Maria Stavropoulou is a qualified barrister (Inns of Court School of Law/ Lincoln’s Inn) and a solicitor. She has been working in the shipping industry in Greece since 2002. She has worked in three major international law firms, namely as a junior solicitor with Constant & Constant and Hill Dickinson International and a senior associate at Clyde & Co. LLP. Her latest position was the in-house lawyer of a ship-management company in Athens from where she resigned at the end of 2018. She is also a qualified CEDR mediator and an international conflict mediator.

At the beginning of 2019, she set up MCS LEX Shipping Law Consultants Ltd, in order to provide expert shipping litigation services and advice in a cost efficient and timely manner. She is currently working with clients both in Greece and in Cyprus.

She has been involved with Project CONNECT since 2014 when she first spoke with Irene Notias and was very interested in the concept of this new initiative and its potential in the shipping industry. She assisted in the legal formation of the non-profit organisation and has been involved ever since in the exchange of ideas and objectives with Irene and her team. She believes in the value of voluntary work as well the passing on of valuable experience to young people because it is through good co-operation and commitment that an industry can build a better future for the generations to come.