The team
Giorgos Varthalamis
George holds a bachelor’s degree in Food Science from the University of Peloponnese, and an MBA in Agribusiness from the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. His graduate thesis focused on agricultural cooperatives, more specifically on the dairy cooperative THESgala.
During his studies, he worked in his family’s olive mill, an experience that equipped him with considerable technical, organizational, and managerial skills and expertise, and further enriched his theoretical background. For the past year he has been working as a Category Manager in the Department of fresh fruit and vegetables of a biological products retail company.
At present, George’s training and research focuses on the management and governance of agriculture cooperatives, as well as with cooperation between and among individuals and organizations.. Since October 2020, he is a member of Athenian Institute of Anthropos, training on systemic and dialectic approaches. At the same time, he attends seminars on Diagnosing Agricultural Cooperatives, which focus on an in-depth analysis of cooperatives. His current research interests center on the life cycle of agricultural cooperatives (LFC), strategy design, and the co-creation of sustainable collective businesses.
Through his master’s research George became aware of the power hidden within a cooperative and the importance of human cooperation. Since then, he is dedicated to working with teams and within a team as well. His aim is to help people bring out an effective way of collaborating. He believes in teams’ power, when their members actually discover the means to cooperate effectively and he finds really inspiring the outcomes produced by bottom-up organized, co-owned and democratically managed businesses.
Brief CV
George’s purpose is to promote and fully support cooperation between and among people. His purpose is fulfilled by adopting a pro-active stance, working with and for cooperatives and by facilitating cooperative businesses in becoming sustainable.
Contact Details
varthalamis@coopability.org
Our Team
The Co-opAbility Institute is creared by a team of scientists who firmly believe in cooperation and cooperatives as a means of sustainable entrepreneurial development. Our Work is to co-create, together with interested partners, system-wise solutions to their problems based on awareness-based collective action.
Constantine Iliopoulos
Costas’ mission is to help people, communities, and cooperatives work together effectively in order to achieve their goals, seize emerging opportunities, and co-design solutions to the most pressing social dilemmas and challenges facing them.
Michalis Fefes
Michalis’s purpose is to support the organization and management of cooperatives and other types of collective actions, in order to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability. To achieve this, he uses his legal and organizational knowledge, and his practical experience in the banking, university and law industries as well.
Giorgos Varthalamis
George’s purpose is to promote and fully support cooperation between and among people. His purpose is fulfilled by adopting a pro-active stance, working with and for cooperatives and by facilitating cooperative businesses in becoming sustainable.
Thanasis Bizos
Thanasis’s purpose is to encourage and support people and communities for a more harmonic connection and high-level collective action in order to achieve economic and social well-being.
Vasia Stamouli
Vasia's goal is to help develop and spread a spirit of cooperation in groups and cooperatives. This is achieved through the constant search for creative solutions, the promotion of organizational and social innovations and the facilitation of the acquisition of skills that help to establish and manage sustainable teams.
Our Actions
The Co-opAbility Institute achieves its goals. See in detail all our actions.