Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou
Chief Executive Officer
Tototheo Maritime Ltd
Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou is joint Chief Executive Officer of TOTOTHEO MARITIME, an
organization offering maritime services with specialization in maritime satellite communications. She
has been with the group since 2005, starting as an operations assistant and working her way up the
ranks, reaching the top management position in 2016.
Since 2013, Despina is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, being the
first woman ever to be elected since the Chamber's establishment in 1989, and is chairing the Chamber's Development Committee since 2015.
In 2011 Despina founded WISTA Cyprus - a member of WISTA International - and is the Association's
current President. In 2017 during the International AGM in Rotterdam, Despina was elected President of WISTA International and as of October 2017 Despina will become the President of WISTA International.
She also sits on the first Board of Governors of the Cyprus Maritime Academy and on the Board of
Directors of the Cyprus?Germany Business Association.
Despina is the national advocate for the European Commission's "Equality Pays Off" Initiative and was
included in the list of the 120 powerful & influential women in Cyprus (Gold Magazine, May/June 2017). She won the titles of "Top Professional" and "Cyprus Business Woman of the Year" at the 9th National
Cyprus Business Woman of the Year Awards 2015. This year she was nominated for the Madame
Figaro Women of the Year Awards in the category of Businesswoman/Professional. She was also proclaimed as an Honorary Fellow of the Cyprus Institute of Marketing (April 2017).
She is frequently asked to contribute as a speaker or moderator to industry?related conferences and is often asked to speak about her experience as a young female leader in the maritime industry. She has recently been asked to act as a mentor for the program Women Fit for Business (WF4B) Cyprus a collaboration between EY Cyprus and AIPFE Cyprus - Women of Europe.
Despina holds a bachelor degree in Economics from the National and Capodistrian University of Athens, an Executive MBA in Shipping and Logistics from the Copenhagen Business School and a Postgraduate
Diploma in Financial Strategy from the University of Oxford - Said Business School. Believing in (and
advocating for) continuous education, she will begin the MSc in Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford - Said Business School in October.
She is married to Socrates and they have a three? year old son, Ektoras.