Directors & Management

Petros Pappas is the non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Star Bulk and has been a member of Star Maritime's Board of Directors since inception. Throughout his career as a principal and manager in the shipping industry, Mr. Pappas has overviewed over 120 vessel acquisitions and disposals. In 1989, he founded Oceanbulk Maritime S.A., a dry cargo shipping company that has operated managed vessels aggregating as much as 1.6 million deadweight tons of cargo capacity. He also founded a number of affiliated companies, which are involved in the service sectors of the shipping industry. Mr. Pappas is a Director of the UK Defense Club, a leading insurance provider of legal defense services in the shipping industry worldwide, since January 2002, and is a member of the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS). Mr. Pappas received his B.A. in Economics and his MBA from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Mr Capralos served, until October 2010, as Chairman of the Athens Exchange and Chief Executive Officer of the Hellenic Exchanges Group and was the President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges. He was formerly Vice Chairman of the National Bank of Greece ,Vice Chairman of Bulgarian Post Bank, Managing Director of the Bank of Athens and has a ten year banking experience with Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank) in Paris, New York, Athens, Milan, London. He is the current President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and served as Secretary General of the Athens 2004 Olympics Games and Executive Director and Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Organizing Committee for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Koert Erhardt is a director of Star Bulk and has been a member of Star Maritime's board of directors since inception. From September 2004 to December 2004, he served as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of CC Maritime S.A.M., an affiliate of the Coeclerici Group, an international conglomerate whose businesses include shipping and transoceanic transportation of drybulk materials. From 1998 to September 2004, he served as General Manager of Coeclerici Armatori S.p.A. and Coeclerici Logistics S.p.A., affiliates of the Coeclerici Group, where he created a shipping pool that commercially managed over 130 vessels with a carrying volume of 72 million tons and developed the use of Freight Forward Agreement trading as a hedging mechanism to the pool's exposure and positions. From 1994 to 1998, he served as the General Manager of Bulkitalia, a prominent shipping concern which at the time owned and operated over 40 vessels. From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Erhardt served in various positions with Bulk Italia. From 1988 to 1990, he was the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Nedlloyd Drybulk, the drybulk arm of the Nedlloyd Group, an international conglomerate whose interests include container ship liner services, tankers, oil drilling rigs, pipe laying vessels and ship brokering. Mr. Erhardt received his Diploma in Maritime Economics and Logistics from Hogere Havenen Vervoersschool (now Erasmus University), Rotterdam, and received his MBA International Executive Program at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. Mr. Erhardt has also studied at the London School of Foreign Trade.

Milena Pappas has served as a member of the Board since October, 2009. Milena Pappas is the daughter of the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Petros Pappas. Since 2008, Ms. Pappas is employed as a chartering broker and serves as a consultant in the commercial department of Interchart Shipping Inc., a company affiliated with Oceanbulk Maritime S.A. From 2006 until the end of 2007, Ms. Pappas was employed at Oceanbulk, in the finance department. In 2004 and 2005, she trained at Merrill Lynch in the private wealth department and thereafter at the CoeClerici Group in the risk management department. In 2004, while at Merrill Lynch, she assisted in founding the "Women’s Milestones” program. In 2005, Ms. Pappas graduated from Cornell University, N.Y. and in 2007 she received a Master of Science (MSc) in Shipping, Trade and Finance degree from Cass University, London.

Mr Capralos served, until October 2010, as Chairman of the Athens Exchange and Chief Executive Officer of the Hellenic Exchanges Group and was the President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges. He was formerly Vice Chairman of the National Bank of Greece ,Vice Chairman of Bulgarian Post Bank, Managing Director of the Bank of Athens and has a ten year banking experience with Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank) in Paris, New York, Athens, Milan, London. He is the current President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and served as Secretary General of the Athens 2004 Olympics Games and Executive Director and Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Organizing Committee for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Mr. Simos Spyrou joined Star Bulk Carriers Corp. as Deputy Chief Financial Officer earlier this year. From 1997 to 2011, Mr. Spyrou worked at the Hellenic Exchanges (HELEX) Group, the public company which operates the Greek equities and derivatives exchange, the clearing house and the central securities depository. From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Spyrou held the position of Director of Strategic Planning, Communication and Investor Relations at the Hellenic Exchanges Group and he also served as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee of its Board of Directors. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Spyrou was responsible for financial analysis at the research and technology arm of the Hellenic Exchanges Group. Mr. Spyrou attended the University of Oxford, receiving a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Engineering, Economics & Management, specializing in finance. Following the completion of his studies at Oxford, he obtained a post graduate degree in Banking and Finance, from Athens University of Economics & Business.