At the ACCI Awards 2014, the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry honored Mr. Evripides, the founder and CEO of the Greek pharmaceutical company, GENESIS Pharma, with the “Self-made businessman of the year” award.
Apart from this significant distinction, Mr. Evripides has received various awards for his long business career, which is inherent with the creation of GENESIS Pharma in 1997, among which: the “Dynamic Entrepreneur of the year” award by Ernst & Young in 2006, the “Greek Quality Leader of the Year” award by the Hellenic Management Association in 2012 and the “European Leader in Quality” award by the European Quality Organization in 2013. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Evripides stated: “Creating a business has been a lifelong dream for me. The process of founding GENESIS Pharma showed from the very first steps that it was going to be an attractive adventure worth the risk and the great effort. When we started, 17 years ago together with Alexander and Aris Iakovides, our goal was to set up not necessarily the biggest but certainly the best pharmaceutical company in Greece.  The thorough research of global and Greek drug market that we carried out before founding the company, the investment in biotechnology innovation, the emphasis on quality and the integrity with which we have been working since the very first day have produced results much greater than those we had predicted. A small, at that time, Greek company, achieved to earn the trust of global pharmaceutical leaders, opening a new market in Greece and competing head-to-head with  established, large pharmaceutical companies already operating in the Greek market. Throughout our course so far, we have managed to build up on each of our successes, constantly creating growth opportunities for our company and building strong relationships with our stakeholders in the Greek and international market”.
Costas Evripides
Constantinos Evripides was born in Nicosia in 1953. He studied Economics at the Athens University of Economics and holds an MBA from London Business School. He started his managerial career in 1979 from PepsiCo International. He has a 30-years’ experience in the Greek pharmaceutical sector. In 1985 he assumed the position of Area Manager Mediterranean for Greece and Israel of Wellcome Foundation Ltd and in 1993 he led the founding of the Greek subsidiary Wellcome Hellas SA, assuming the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, until the company’s acquisition by Glaxo in 1995.
In 1997, together with the Iacovides brothers, he founded GENESIS Pharma, a pioneer for the time pharmaceutical company as it was the first company in Greece specializing in pharmaceutical biotechnology at a time when the industry was in early development stages globally. Their vision was to create the best pharmaceutical company in Greece in terms of high expertise, innovation and responsible entrepreneurship.
From the first years of its operation, GENESIS Pharma managed to be established among the largest Greek commercial companies, but also the leading pharmaceutical companies operating in the Greek market, with steadily increasing sales, which exceeded 255 million Euros in 2009. Today, GENESIS Pharma remains the only Greek pharmaceutical company specializing in promotion, sales and distribution of biotechnology pharmaceutical products for dearly two decades. Its portfolio includes more than 20 branded novel drugs, primarily in the therapeutic areas of the Central Nervous System, Oncology, Hematology, Gastroenterology and Nephrology, as a result of its collaboration with leading multinational biopharmaceutical companies. Among its partners are two of the biggest, based on market capitalization, companies focusing on research and development of novel therapies, Biogen Idec and Celgene.  The majority of these strategic alliances concern the markets of Greece, Cyprus and also the wider region of Southeast Europe, mainly Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.
GENESIS Pharma is one of the most award-winning Greek companies, having received since 2000 numerous awards and certifications for its growth and productivity rates as well as its commitment to, innovation and  excellence; it is the only company in the history of the Greek Best Workplaces Competition with 12 Greek, four European awards and two special awards and it is the first pharmaceutical company awarded for its performance in corporate responsibility every year since 2010 based on the National CR Index,
Mr. Constantinos Evripides is President of the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Club, Vice President of the Hellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Companies, Member of the General Council of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises and external Member of the Athens University of Economics and Business Council., Board Member of the Association “Youth Entrepreneurship‐ Junior Achievement Greece” and founding Member of the London Business School Greek Alumni Association, holding the position of President between 2000-2013.