About

Led by head of legal and compliance Periklis Stroumpos and ably supported by a team of senior individuals, the Fraport Greece in-house legal team is home to a great deal of legal experience throughout its ranks. Stroumpos alone boasts over 20 years operating in construction, litigation, arbitration and concessions, while many other team members have multiple years of specialist legal experience; Evy Kyttari, for instance, was previously a partner with Tsibanoulis and Partners and the other team members have held senior positions in other top ranked law firms or large companies. The company’s major milestone in recent years came with its €1.2bn contract with its German parent company, Copelouzos Group and the Greek Government to run 14 regional airports in Greece for a concession period of 40 years. This has had major knock-on effects for the team, with a comprehensive restructure being undertaken. ‘The current comprehensive and well-structured composition of the legal team is the result of an open and competitive recruitment process performed by Fraport Greece’, says Stroumpos. On the deal itself, Stroumpos provided some further detail into the technicalities that he and his team have had to get to grips with on this project: ‘The successful takeover of the 14 Regional Airports of Greece has meant the establishment of the contractual framework within which Fraport Greece operates, with literally hundreds of different operational and commercial contracts (except from the Concession Agreement which was signed before the formation of the legal team). We have also conducted two successful dispute resolution processes resulting in €29m net recovery of expenses for Fraport Greece’. When describing the team, Stroumpos describes it as a ‘lean and mean’ group, which possesses ‘very intelligent, highly qualified and self-motivated individuals who perfectly understand what it takes in order to provide Fraport Greece with tailored, hands-on and up-to-date advice’. In addition, he says, ‘every member of the legal team has the experience and the authority to act almost independently in providing his or her advice to the internal clients or to support Fraport Greece in various negotiations with counterparts, as if the members of the legal team were partners in a law firm working within the company’.