About us

Our Vision & Mission

OUR MISSION

The national and regional Chapters like the one of Greece, are meant to raise awareness in the national and local communities about the gender-gap in cybersecurity, to promote and create passion about careers in cybersecurity to younger generations, to promote in public administration, educational institutions and the private sector, to create and promote role models, to create and promote trainings and mentorship programmes, to facilitate employment through partnerships, open days and campaigns, and much more.

The Chapter will aim to bring talented women together to celebrate and foster their passion and drive for cybersecurity. We will try to unite these aspiring and thriving women cybersecurity professionals across Greece to collaborate, share knowledge, network and mentor. We will also try to create opportunities through professional development programs, conferences, career fairs, lectures, webinars, trainings, internships, open-days and more.

OUR VISION

The Women4Cyber Foundation is a non-profit European private foundation dedicated to promoting, encouraging and supporting women's participation in cybersecurity.

The new Women4Cyber Greece Chapter is an official Chapter of the Foundation. It is a non-profit organization created by the personal and professional dedication but also the passion of our founding members for cyber security and the deep will and persistence to support women in this field. Our goal is to increase diversity, while at the same time equalizing the existing gender balance in cyber security.

How? With:

- Actions to facilitate finding work in the field through partnerships, open days and campaigns Raising awareness of national and local communities about the gender gap in cyber security

- Promoting and creating a passion for careers in the field of cybersecurity in the younger generations Establishment and creation of a physical and online community cyber security with the aim of producing and promoting relevant content and exchanging views Cooperation with the public and private sector as well as with educational institutions

- Creating and promoting templates Creating and promoting existing training and mentoring programs

- Information sharing, networking organization and much more.

We participate in social discussions, provide support, share up-to-date information and work with stakeholders in different areas. We look forward to making you a member of this community and helping to raise awareness and the right tools for a gender-friendly cyber security community!

Our people

Valina-Paraskevi Panteli President, Chapter Coordinator & Founder

"When deciding to move forward for the creation of this National W4C Chapter, my aim was to give visibility, represent, promote, expand and support the community of women in the field of cybersecurity at a local, national, and European level. Cybersecurity is booming, and the industry is facing a massive talent shortage of a multitude of skills and even more a shortage in women cybersecurity experts. It is important therefore to bring every bit of this community together, from every background, help it develop further and give it also a safe haven to do so and pursue its goals with the support it needs."

Valina believes that today, in cybersecurity there are great women role models in and out of Greece who are qualified and up to the task of not only being part of but also leading the cybersecurity community in Greece. Through this chapter it is important to help them get even more visible, expand the network, spread their achievements, experience and knowledge in the process of building new models too.

Valina is a Cybersecurity Manager at Accenture. Prior to her consulting career she was working for the European Defence Agency and for EUROCONTROL in the fields of security, aviation, defense, risk management and IT audit. She is the Compliance Lead in the Accenture BeLux Cyber Strategy domain and specialises in compliance (ISO 27001 certified Lead Auditor), risk mgmt. and privacy. She is leading a number of initiatives amongst other the representation in the European Cyber Security Organisation, W4C, ENISA´s International and European Cybersecurity Challenges (ICC & ECSC). She is also representing in the Belgian Cybersecurity Coalition on NIS Directive, ISO2700x, Data Privacy. Her MA in International Relations and MSc in Crisis & Security Mgmt. give her foundations in cybersecurity policy, governance, data analytics, risk & crisis management and BC DR.

Stella Tsitsoula Vice-President, Co-Founder & Comm. Lead

Stella is a communications consultant specialised in the Tech and Cybersecurity industry who works with multi-national organisations and universities to help them understand emerging technologies, manage risk and strategise on a future roadmap to thrive in changing times.

She also promotes the ECSC events and the national team of the Hellenic Republic. She has her own Communications agency. For more than 25 years she holds senior management positions with extensive experience in media and communications business.

Stella Tsitsoula has a B.Sc degree in Electronic Computing Systems Engineering from the Piraeus University of Applied Sciences, a PGCert in Management of Public Relations of the University of Athens and currently enrolled in an MBA program and is Certified ISO 9001 Lead Auditor. She is a member of the Greek Periodical Press Association and International Federation of Journalists.

Within Women4Cyber Greece, Stella is also a Co-Founder of the organisation, where she leads the team for Communications and the Marketing elements.

Alexandra Michota Vice-President, Co-Founder & Mentorship Programme Lead

Dr Alexandra Michota is an ICT Security and Privacy Auditor at the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA). Before joining HDPA, Alexandra had been working as an Officer in Network and Information Security at ENISA in the areas of EU Cybersecurity Certification, Privacy and Data Protection, and Supporting the Fight against Cybercrime: Cooperation between CSIRTs and Law Enforcement. She has more than 10-year experience spanning across different ICT activities and fields linked to cybersecurity like ‘Government services’, ‘Education and training’, ‘Governance Risk Compliance and Audit’ both in the private and public sector.

Alexandra holds a BSc in Digital Systems, an MSc in Network-Oriented Information Systems and a Ph.D. in Privacy in Online Social Networks from the School of Information and Communication Technologies, University of Piraeus, Greece. She also worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Informatics of the same University. Her research interests lie in the areas of information and communication systems security and privacy. She has authored and co-authored research papers and scientific reports and participated in international, EU and national R&D projects in these areas.

Alexandra´s primary objective in W4C is to alter the perception of the cybersecurity domain being a “man’s world”. Passionate about progressing gender equality in male-dominated industries, she is glad to be among the founders of Women4Cyber Greek Chapter. As Mentorship Programme Lead, her goal is to help women improve their skills and advance their cybersecurity careers at all levels. Growth, trust, encouragement and sharing valuable experience, that's what a real mentorship is all about!

Nina-Afroditi Chaidemenaki Strategy Manager & Co-Founder

As a Strategic Communication and Business Consultant with knowledge and expertise in political marketing and being clearly influenced by the new wave in favor of the perpetual activity of women, she undertakes the communication and the cooperation department of Women4cyber Greece. "My goal is to create an active community that will help, inform and provide genuine material for all women and non-women in the area. "For me, women are the driving force and in a world that is constantly changing, the least we can do is to create, in our own way, our own chain in what we call the professional world and evolution."

Professionally, Nina works in a UK company as a consultant for companies and organizations as she is also in charge of the collaboration department. In terms of studies and educational profile, she is a graduate of political science with a postgraduate degree in communication and political marketing and has volunteered remotely at a University of Somalia.

The message she wants to convey is that: “together we can achieve a lot, let's focus on that. Women4cyberGreece will be the beginning of this section ".