Marina Theodotou is an economist with over 20 years of professional experience. In 2010 she founded Curveball Ltd (www.curveballlimited.com) a Cyprus based boutique strategic consultancy currently leading efforts to foster an entrepreneurship ecosystem in Cyprus by increasing awareness in the media, and engaging start ups and stakeholders such as policy makers, the private sector, venture capitalists and angel investors.  In Nov. 2012 Marina authored the study “Cyprus Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: A Roadmap for Economic Growth” sponsored by KPMG (Cyprus) and Cyproman Services Ltd. and in Dec. 2012 co-authored with Ms. Fiona Mullen the study “Professional Services: Driving jobs and growth in Cyprus” sponsored by PwC Cyprus. Both studies have been considered groundbreaking in the analysis, results and practical applications for economic growth in Cyprus in 2013-2020.

In 2007-2009, as Director of Business Development and Operations and second in command at the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency she set up operations and led efforts to rank Cyprus for the first time in the World Bank Doing Business Report.  She has represented Cyprus in various conferences including UN, UNCTAD and World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) and country missions abroad.

Between 2004-2007, as Country Director, she set up and managed with a local team of three, the first Middle East office of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, a private public partnership chaired by John Whitehead and Paul Volcker. The Jordan program was funded by the US State Dept. Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and focused on technical assistance for the Central Bank and the Association of Banks in Jordan, working closely with the Central Bank Governor, the Minister of International Cooperation and various banks to strengthen Anti Money Laundering, Risk management and Small Medium Enterprise Strategy for banks which included in King Abdullah’s National Economic Agenda in 2005-2006.   

Between 1995-2004 at Bank of America she held roles in Trade Finance, Internal Audit (Corporate and Capital Markets In Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro) Corporate Treasury, Risk Management and Strategic Benchmarking in Charlotte, NC and New York City. In 1998 she was awarded the Outstanding Performance Award by the Corporate Risk Management Division at NationsBank. In 2003 she was selected in the first 200 employees out of 180,000 to earn a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification.

In 2009 she was voted 23^rd of the 100 most powerful businesswomen in Cyprus by InBusiness magazine. She is a member of Rotary International (www.rotary.org) and earned the Paul Harris Fellow Award in 2012. In November 2011 she founded and curated TEDxNicosia (www.TEDxNicosia.com). She is one of ten EU Commission Women Ambassadors for Entrepreneurship in Cyprus.   She has been an invited speaker at several conferences in Cyprus, the Middle East, the EU and the United States. 

She holds a Bachelor’s (with honors) and a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of South Carolina and the University’s 1992 Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Award in Economics. She speaks English, Greek, French, Italian, conversational Spanish, she reads and writes Arabic and is learning Turkish.

She is a member of the Foreign Policy Association of the United States, the Financial Women’s Association of New York and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She writes extensively in her areas of expertise in local and international press.