Olive Mechanical Harvesting

Manolis Salivaras is an experienced laboratory analyst and an expert of organoleptic evaluation of olive oil. Initially he studied Food Technology at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki and then at the Agricultural School of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

Stefanos Papilidis has graduated as an engineer from the National Technical University of Athens and also holds an M.B.A. from ALBA Graduate Business School.

Vasilis Frantzolas, born in Athens, has a long family tradition in the wholesaling and retailing of olive oil. He studied as agronomist engineer and then completed his studies on civil engineering, M.Sc. (Athens) and construction management, M.Sc (USA). In 2009 he received a Master’s degree in Food Policy at City University London. His education and training in the sensory evaluation of olive oils began in 2003 and he has then attended various seminars in Greece and Italy concerning the sensory evaluation of olive oil.

Dr. Agustí J. ROMERO, PhD in Food Science and Technology. Thirty years of experience as researcher at the IRTA Plant Science Program. His work focuses on virgin olive oil quality improvement and cultivar evaluation. He is co-author of one book about olive cultivars in Catalonia, the chapter about olive oils from Spain in “Olive Oil Sensory Science Book” (Ed. Willey, 2014) and several parts of technical books on olive oil, food sensorial analysis, etc.

Full professor in Food Science - Department of Agricultural Sciences, Food and Environmental, University of Perugia, Italy.

George Kostelenos was born in 1963, in Galatas, Troizinia, coming from a farming family. He commenced his studies at the Agronomy Faculty of the University of Pisa, Italy and continued at the Agricultural Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he graduated in 1988.

Graduate in Chemistry, he has been dealing with physical-chemical quality control, sensory evaluation and manufacturing process of a primary Italian olive oil company for many years. Since 1993, he has co-operated with ONAOO as a teacher, taster and scientific advisor. In 1997 he got the Panel Leader qualification by the International Olive Council (IOC). He is also co-author of scientific papers on methods to analyse olive oils.  

Mr. Kostopoulos Studied Agronomy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. M.Sc.- Cranfield Institute of Technology, England. His professional experience is in the field of fertilizers and plant protection products. He is an olive grower in Achaia prefecture. He worked as an executive in multinational companies dealing in agricultural supplies, including Shell chemicals, American Cyanamide, Agrevo and Yara.  

Agricultural Engineer (M.Sc.) is a Quality Consultant, specializing in olive growing and viniculture. Graduate of the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Agricultural University of Athens (2001), he also studied at the Department of Organization and Business Administration of Athens University of Economics and Business and postgraduate studies (2004), (MBA).

Riccardo Gucci, professor at the Department of Agrarian, Food and Agro-Environmental Sciences at the University of Pisa, is the new President of the National Academy of Olive Oil. Professor of general arboriculture and vine and olive cultivation, has been part of his scientific activity at the Michigan State University's Horticulture Department. He is the scientific director of Italus Hortus, the magazine of the Italian Society of Horticulture, of which he has been a member since 1996. In the same year he was appointed Academician of the Georgophiles. Since 2010, he was Vice President of the National Academy of Olive Oil and Oil.  

Senior Researcher, Ex director of Institute for Olive Tree and Subtropical Plants of Chania. He has a long expertise in water requirements and irrigation systems of the crops, soil-plant-water relationships, use of marginal (saline and reclaimed) waters for irrigation and sustainable water resources management in agriculture.

Prof. George Daoutopoulos was born in Edessa, Macedonia, Greece in 1945. He grew up in small villages around the valley of Yiannitsa that have affected his future professional occupations. Besides his studies, research, teaching and lectures he farms the family land of his grandfather and remains a lifetime student of nature.

Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences of the University of Perugia. He obtained the qualification for full professor in 2014. From 1995 to the present he has held several courses concerning tree cultivation and olive growing, both at the University of Perugia and at the University of Malta.