Anagnosti John Choukalas was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and grew up in Larissa, Greece. He studied at the University of Calgary with both academic and athletic scholarships graduating from the Biological Sciences department and specializing in Environmental Biology and Environmental management.
In 1997 he moved back to Greece and was involved in European funded environmental protection and biotope restoration projects. He is a proud member of the APIVITA “Hive” for the past 17 years. In 2012 he became the Head the newly formed Sustainability department. For 18 months (2014-2015) he moved to Japan as the managing director of APIVITA Japan (56 employees) based in Tokyo in charge of finding an investor to take ownership of the affiliate company.
In September 2015 he was appointed as the Global Head of Human Resources & Sustainability. Since the Spanish multinational PUIG acquired APIVITA in March 2017, he maintained the role of Head of Global Human Resources and Sustainability and additionally leads the Social Responsibility, Global Training, and Brand Strategy team. Most importantly he was appointed as a member of the Executive committee and the Global Brand Ambassador. Recently he was appointed as the Head of Sustainability of the PUIG Derma Pole (responsible for both APIVITA & URIAGE).
Since 2004, he is a public speaker invited by universities in Greece and abroad to speak and inspire and motivate young people. For the past 20 years he has helped numerous young entrepreneurs establish companies in the field of Medicinal and Aromatic plants and Bee products and has offered his expertise and market support leading to very successful start-up business ventures.
Anagnosti John (or Tasos as his friend call him) is characterized by his passion to “pollinate” young generations with a different way of thinking, living and entrepreneurship: a more natural, ethical, and socially responsible way that will lead to a more sustainable future world.