AHEPA Vienna Nikolaus Dumba

History of AHEPA

 The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) is a fraternal organization founded on July 26, 1922, in Atlanta, Georgia

AHEPA was founded to fight for civil rights and against discrimination, bigotry, and hatred felt at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan.

 It is the largest and oldest grassroots association of American citizens of Greek heritage and Philhellenes with more than 400 chapters across the United States, Canada, and Europe.

The mission of AHEPA is to promote the ancient Hellenic ideals of

 education

 philanthropy

civic responsibility

family 

and individual excellence

 through community service and volunteerism.

Who we are

Members of main committee 

Polys Polydorou
Chairman

A medical pathologist specializing in Nephrology and Geriatrics. 

He was born in Nicosia, Cyprus and completed his medical studies at the University of Vienna. Having been assigned to all appropriate positions at the Landesklinikum Hospital of Baden in April 2018 he was selected and nominated as the Chief Medical Doctor of all Pathology departments at the Landesklinikum Hospital Möding (a suburb south of Vienna). Since the beginning of 2020 he has been an active member of the scientific team for the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic. In addition he took over the administrative management of two hospitals : Landesklinikum Mödling and KJPP Hinternrühl.
He is also the Vice President of the Cyprus cultural center of Vienna and a founding member since 2004. He is married and has a son.

Ioannis Stavrou
Vice Chairman

He is a Neurosurgeon specializing in neuro-oncology. 

Born in Athens and completed Vienna Medical University specializing in Neurosurgery. He was an active member of the Association of Greek University students and Academics in Vienna (SEVEF).
In 2001 he was recognized and awarded from the President of the Hellenic Republic Stephanopoulos for his publication of an article in the newspaper (Akatos) of the Greek diaspora in Vienna as a part of a competition sponsored and organized by the Secretariat of the Greek Diaspora.
Today he is assigned in his field of expertise at the Neurosurgery ward of the state Hospital in the city of Wiener Neustadt just south of Vienna. He also maintains a medical practice in the city of Vienna. He is married and has two daughters.

George S. Bebetsos
Secretary

George S. Bebetsos is a Sports Management consultant, working Officiating Unit Coordinator at the European Handball Federation (EHF). Former director of the Hellenic Olympic Academy, he taught for many years at the American College of Thessaloniki and was a national faculty member at the United States Sports Academy. He holds a degree in Physical Education and Sports Science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and his Master’s from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (USA) in Sports Administration.

His professional career, outside of academia, includes major international sporting events management (Olympic Games, World Games, Special Olympics, World Championships, Mediterranean Games, continental championships, etc.), book editing/writing and worldwide lecturing on sports event management, sports facilities development and sports officiating. In 2019 he was awarded "Greece’s Sports Manager of the Year by the Hellenic Scientific Society of Sports and Recreation Management.

Vasilios ‚Bill‘ N Liarakos
Treausurer

An International Business Consultant born in Athens, Greece and now resides in Vienna. 

He moved to the USA during his High School years and he then also completed Graduate and Undergraduate University studies in Economics and International Relations. His Masters thesis was on key European terrorism groups. He served his 28 month military service assigned to the Office of Defense and Army Attache at the Embassy of Greece in Washington DC. He has an extensive global corporate experience having been employed by IBM Corp and has lived and worked - besides the USA - in several European countries and in the Persian Gulf supported complex multinational clients. He was very active with the political campaigns of two US Presidential candidates.

 He is an AHEPA member since 1984 when he joined in the USA.

Paris Priskomatis
Vice President of Philanthropy

Parris Priskomatis was born in Katerini, where he graduated from the Economics and Administration Department of the Municipal High School.
He is a graduate of ICBS Thessaloniki with a specialisation in Business Organisation and Management. He was the founder and owner of Undercolors of Benetton stores in the cities of Katerini, Trikala, Karditsa and Thessaloniki.

In 2015, he founded the famous tasting shop of traditional Greek products Olivenhain greek.deli.wien in Vienna, which he manages as a businessman.

He has two sons and a daughter.

He is an amateur basketball player and motor sports enthusiast.

Through his philanthropic activities he acts as a link to the philhellenic association Griechische Welle Austria in Vienna.

Stergios Laitsos
Vice President  of Civic Responsibility 

A historian lives and works in Vienna

. He was born in the city of Volos and his origins are from Velestino where he completed his studies. He then graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy – University of Ioannina, department of History and Archaeology. He completed post graduate studies and received his Diploma in “Historic scientific sciences of Medieval times” from the FIDEM (Federatio of Institutes for Medieval studies) in Rome. He continued his specialization at the Institute of Byzantine and Neohellenic Studies (ByzNeo) of the University of Vienna and the Institute for Austrian Historic Research (Institut für Österreichische Geschictsforschung). He had Doctoral studies completed and he is a PhD candidate of the Vienna Institute of History. He speaks Aromounic (dialect) and Greek as mother tongue as well English, German and Italian and has knowledge of French and Romanian. His academic work languages are Ancient Greek and Latin.

Nikolaos Antnakakis
Responsible for digital transformation

An Economist and Associate Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Business Administration and Management of the private American Webster University of Vienna. 

His origins are from the island of Crete and has graduated from the Economic University of Athens. He has extensive and multiple year experience at the University of Economics and Business of Vienna (WU Wien), University of Johannes Kepler in Austria as well as the Economic University of Portsmouth, England. He was recognized by Thomson Reuters in 2016 as one of the top researchers globally in the area of economic interest. He has received several academic recognitions through his publications in widely known magazines of the field of Economics.

Andreas Zenios
Responsible for digital communication

He was born in Limassol, Cyprus in 1992. From a young age he participated in various musical ensembles and choirs. After completing school and military service, he studied singing at the ARTE Music Academy in Nicosia, specializing in singing, under the guidance of Svetlana Krasnova and Maestro Ioannidis. Upon graduating in 2016 he was recognized and was awarded the Mari Ioannou; award for the highest achievement in classical singing.
He made his debut as a soloist with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra at the 2017 New Year's Concert.
From June to August 2017 he took part in the recording of Mozart&#39;s opera  > The Magic Flute < (produced by the Weimar Opera Studio) in the role of Papageno.
Since the beginning of September 2017, he has been singing at the Wiener Staatsoper Chorakademie, while simultaneously teaching guitar at the School of Byzantine and traditional Music of the Holy Metropolis of Austria in Vienna.

Ioannis Raptis
Vice President of cultural activities and events

Born in 1991 in Heidelberg, GER, to Greek parents. He spent his early and youth years in Germany, Belgium and Vienna where he studied Jazz guitar.

His focus and main works were in classical guitar, jazz, flamenco, Latin, pop, Jewish, and Greek music which resulted in conducting many concerts and recordings. These musical experiences enrich hisnew creations as a songwriter. In 2019 he released his first personal album; Ansichten eines Troubadours (Views of a Troubadour), in 2020 he followed his first novel Elasphera - Der Fall des Kaisers (Elasphera - The Fall of the Emperor&quot) the first volume of Elasphera trilogy.
His second album – Traveller - is expected to be released in 2023. It will contain 24 songs with English lyrics and his own pop rock music.