Professional Activities : Aimilia served as the Secretary General of MedCruise at MedCruise- the association representing over 150 cruise ports from 21 countries in the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas (2020-2022). She joined MedCruise in 2013 and was a senior project manager (2013-2018) and Interim Secretary General (2017-2018), contributing to the re-profiling of the Association. From 2018 until 2020, Aimilia was a business consultant on cruise-rail integration in the Travel Bureau of the Passenger Services Department of TRAINOSE S.A. (now Hellenic Train S.A.), the rail company in Greece, returning to MedCruise as Secretary General from November 2020 until December 2022. Before joining MedCruise, Aimilia was senior advisor to the Secretary General of Ports and Port Policy at the Ministry of Development Competitiveness and Shipping of the Hellenic Republic (2011-2012). Aimilia has been a scientific partner of the consulting company Ports & Shipping Advisory since its establishment in 2016. Academic Activities : Aimilia has been a scholar of the Hellenic State Scholarship Foundation (IKY), and currently works on a PhD thesis examining cruise ports governance at the Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport (STT) of the School of Business, University of the Aegean. Greece. Under her capacity as a Research Fellow at the Business School of the University of the Aegean (since 2009), Aimilia has been involved - either as research or as administrator - in several port and maritime-related research projects funded by the European Union, shipping companies and ports. Her teaching proficiency also includes lecturing at the Business Administration of the Department of the Technological Educational Institute (ATEI) of Ionian Islands, Greece, where she taught courses in “Marketing Management”, “Human Resource Management”, “Advertisement”, “Market Research” and “International Economic Relations” (2006-2009). She has published in scholarly journals and presented in academic and professional conferences several studies on ports, cruise ports and shipping. A founding member of PortEconomics, the web initiative advancing port research and study dissemination since 2008, Aimilia was elected to the Council of the Hellenic Association of Maritime Economists (2010-2015). Aimilia holds a BSc from the Department of Shipping Trade and Transport, School of Business, University of the Aegean, Greece (2002), and an MSc in Shipping Trade & Transport (2004) from the same Department.