The Greek-Australian Society (GAS) is expanding into Brisbane, with an exclusive roundtable lunch and after-work networking event planned for Friday 11 November.
The roundtable lunch, hosted at Brisbane’s Nostimo Restaurant at The Greek Club, will feature a keynote address from Sydney-based Jim Tatsis, National Operations Manager at global asset management firm Brookfield Properties.
The highly commended property and facilities management industry leader is today responsible for Brookfield Properties’ operational business across a $16bn national property portfolio. The FMA Facility Manager of the Year recipient previously held positions at Stockland for 15 years and has also held Facilities Management and Engineering roles with Colliers and Johnson Controls.
In an exclusive with Neos Kosmos, Mr. Tatsis stated that he was excited to mentor in this year’s GAS Mentoring Program, which expanded from 12 participants in 2021 to nearly 30 in 2022.
“I was particularly drawn to the GAS mentoring opportunity,” Mr. Tatsis said, “as the program is still in its infancy and I am able to shape the program jointly with the GAS executive team.”
He described Friday’s roundtable as “affording all an opportunity to participate in the discussion and share their thoughts on how best community organisations such as ours can work together, to achieve what are similar goals.”
According to Mr. Tatsis, events like these help “bring people together with similar experiences and views,” acknowledging the significance of having dual or multiple identities as Greek-Australians today.
“Greek community events have in my view evolved and changed greatly from when I was a teenager,” he added, “and primarily entertainment based, to now focused on preserving culture, language, customs and traditions.”
GAS Co-Founder and Secretary, George Mpliokas said the organisation and Mr. Tatsis had aligned really well on a fresh suite of initiatives, designed for Greek-Australians and Philhellenes in a period of great change for the community in Australia.
“After launching in Sydney and expanding in Melbourne,” Mr. Mpliokas said, “the entire team at GAS are really excited to be launching now in Brisbane as well.”
“Our GAS mentoring program has clearly resonated across our community, and the quality of participants just like Jim is a huge endorsement of what we have set out to achieve with GAS. It’s thanks to him and our excellent mentors that we are set to expand again in 2023.”
With members from Sydney and Melbourne set to attend both Brisbane events, Mr. Mpliokas said GAS was confident of applying its tried and tested methods from Sydney and Melbourne to connect members across the country.
“Our aim for Brisbane is to be humble, to learn more about each other and to offer something fresh and exciting for Greek-Australians based in Queensland,” he said.
“By meeting in person, we can form partnerships based on trust, so that we can encourage participation into our existing community organisations, but also look at new ways of expressing ourselves as Greek-Australians.”
