Vivian Chang
Vivian has worked in technology startups for the last 10 years. She is currently the chief product officer at a NYC startup aiming to improve health literacy through better visualizations. Before jumping into startups, Vivian worked at McKinsey in management consulting. She is passionate about technology, education, and, as would naturally follow, technology education.
Vivian lives in New York City. She has also lived in London and at Stanford, where she went to college, but always finds herself being drawn back to the Big Apple.
She loves to eat and cook, which conveniently go hand in hand, and explore the world, one roadtrip at a time.
Spark was created in 2017 by Hellenic Hope, a London-based charity, aiming to help kids-at-risk in Greece. Hellenic Hope supports carefully selected Greek nonprofit organizations that help, in a number of ways, children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We asked the question, what new can we bring to these organizations supported by Hellenic Hope, and to the children they help, that can have a lasting impact and that goes beyond what Hellenic Hope currently offers? We kept coming back to digital literacy: how it is very important; often neglected and missing; but can be remedied.
This abstract idea became a reality in early 2018: In partnership with nonprofit organizations Schedia and Christodoulio, we ran technology activities in their premises. We provided teachers, educational material and equipment, including laptops and robotics kits; Schedia and Christodoulio provided the space, and a lot of help and support.
Spark is growing fast and we expect to triple in size for our second year, with more children and more locations. And so, we decided to launch Spark Projects, a dedicated charity for Spark activities. Spark Projects was crated in August of 2018, the Spark team from Hellenic Hope transferred over, and more people joined to help. We look forward to our second year!
THE Story of spark
THE TEAM
George Konaris
George grew up in Greece and, after high school, left to study in the UK. The English weather won him over and he ended staying for about ten years, studying first at Cambridge and then at Oxford along the way. Since the early 2000s, he has worked in finance in London and New York.
George deeply cares about equal opportunities and education, and is a Ttustee of London-based nonprofit Hellenic Hope, which has been helping kids-at-risk in Greece since the onset of the Greek crisis.
Away from a love for travel, George spends time reading, designing things, experimenting in the kitchen and trying to make sense of current affairs, all preferably in the company of friends and family.
Ioanna Lykidi
Ioanna has worked in Google for nearly a decade and is currently EMEA Lead for Business Governance and Compliance.
When not balancing life, work and kids, Ioanna hopes to make a difference by reminding girls and women
of equality and opportunity.
Ioanna lives in London, is a full-time working mother of 3 children and loves hot yoga. She, literally, came from Greece with a thirst for knowledge nearly 20 years ago, and that was that.
Eleni Potamianou
Eleni studied law at Oxford University and Sorbonne, and business in Georgetown.
After practicing law for a while, she moved to tourism and then education. Since its inception in 2014, Eleni has been in charge of parent communication for the JMC Kindergarten at the Hellenic American Educational Foundation.
Eleni is the mother of three and lives in Athens. She is a terrible cook, loves sports, being outdoors and reading a good book.
