The two leading officials at state-controlled DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation, have been replaced by new faces hailing from the private sector, the energy ministry, TAIPED, the state privatization fund, and ELPE, which holds a 35 percent stake in DEPA, have decided, it has been confirmed.

Theodoros Kitsakos, DEPA’s outgoing chief executive officer, has been replaced by Dimitris Tzortzis, who possesses an extensive track record in private-sector enterprises involved in networks and telecommunications, as well as public administration.

Velissarios Dotsis, who also hails from the private sector and, in addition, has worked at Enterprise Greece, a government-sponsored group promoting investment opportunities in Greece and exports, has been named the new DEPA president.

The gas corporation’s new leadership will need to tackle a wide range of issues, including development of international projects such as the Greek-Bulgarian IGB interconnector; the floating LNG terminal at Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece; matters concerning the Greek energy market’s liberalization; DEPA’s future role in the country’s retail natural gas marketl as well as the debt problems of two major-scale customers, ELFE (Hellenic Fertilizers and Chemicals) and EBZ (Hellenic Sugar Industry).

Tzortzis, the new chief executive officer, is a graduate of the National Technical University of Athens, where he studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. His past work contracts have included a 14-year tenure at Intracom, spells at Attica Telecommunications, HOL, the secretary general post at EETT (Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission) between May, 2015 and April, 2016, when he resigned, as well as an Intralot subsidiary.