Dr. Maria Papadaki

Dr. Maria Papadaki is a global executive and academic with more than 20 years’ experience in risk management, strategy, leadership, blockchain innovation, and business development across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. She built her foundation at Rolls‑Royce plc, where she led enterprise risk management and supply chain risk across the company’s Civil, Defence, Energy, Nuclear and Marine divisions, and was seconded in 2013 as Interim Head of Risk for the UK Nuclear Restoration joint venture – managing risk on a £7.2 billion nuclear decommissioning bid, one of the largest in UK history.

In 2014 she founded H2B, one of the first innovation hubs in Crete, in partnership with the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce. In 2016 she was appointed Managing Director of the BUiD Dubai Centre for Risk and Innovation, where she led the development of the first blockchain‑verified academic credentials in the Middle East, making the university the first in the region and third in the world to deploy blockchain in higher education. She served on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Risk Management in London from 2018 to 2023, leading the institute’s global education and professional standards strategy.

Today she serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Dubai Blockchain Center, teaches Enterprise Risk Management at Columbia University, and serves as Risk Advisor to the UKRI SALIENT research hub. She holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and is a TEDx speaker. Her work at the intersection of blockchain, risk, and innovation keeps her engaged with conferences such as AIBC, where she contributes to discussions on the future of digital economies.