The Team · ENAS

Professor Elias Karakitsos

Professor Karakitsos is the architect of interconnected macro-financial-geopolitical-industry models that provide empirically transparent risk management that capture the geopolitical reality.

In his long career he has had an impact as an economic advisor to governments, financial institutions and business leaders through his pioneering research on the optimization approach to the design of economic policy. This is now the standard approach of all major central banks.

Academia

Elias is a distinguished academic with 25-years of service at Imperial College, University of London, where he held the chair in economics until 2001 and was subsequently a Visiting Professor until 2004. He was Head of Economics at Imperial College for ten years (1987-1997) and joined CEPP, Dept of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, in 2004-16. He is the author of six books, more than 100 papers in learned journals and more than 1,000 research reports on economies, financial markets and shipping. His book on Maritime Economics has been translated to Chinese and taught at post-graduate courses in universities around the world.

Governments

Following the recommendation of the House of Commons Select Committee on the Treasury & Civil Service, in its Enquiry into Monetary Policy (1980), HM Treasury adopted the optimization approach to monetary policy and appointed Elias as an economic advisor (1980-90). After a second Evidence to the House of Commons on International Monetary Arrangements (1983), Elias advised the US government (1987) on economic policy to address the ‘twin-deficit’, and acted as a consultant to DG II of the European Commission on monetary union, economic convergence and the issues of a multi-speed Europe (1992-95). He was a Director of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), which oversees the stability of the Greek systemic banks (2015-16).

Financial Institutions

He acted as economic and investment advisor to financial institutions, including Citigroup for fifteen years to 2001 (London, then Switzerland, EMEA and finally globally, New York Headquarters); Abbey National - Headquarters, London (1990-94); Oppenheimer, New York (1994-97); Credit Agricole, Luxembourg (1994-2003); Allianz-Headquarters, Munich (1997-98); Standard Chartered, London (1997-2001); Bank of Cyprus (2018 – 2025).

Public versions of the author's CV can be found in ‘Who's Who in the World’ and ‘Who's Who in America’ (1990s versions).

Nepheli Karakitsos

Focuses on macro analysis, government policies with a particular emphasis on China, and its impact on the global economy & industries. She detangles the mix of political and economic dimensions of China's objectives, identifying the policies within the 5-Year Plans that shape its domestic economy, and the associated impact on the global economy.

The macro analysis of China's economy has included policies engaged in urbanisation & avoiding the Middle-Income Trap, the shift from volumes-to-scale to value added manufacturing, balance of power and fiscal duties between central & local government, Hukou system, demographic changes, shadow banking, developments in industrial production & overcapacity, and the energy transition. She also follows the growing shift toward the emerging clean industries, green transition in energy policies, development of renewable energy & alternative fuels such as Ammonia & Methanol.

Nepheli specialises in geopolitical developments, including Belt Road Initiative (BRI) developments, the deepening of intra-Asia trade ties as well as China with the BRICS, the dynamics of US-China relations, and impact on the regional fracturing of trade & supply chains as a result of ally shoring. The move to a Geopolitical-Macro Cycle is marking major shifts in priorities, blurring political & economic decisions due to the increasing role of energy security, supply-chain resilience, resources security, & importance of diversifying growth engines.

Gerasimos Paschalidis

focuses on providing in-depth analysis on commodity supply chains, prices & trade flows in industrial metals, agricultural products & energy commodities such as oil, natural gas & coal. Gerasimos covers commodities from mining, processing, to their final use in energy & industrial production.

He also follows the latest developments in global transportation networks, trade policies (including quotas, licensing, anti-dumping duties, tariffs), and transportation infrastructure, to capture shifts in world trade.

Gerasimos specialises in integrating his in-depth micro analysis into a bottom-up approach, which provides insights into the constituent components of world industrial production & supply chains, that are shaping the global economy & world trade. He also provides a macro analysis of India's economy.