Mr. Demetris Skourides is the Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation and Technology of the Republic of Cyprus. The Chief Scientist chairs, ex officio, the Board of Directors of the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) of Cyprus. Mr. Skourides holds a BSc in Computer Science, with an emphasis on Software Engineering, from Arizona State University, USA, and an MBA from Henley Management College, UK. Among other things, he has been trained in digital transformation, artificial intelligence, data monetisation and sales, in programs at Columbia, Stanford, MIT and Harvard Universities respectively. Mr. Skourides has worked with the technology giants Oracle and Amazon Web Services. He joined Oracle Cyprus in 2006 after two years at the Cyprus Organisation for Standardisation and has since followed an international career with Oracle, taking on management roles across South East Europe and Commonwealth countries. Among others, he held executive positions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific countries, as a Cloud & ISV Solutions transformation leader. Mr. Skourides spearheaded the establishment of Cloud Partner Centres of Excellence in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, South Korea, Kenya and South Africa, which enabled partners to innovate, create new solutions and bring them to market, creating new revenue streams. In his most recent role, Mr. Skourides worked at Amazon Web Services, Dubai, UAE, as Industry Strategist for EMEA Commercial Sales, driving innovative solutions for the financial services, retail, manufacturing and energy sectors.