NEW YORK: NewLead Holdings has named Lena Despotopoulou as its new CFO and Eleftheria Savvidaki as its new corporate secretary. Samuel Gulko has also joined the company’s board of directors.
Despotopoulou has been head of NewLead’s internal audit department since joining the company in 2010. Antonis Bertsos resigned as CFO in May to “pursue other career opportunities”.
“Lena has a very good knowledge of audit and accounting principles and together with the rest of NewLead’s employees in the Accounting and Finance Department will support NewLead’s future growth plans,” Michael Zolotas, chairman and CEO of NewLead, said in a statement.
Eleftheria Savvidaki has been the company’s legal counsel since February this year, and has over 13 years’ experience in shipping law. She has served as the company secretary of another publicly traded company in the past.
“Eleftheria has been acting as an external legal consultant to NewLead prior to joining NewLead and has always acted as an employee of the Company. Eleftheria has an extensive understanding of all legal aspects of shipping as well as of publicly traded companies,” Zolotas said of her appointment.
“It is NewLead’s commitment to continue exploring possibilities to further enhance the company’s management team,” he added.
Separately, Samuel Gulko joined NewLead’s board as a non-executive independent member and will also serve on the company’s board audit committee to “further enhance transparency in the corporate governance of the company on behalf of the company’s shareholders”, NewLead said.
Previously, Gulko was a board member of another public listed company as well as CFO, vice-president of finance and treasurer. He has over 50 years of accounting and finance experience, including more than 20 years as an audit partner with Ernst & Young.
