Studies in University of the Aegean, Coordinator of the permanent Committee of the University of the Aegean for Blue Economy under the name “Aegean Archipelago. She has a longstanding experience in shipping and maritime policy, as Advisor to the Minister of Mercantile Marine, member of the National Regulatory Authority for Maritime Transportation and now she is member of the National Steering Committee for Cruise and acting as a maritime expert in many national or European bodies and fora.
Maria Lekakou is co- author of books, chapters and peer reviewed papers examining European Maritime Policy, shipping competitiveness, island transports and cruise tourism and she has studied coastal shipping, short-sea shipping policy, maritime tourism, maritime governance, cruise industry, passenger shipping, labour affairs as well as European policies related to liner shipping, maritime competition and sustainable Blue Economy.
Maria Lekakou is Scientific Coordinator for R&D projects mainly in the area of sustainable Blue Economy, like Erasmus+ focusing in soft skills and competences, through developing innovative educational material based on the case study methodology (ISOLMET) or for building syllabus for post graduate programs for Emerging issues of maritime business (MINE EMI) or Facilitating and fostering the design and implementation of EUSAIR flagship actions and projects in the Adriatic – Ionian Macro-region (IDEAL EUSAIR) or National Projects for island transports. Evaluation, Redesign and Monitoring measures for reducing intra-regional disparities, containment and cohesion of the island populations Development of Island Transport Equivalent or Regional projects, Cruise Carrying Capacity: The case of Santorini island.
She runs the initiative BlueGrowth for the promotion of ocean literacy and sustainable blue economy by organizing European Maritime Days, BLUEHACATHONS (for students) AEGEAN BLUEGROWTH COMPETITION (for startuppers) and Living Labs for developing sustainable business ideas. The Blue Aegean was selected as national winner for introducing entrepreneurial skills for European Enterprise Promotion Awards in 2020.