Five Innovative Ideas Win at the 12th “John & Mary Pappajohn Business Plan Competition” at ACT (American College of Thessaloniki)

On Thursday, June 26, 2025, the 12th “John & Mary Pappajohn Business Plan Competition” concluded at the premises of ACT (American College of Thessaloniki). The competition, organized by ACT’s Entrepreneurship Hub, awards five prizes of €4,000 each to the five best business plans with the potential to develop into sustainable ventures. The cash prizes are sponsored by the John and Mary Pappajohn Foundation, established by Greek-American entrepreneur John Pappajohn.

This year’s winning teams were:

• Dimitra Pantelaki with KORI, an app that transforms a smartphone camera into a high-precision pupil monitoring device for medical purposes.

• Aspasia-Ramona Spyropoulou with LABMINDS, a digital platform aimed at finding suitable participants for research studies.

• Ourania Vairaktari and students from the Model General High School of Larissa with PHOTON AI, offering an ecosystem of energy management and autonomy solutions.

• Christos Mourelatos with STELLAR PHRONESIS, a system that addresses autonomy challenges in modern mobility technologies.

• Cure Cloud an innovative, GDPR-compliant digital platform that enables patients to efficiently maintain their medical records while providing medical agents and healthcare companies with valuable, anonymous data for research purposes.  Mr Dimitrios Pertsinidis led the team. 

The event was coordinated by Dr. Nikolaos Hourvouliades, Director of the ACT Entrepreneurship Hub. The seven-member judging panel included successful and active entrepreneurs in the business ecosystem such as:

• Anastasios Andreadis, CEO of STANTA

• Dimitris Kouletsis, Business Development Manager at The People’s Trust

• Dimitris Kourtesis, Coach and Co-founder of Ideas Forward

• Thrasyvoulos Makios, Business Angel and Managing Director of Green Development Investments

• Nikolaos Pentzos, President of ZANAE

• Dr. Kostas Rotsios, Business Coordinator at ACT

• Nikolaos Takas, CEO of Thermi Ventures

The “John & Mary Pappajohn Business Plan Competition” is one of the most significant activities of the ACT Entrepreneurship Hub. For over a decade, it has supported, encouraged, and connected new start-ups. Each year, more than 60 start-ups compete not only for the €4,000 cash prize, but also for the valuable growth and networking opportunities the competition provides.

The ACT Entrepreneurship Hub is supported by the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, Pakketo, and the company PARADOSIAKO, making possible the execution of all annual events and activities of the Hub while promoting entrepreneurship in the broader region.