Demetri Paneras

Demetri Paneras was the Webmaster of the MIT Media Lab before managing the Internet presence of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. In 2005, Demetri joined Velti, the Mobile Marketing firm and first company out of Greece to list on the London AIM market (2006) and NASDAQ (2011). As CIO as well as SVP of the Performance Marketing business unit, Demetri managed up to 300 Velti staff while delivering profitability and cost control as the company grew from 60 to 1500 employees in 30 offices around the world. From 2007 to 2009 Demetri took time away from Velti as CTO for the relaunch of the Eleftheros Tipos media group by the Theodore Angelopoulos family. Following the 2014 acquisition of Velti’s global assets by GSO (a division of Blackstone) he managed mGage LLC, holding roles as CIO, SVP of Advertising Technology and GM for mGage Athens. In 2018 Demetri was an in-house contractor for SpaceX in Los Angeles, California. In 2018, Demetri took the position of Global CIO for IPG Mediabrands, consolidating a diverse global team of IT professionals in IPG’s fastest growing Network. He currently lives in New York where he is the Global CTO for the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG).

Born in Arlington Heights, Illinois, Demetri attended Pinewood and later Anatolia High School in Thessaloniki, Greece. He graduated from Ithaca High School in Ithaca, New York. He holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University and completed an M.Sc. (as well as ABD Ph.D. work) also in Electrical Engineering at Boston University in 1997. Demetri serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Community School of Athens, Greece and his three children are all members of the ACS family: Joanna (class of 2015), Evan (2025) and Danae (2027).