{"id":497,"date":"2018-04-03T14:33:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T14:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/?p=497"},"modified":"2018-04-19T13:08:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T13:08:02","slug":"float-your-boat-the-hellenic-american-chamber-of-commerce-sails-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/float-your-boat-the-hellenic-american-chamber-of-commerce-sails-to-new-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Float Your Boat: The Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce Sails to New Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2017 Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce (HACC) celebrated its 69th<\/sup>\u00a0Annual Dinner Dance at the Pierre Hotel in midtown. The classy atmosphere was the perfect backdrop to an evening of gracious speeches, impeccable service and, of course, dancing.<\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s honoree was Polys Hajioannou, CEO of Safe Bulkers. Nancy Papaioannou, Chairman of the HACC and Co-Chair of the event committee, states that the HACC has always been determined to honor individuals who share in the HACC\u2019s interest to cultivate and support a legacy of excellence in business culture and community. \u201cPolys Hajioannou is a man of character and an impressive example of someone who makes a difference not only in the shipping industry but also in the community at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Papaioannou says, \u201cThis year\u2019s event was a celebration of business and culture. Over 380 people from the various industries gathered to honor and celebrate Polys Hajioannou, a leading force in the shipping industry and a philanthropist.\u201d\u00a0The event featured a remarkable performance by Pericles Kanaris (Composer, Musician and Director) and his band\u00a0Synolon<\/em>.\u00a0HACC\u00a0also commissioned a variety of special products made and shipped from Greece for the evening, including: a marble boat designed by Petro Marmarinos, a craftsman from the island of Tinos and a handcrafted bracelet made by Apritati for each attendee. A portion of all the evening\u2019s proceeds is being donated to\u00a0Galilee<\/em>, a free palliative care service based in Greece.<\/p>\n

This was also the major debut for the HACC Young Professionals\u2019 new leadership with Sofia D\u2019Alessandro at the helm. In her speech mid-way through the evening Ms. D\u2019Alessandro prompts everyone to open the little boats by their place setting \u2013 which was a sponsorship form \u2013 and invited attendees to \u201cgive whatever amount floats your boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the new leadership, the new format of this year\u2019s Gala gained the attention and admiration of many Hellenic Young Professionals in attendance.<\/p>\n

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George Michaelidis (Greek Trade Commissioner for the Consul of Greece in New York) points out that the HACC events promote the interaction of two, even three generations of Greek Americans, encouraging everyone to share their cultural and professional ideas and traditions. To this he adds his regards to the evening\u2019s honoree. \u201cThis is a spectacular event and I\u2019m thrilled to see Mr. Hajioannou honored this way. The Greek shipping industry was one of the first and oldest in the world. Greek Marine companies were the first in the global marine business, so of course it\u2019s fantastic that this year\u2019s honoree is from that marine and shipping industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Stavros Karageorgiou (CCM, Commercial Litigation Associate at Farrell Fritz) has been an HACC member for over three years. \u201cI\u2019ve been to all their events. They\u2019re all wonderful. We meet excellent people in the Greek community. I\u2019ve created several long-lasting relationships from the people I\u2019ve met through the Chamber. It\u2019s also a great educational event and brings people together\u2026. Also, every other month we get together for networking activities, which is also a good opportunity to build new connections.\u201d Stavros\u2019 impression of the Chamber\u2019s Mission is that the events are getting stronger each year, with more attendance than in previous years. \u201cThere\u2019s a breadth of different industries represented here and I think it\u2019s going to go even further in the coming years\u2026. It\u2019s imperative that the young professionals start building their network early on. There are several mentorship-like roles here from the more senior members of the Chamber; they take the young professionals under their wing and they\u2019re able to give guidance from their own experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despina Victory also offered her compliments to the organizers. \u201cThe event was beautifully organized. I also came last year and in comparison it did seem much larger, but tonight the young professionals and the more experienced people are sharing their advice and stories with each other, and that was nice. It was very good to get to know people that way, otherwise we wouldn\u2019t have as many opportunities to come in contact with them. This is an amazing opportunity for everyone here. I will definitely come again next year.\u201d Ms. Victory also shares that it\u2019s very important for youth to get involved with the HACC early on. \u201cIt\u2019s important for Hellenic youth to get involved here at the local and national level, and even in Greece. Look at all the charities and fundraising goals HACC has set out. As a new member, I hope to get more involved whether it\u2019s for planning or anything else that would help out. I plan to be a very active member any way I can because I like what I\u2019ve heard and who I\u2019ve met and spoken to here so far. They\u2019ve inspired me to reach this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u0391\u03bd\u03b1\u03b4\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03c3\u03af\u03b5\u03c5\u03c3\u03b7<\/p>\n

\u03a0\u03b7\u03b3\u03ae:\u00a0www.neomagazine.com<\/p>\n

14\/01\/2018<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2017 Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce (HACC) celebrated its 69th\u00a0Annual Dinner Dance at the Pierre Hotel in midtown. The classy atmosphere was the perfect backdrop to an evening of gracious speeches, impeccable service and, of course, dancing. The evening\u2019s honoree was Polys Hajioannou, CEO of Safe Bulkers. Nancy Papaioannou, Chairman of the HACC and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marmarinos.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}