About

I was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1970. I left at eighteen for England, where I studied and worked for six years, and I have lived in Athens since.

A restless mind

If I had to describe myself in one line, it would be this:

A restless mind, who isn’t afraid to try things, learn, experiment and make mistakes along the way.

That’s the honest version. I have never been good at leaving things alone.

What I actually wanted to do

My first choice at university was Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College. I wanted to build aircraft. I was not accepted.

Computer Engineering was my second choice and an equal passion, so that is the road I took — Manchester, then a master’s at UCL. I still read about aeroplanes. I have made a career out of the second choice, and I have never once thought of it as the consolation prize.

The path

Military service first — two years in the Cyprus Armed Forces, 1987 to 1989.

Then JP Morgan in London, my first proper job, in corporate technology. Treasury, Legal and Compliance.

Then Bank of Cyprus. I joined when they were opening their fourth branch in Greece, in IT Operations. Over the years that followed, the network grew to about 180 branches and I was part of running the estate that made that possible. Those were, genuinely, my best years in banking — enough that I still describe them that way.

One night from that period I remember better than most: the last of December 1999. Sitting in the office with a dozen colleagues, waiting for midnight to pass and watching the date roll over on systems that everyone had spent a year worrying about. It came and went without incident. I don’t think any of us quite believed it would.

Then Piraeus Bank, still there now: first in IT operations, and since 2018 leading technology sourcing for the Group. That’s the day job, and it has its own page.

More on the professional side →

Outside the office

I run a homelab that has grown well past anything I planned, and I build software — about thirty projects at the last count, some finished, some abandoned, three of them live and usable.

I read widely, I cook, I travel when I can, and I walk on Parnitha whenever the weather and the calendar allow. I take a lot of photographs. Most of what ends up on this site started as something I got wrong first.

The homelab → · The things I build →

What I’m trying to do with all of it

Learn continuously, keep hold of the curiosity, and stay useful. My own words for it, in Greek and in English:

πράττων αὔξω δύναμιν· αὐξηθεὶς πράττω μᾶλλον.

The more I do, the more capable I become; and the more capable I become, the more I can do.

That is the whole philosophy, really. I don’t have a grander one.