I joined ACS Athens in the Spring of 1992, towards the end of the 6th grade and graduated in 2000. My mother re-patriated to Greece in 1992 having lived in the US for 25 years. ACS Athens was a natural choice for me and my sister given we had grown up in the US and did not speak any Greek at the time (although we are both fuent now).

I played on the Varsity basketball and soccer teams, did track & field, was President of the IB Council and recorded a record number of CAS hours under my presidency. One project I remember organizing was a reforestation project following the devastating fires in Penteli. I was also an active participant in Model United Nations and Forensic Debate clubs.

As student Editor in Chief of the Blue & Gold newspaper, I remember running a survey amongst the student population seeking their views on the controversial national debate in Greece at the time: should religion be noted on a person's ID card in Greece, and writing an article on the results for the newspaper. My English teacher from the 9th grade and supervisor for the newspaper, William Papatassos, remains a good friend to this day. He attended my wedding and the baptism of my son.

I finished third in my class of 108 students; the top female – and received the only 7/7 in Greece on the Economics Higher Level IB examination in 2000. I was a Member of the Honour Roll, and received several other awards during graduation.

After graduating from ACS in 2000, I studied Law & Politics at the University of Edinburgh where I was one of only two students who nished that joint degree; most dropping the Politics course as it was too much work together with law school. I spent a year on exchange to the University of Oslo and learned to speak Norwegian.

Career

I am a UK-qualified corporate finance lawyer specialized in advising corporates (and their boards), investment banks and private equity firms on equity capital transactions (including initial public offerings and secondary capital raisings on the London Stock Exchange), corporate governance and general public company representation matters.

I trained at the “Magic Circle” law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, spent over 10 years at top US law rms Latham & Watkins and Davis Polk & Wardwell, and will join Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in late June 2020 as a partner in the M&A and Corporate Finance team, making me the 11th UK-qualified black female partner at a Top 20 law firm in London and the first black female partner in the London office of my new firm. Over the course of my career, I have spent nearly two years on client secondments to the in-house legal teams of Goldman Sachs, Citi and Jefferies.

I have extensive international experience working on cross-border transactions across a broad range of sectors including hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, natural resources and aviation. Some of my representative transactions include advising the budget airline, WizzAir, on its floatation on the London Stock Exchange and being the key lawyer for Goldman Sachs on the two biggest floatations in Europe in 2019, the Prosus and TeamViewer IPOs.

My goal is to continue building a thriving legal practice and having a positive impact on the clients I advise and the people I work with. In advising clients on capital raisings, I relish in helping companies grow and achieve their business strategies. In managing my own team of lawyers, I seek to mentor and inspire those I work with to develop their skills and reach their highest potential.

I am currently building out an emerging markets angle within my practice with a particular focus on Greece and Africa – harnessing the diversity of my own background.

I am keen to advise Greek and African companies (or the banks or private equity firms advising these companies) looking for international investment and the legal frameworks for doing so, particularly within the capital markets. 

My longer-term goal is to be an impact investor and invest in social entrepreneurs and start-ups in Greece and Africa, which have environmental, social and governance vlaues at their core. I would also eventually like to sit on the board of a large Greek or African company so I can contribute my Corporate Governance expertise to the local market. 

Service: Boards & NPs

• Admitted to the roll of the Supreme Court of England & Wales in 2009
• Member of the Institute of Governance (ICSA)
• Chair of the Advisory Board of The LEAD Curriculum, a not-for-prot organisation which delivers leadership training programmes to students from inner city schools
• Committee member of the Women Lawyers Division of the Law Society of England & Wales, the independent professional body for solicitors.

Awards

• Nominated and shortlisted for WearetheCity Rising Star Award (2016)
• Selected for Thomson Reuters' publication Super Lawyer's List of Rising Stars (2013)
• University of Edinburgh Simon Gray Award for distinguished work in Politics course (2004)
• Received personal recognition from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the national press and the local community for organising Scotland's then largest student MUN conference in collaboration with Harvard University and the Model United Nations Society at the University of Edinburgh (which I co-founded having developed a passion for MUN at ACS) (2005)

Personal Interests and Charities

Active in the Diversity & Inclusion space particularly with respect to supporting black and female lawyers. Member of the Black Solicitors Network and mentor on their Creating Pathways program.

