Dimitris Georgakopoulos embodies perhaps better than any other Greek the so-called "American dream". Having started his career in America in the 1990s, the Greek entrepreneur sees this country as a platform of opportunity.

His work at PwC and Publicis Sapient is a key stepping stone in his professional development, while in 2004, trying to find a solution to a personal need, he launched Buildium - a property management platform, which in 2019 he sold for $580 million.He then returned permanently to Greece, bringing with him not only the experience from America, but also the spirit of social responsibility.

Among other things, he created the Helidoni Foundation, a charitable foundation that embraces and supports ideas, actions and businesses with a social footprint. It is worth mentioning that he is also on the board of The Hellenic Initiative (THI), the organization founded in 2012 by members of the Greek diaspora to respond to the needs of our country to address the effects of the economic crisis. In an interview with Capital.gr, Mr. Georgakopoulos talks, among other things, about life in America, his professional career, Buildium, but also the reasons why he returned to Greece and his current activities in our country, through the Helidoni Foundation and Zeno Capital. He lived in America for almost 30 years, from 1993 to 2021.

First he went to study (finance and computer science), then he started his professional career and created his family. "I experienced America as a welcoming country for entrepreneurship, with many opportunities, where if one really had the will and the necessary experience and knowledge, one had a great chance to succeed. This is the fertile ground I found myself in," Georgakopoulos tells Capital.gr. Mr. Georgakopoulos started working as a consultant in two companies - PwC and Publicis Sapient - taking on many projects from different industries, which, as he points out, was a catalyst, as it provided him with an important background for the future. As he continues, he lived through the entire internet/dot-com boom to the bust in 2000-2002. "There I realised that there is no certainty in any job or business and that everything is potentially precarious. It is this thought that gave me the impetus to create something of my own, as I found it less risky to do this than to pursue a professional career in multinationals operating in a volatile and vulnerable environment."

Read the full article at Capital