Chief Executive Officer
TOTOTHEO MARITIME
Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou is joint Chief Executive Officer of TOTOTHEO MARITIME, a leading global supplier of equipment and services for maritime satellite and radio communications, bridge navigation systems, automated applications, and operational efficiency solutions.
Despina is President of Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA), since October 2017, having previously served as the Secretary of the organization from 2015 to 2017. WISTA is an organization for women in management positions in the maritime sector and currently there are 46 WISTA National Associations with over 3000 individual members. Despina founded WISTA Cyprus – a member of WISTA International – and was the Association’s President for 7 years (2011-2018).
Despina is a member of the Board of Directors of various organisations like the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation, the Cyprus Maritime Academy, the Cyprus-Germany Business Association, and on the Strategic Committee of Crans Montana – Club of Ports.
In December 2017 leading international shipping publication Lloyd’s List selected Despina as one of the Top 100 Most Influential people in shipping internationally and she attained a further credit as one of Lloyd’s List’s Top 5 Next Generation executive.
She won the titles of “Top Professional” and “Cyprus Business Woman of the Year” at the 9th National Cyprus Business Woman of the Year Awards 2015. She has been awarded by the global Women Economic Forum in New Delhi as the “Woman of the Decade in Innovation and Leadership” (May 2017) and named as one of the “10 Women to Watch” by Youngship International during Norshipping 2017. She was also proclaimed as an Honorary Fellow of the Cyprus Institute of Marketing (April 2017).
Despina holds degrees from the National and Capodistrian University of Athens, the Copenhagen Business School and the University of Oxford.