At my most recent firm, Davis Polk, I was Co-Chair of the firm's DPWomen group in the London office and a member of the EU Steering Committee for DPWomen groups across the firm's European offices. At Latham & Watkins, I was the London office leader for the firm's Women Lawyers Group, one of six associates appointed to the firm's global Diversity Leadership Committee and a representative for the London office on the firm's global Training and Career Enhancement Committee.

As mentioned above, I chair the Advisory Board of The LEAD Curriculum which is dedicated to teaching leadership skills and a growth mindset, as well as other soft skills not taught in the traditional academic curriculum but critical to thriving in the workplace. LEAD targets students from inner city schools who are less likely to have such skills taught to them in extracurricular school activities, and therefore enter the workplace at an immediate disadvantage.

Family

My mother is from Katerini, Greece and emigrated to the United States during the Hounta dictatorship in the 1970s. She was 13 years old. My father was African-American and grew up on a farm in the southern state of Tennessee in America's Deep South. He died suddenly when I was 10 years old, the main factor prompting my mother to move back to Greece, where she felt it was safer to be a single mother to an 8 and 10-year-old. Both of my parents were the first generation in their families to finish school and go to university. They were my first true role models of “black excellence” and “female leadership” and instilled in me an unwavering work ethic and strong sense of integrity. I attribute my professional success entirely to them.

My husband, Markos Tsimikalis, remembers me from one of the IB sports tournaments I had organised with all of the IB schools in Athens, one of my CAS initiatives as IB President. My father-in-law, who was also at the tournament, says I stood out to him as I was the only black kid in the entire tournament and he remembers me getting on the microphone and announcing the rotation of teams as the key organiser before running onto the pitch to be a participant. He remembered exactly who I was when Markos brought me home 15 years later as his girlfriend. Markos owns of the most famous Greek restaurants in London called Hungry Donkey, in which I am also a co-investor.

During my first week at university in Edinburgh, Scotland, a girl called Elli Papadaki came up to me in a shopping centre and asked if I went to ACS Athens and played on their soccer team. She went to Panagiotopoulos School and remembered playing against me. Let's just say I was well-known amongst the soccer teams at the various international and IB schools we played against as being very assertive on the feld! I was the second highest goal scorer in the league. To make a very long story short, we became roommates and best friends at Edinburgh.

After we graduated, she introduced me to my husband, Markos, who was a classmate of hers at Panagiotopoulos. The three of us remain extremely close friends; she was a “koumbara” at our wedding and I was her “koumbara” too.

We both now live 10 mins away from each other in London and our two boys are 3 months apart in age and regularly play with each other.

I have a son called Noah and he is 3 years old. I have already signed him up to attend an IB school. As you can see, ACS is at the core of my family relationships!

There is truly something special about the bonds you forge at ACS Athens. Our collective experience at such a unique and enriching school acts as a special glue which for me has held strong even 20 years after graduating from ACS. The other “koumbara” at my wedding was Faye Palmqvist, the first person I met at ACS in the 6th grade as she was tasked to be my buddy and show me around the school on my first day. She remains my buddy 26 years later.

My best friends from Middle School, Angelina Garefis and Nicole Eliopoulos, remain my best friends today. I was honoured to be their “koumbara” at their respective weddings. I am also godmother to Angelina's son, Markos, and she is godmother to my son, Noah. Despite the fact that we live in Washington D.C., California and London, the three of us speak regularly and coordinate summer holidays every year in Greece to see each other. Angelina and Nicole even flew over to London to throw me a baby shower when I was pregnant. Faye, who is a professional patisseur, made the cake for both my wedding and baby shower!

Even my first boyfriend, Stephan Kalinski, and I remain good friends and regularly keep in touch. I think at the time we completely underestimated how lucky we were to be in an environment where it was socially acceptable for a guy from the eastern part of Germany to go out with a black female – this was nearly 25 years ago.

To New Graduates

I have kept in touch with so many of my friends from ACS and some have even become clients of mine! My advice to current students would be not to underestimate the importancee of the network attending a school lik ACS gives you. Cherish and nurture those relationships because they truly last a lifetime. In my case, playing on the ACS soccer team (in the years before there was even astroturf!) led to my finding true love.

“There is something very, very special about our school.”