Moving quickly to fill the critical seat of the country’s privatization board after its former chief quit following being charged with breach of duty as Chief Executive of the state utility PPC, the Greek government on March 11 named Stelios Stavridis, head of the water utility EYDAP for the job.
He replaces Takis Athanasopoulos, who resigned from his post on March 9 although he denied any wrongdoing while heading PPC. In his letter of resignation to Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, Athanasopoulos said he welcomed the opportunity to prove that he was wrongly charged.
Stavridis is a Swiss-trained engineer who held management posts at several Greek companies, including refiner Hellenic Petroleum before being appointed head of EYDAP last November. An outspoken economic liberal, he is an ardent supporter of privatizations and of the use of state property to attract foreign investment.
The uneasy coalition government headed by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is under intense pressure from its international lenders to speed the pace of selling or leasing state entities and state-owned properties to raise cash as part of reforms to write down the country’s staggering $460 billion debt.
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