Christos Tsolkas is the Vice President of Global Sales Strategy for Philip Morris International. Previously, he led Philip Morris Ukraine, Caucasus and Moldova and before Philip Morris Greece as Managing Director.

Christos has had the unique opportunity to lead organizations in the midst of extreme crisis not once but twice; he was present when the Greek Economic Crisis of 2010 unfolded rapidly and also when the Ukrainian Crisis of 2013/14 devolved into a geopolitical conflict. In both cases, Christos stabilized business operations and maintained the morale and security of personnel and he led essential for growth brand portfolio initiatives. Most importantly he leveraged the opportunity to catalyze the development of his management teams, enabling the organization to weather those storms and thrive.

Christos in his current role, facilitates a significant, multi-dimensional transformation of the commercial operating system including customers and field forces, strongly related to digitalization and technology, using lean and agile methodologies to set up a data oriented, experimentation and innovation driven commercial organization. 

Before Philip Morris and the tobacco industry, he spent a bit less than a decade doing Consumer and Trade Marketing, Sales and Key Accounts Management for DIAGEO, the world leader in the alcoholic beverages category.    

Christos is a turnaround practitioner, a creative thinker, and keen on internal startups, and digital, driven by the possibility of new ideas to transform businesses, grow markets and inspire people. An author, blogger and passionate speaker, Christos was born in Athens, Greece and has lived, and worked across Europe. He currently resides in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Visit his personal blog www.christostsolkas.com 

Featured articles  

https://hbr.org/2015/06/what-it-was-like-to-be-a-manager-in-ukraine

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-managing-company-corridor-christos-t...

Christos.tsolkas@gmail.com

https://ch.linkedin.com/in/christostsolkas

@ChTsolkas