Fotini Papathanassiou was born and raised in Italy where she lived until 1999. She studied architecture at the Milan Polytechnic and then continued her studies in Design and Event Management in London (Central Saint Martin’s School of Art & Design – Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and New York (NYU).
She worked in the Hotel Industry as Manager of Personnel and has extensive experience in organizing events having worked for nearly 10 years at the International Trade Fair of Milan. In 2000 she started working for the IOC and as a member of the Organizing Committee for the Media Villages in four Olympic Games (Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin, Beijing). Since 2009 she works as an independent event planner for various events, conferences, exhibitions and installations. She is fluent in Italian and English