Expert resume of George Liakopoulos

Group General Counsel, Piraeus Bank S.A.; General Counsel, Corporate and Legal Affairs of Piraeus Bank S.A.; Non-Executive Director, Piraeus Bank Ltd (Cyprus); former Non-Executive Vice Chairman, Geniki Bank S.A.; former Director, Piraeus Bank Egypt; Standing Member, Legal Committee of the Hellenic Bank Association; Member, Association of Corporate Counsel (Europe); Member, Advisory Board of European Issuers

George Liakopoulos has been in-house counsel with Piraeus Bank SA for 17 years, initially as Director of Legal Services and General Manager for Group Corporate and Legal Affairs and for the last years as Group General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer. George sat at the Board of Directors of three subsidiary banks as well as in a number of other financial sector companies.

His duties entail advising the group’s senior management on corporate and governance affairs for all banking institutions in the group. During the past years he has successfully met legal and regulatory challenges imposed on financial institutions by the relentless Greek financial crisis. In his role as CLO, George is managing a large intricate legal department with 225 in-house lawyers across Greece and 18 lawyers in the international subsidiaries. George has received the EFQM Excellence Award for Quality Management in 2004 while he was a finalist for the ILO European Corporate Counsel Award (2011).

George led the legal teams, which were involved in all Piraeus acquisitions within the last 12 years, including its international bank network and all strategic Group deals. Recently, George spearheaded the Piraeus teams during the 2012-2013 consolidation phase where they completed acquisitions of 6 banking institutions in the course of 14 months. He has also coordinated complex legal work for the Bank’s recapitalization efforts in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and dealt with significant ownership and governance changes in the Bank during 2016 and 2017.

Before joining Piraeus Group, George had an active private law practice, with emphasis on commercial & corporate law, contract law, Concessions and Privatizations, Project Finance,Corporate Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions and Banking & Securities Law. He held legal positions both in the private and public sectors and has acted as legal advisor on a series of projects like the Rion Bridge Crossing, several oil exploration concessions and motorway BOTs.

He is a Law graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he also made Postgraduate studies in Private International Law. He is also a graduate of the INSEAD Banking Governance programme.

George is a frequent speaker in legal and financial conferences and is a standing member of the Legal Council at the Hellenic Banking Association and the Editorial Committee of the Greek Banking and Securities Law Review. He serves as Board member and Treasurer in the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Europe and is a member of the Advisory Board of Global Leaders in Law.