Dr. Panayotis Papanikolas received his BSc in Civil Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens in 1987. In 1990, he received his Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada, while in 1995 he received his PhD in Structural Engineering.

In July 1998 he was elected Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering department University of Alberta. However, he was bound to refuse this honorable challenge since in that very period he had accepted the position of the Technical Chief Officer for the Design and Construction of the Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece.

The most significant milestones of his professional activity are the following:

1998: Technical Chief Officer & Engineering Manager for the design and construction of Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece (multi-span stay cable bridge)
2004: Chief Engineer of Ioannina Regional Office for the project of Egnatia Odos, Greece (600km Motorway)
2009-present:
– Executive Director (Greece) of Vinci Concessions S.A.

– Chairman & Managing Director of Gefyra S.A. (Rion-Antirion Bridge)

– Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Olympia Odos S.A. (Concession company of the 220km tolled motorway linking Athens to Patras, Greece).

Finally, Dr. Panayotis Papanikolas has earned several awards throughout his scholarship and career years with the most recent being in 2006: The International Federation of Structural Concrete (fib) Award for Outstanding Concrete Structure.

He was honored by the French Republic with his nomination to the rank of Knight of the National Order of Merit.