About

In-house legal advisor Mirka Efthymiadou explains that the Columbia Shipmanagement legal team has expanded and grown with the business and is now four strong. As well as herself, Efthymiadou is joined in the team by legal officers Elena Panayiotou and Vasiliki Kyriakou and legal administrative assistant Anna Christofides. Just some of the major projects the team has been involved with in recent times are listed by Efthymiadou as ‘the successful restructuring of the Holding Group, the merger of Columbia with Marlow, the simultaneous ship financing of over 30 vessels and the establishment of a procurement company working with 60 suppliers around the globe’. At the heart of the team’s success is its positive internal culture. On this, Efthymiadou says: ‘We are an approachable, business-oriented, practical and problem solving legal department treating our internal requests as we would treat a client in a law firm, whilst balancing the legal risks with the commercial risks. To us, teamwork means respecting and collaborating closely with each other and with others across the business, ensuring all knowledge and experience is utilised so as not to be surprised with the unexpected’.