Anastasia Roumelioti is an entrepreneur, non-executive director and trustee, advising boards on governance, technology and AI. She founded H.E.R.A., a hospitality company built on human-centred, sustainable design. Trained in economics and in the classical world, she judges institutions by how well they serve the people inside them.
Board roles
An operator's understanding of consumers, a founder's ownership mentality, and a governance lens shaped by technology and long-term value.
Business
Founder of HERA, a hospitality management and software company, with family-centred and sustainability values.
Managing Director of Peach Greece Holdings, developing the Sunctuary Hotel: a new family concept with thirteen suites in Paleochora, Crete, opening in summer 2027.
What she is thinking about now
All essaysGovernance and accountability
A Going Concern
Why boards must treat male violence as a going-concern risk.
Technology and responsibility
Innovation without consequences is infantilism
There is a recurring failure in human civilisation that we keep mistaking for progress.
Hospitality
No Reason for a Season
A hospitality manifesto and strategic lighthouse for Greece.
Ideas begin conversations
Enquiries are welcome about board appointments, advisory work, speaking engagements, media and collaboration.
Get in touchAbout
Decisive and purposeful analytical thinking
Anastasia Roumelioti has a breadth of experience and an ability to connect ideas across industries. Her multidisciplinary career has made her an inventive problem solver, and her commercial judgement has been applied at Danone, Reckitt, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.
She was born and raised in Greece, and that heritage is the foundation of how she reasons. Two Delphic maxims act as her compass: nothing in excess, and know thyself. She works to leave things better than she found them, through the businesses she builds and the questions she writes about.
She holds an MSc in economic theory from the Athens University of Economics and Business, completed in 2006, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, completed in 2012.
The path
Her career runs from the largest consumer goods companies, through privately owned fashion businesses including Hawes & Curtis and Giorgio Armani, to heritage brands such as Kodak Alaris. The FTSE 100 years built the foundation; the fashion houses taught her how luxury experience is actually made; the heritage brands taught her how emotional connection is created and kept.
She now advises boards and is building a platform for independent hoteliers who want to offer their guests the exclusivity of the major groups, and who are overlooked by the large hotel management companies.
She is a scholar of ancient Greek language and philosophy. Her ethic is Aristotelian: that a life worth living is built through action, in the pursuit of arete, excellence of character, and eudaimonia, human flourishing. Virtue, on this account, is not what a person professes but what they repeatedly do.
Beyond the boardroom
Accountability is the constant. An institution is answerable for the harm it tolerates as well as the harm it causes, and a board that treats that distinction as a technicality has already failed.
Two principles follow from it: that governance is judgement rather than paperwork, and that technology should recede behind the human experience it serves.
The Greeks distinguished chronos, the time that passes and is measured, from kairos, the moment that must be taken or lost. Artificial intelligence is not another increment of chronos. It is a change of season, and the decisions taken in it will set the terms for decades. Institutions that treat it as a scheduling problem will find the moment has already gone.
Board roles
Anastasia Roumelioti has delivered digital and AI transformations that improved the experience of employees and customers and the profitability of the business, treating the two as one question rather than a trade-off. She brings her whole experience into the boardroom: an owner who carries the risk, an analyst trained in economic theory, and a mother, a perspective boards routinely lack and consumer businesses cannot afford to.
The portfolio
She is direct in the boardroom and specific in her questions, and treats risks others consider cultural or reputational as matters of going concern.
Non-executive roles
Executive roles
Fellowships and service
The Four Gates of Impartial Intervention
A sequence of four tests a director works through before intervening, so that the decision rests on evidence rather than instinct.
One, establish the situation. Research it thoroughly, and describe what is actually happening rather than what is reported.
Two, interrogate the numbers. Test the figures themselves, not the narrative built around them.
Three, test the strategy. Ask whether the current strategy can in fact achieve what it claims.
Four, assess the endgame. Consider where the chosen course ends, and what the transition out of it requires.
The fourth gate is where boards most often stop short, because passing it can mean accepting that the company is no longer what it was founded to be. A business that defines itself by its product will defend the product; one that defines itself by the customer's experience will let the product change. The endgame is rarely a better version of what is already made. It is usually the thing the customer wanted from it in the first place.
Business
Technology at the service of hospitality: seamless experience, and attention on the essence.
Sunctuary, powered by HERA
Sunctuary Hotel is a pioneering family holiday concept, where the design and the architecture respect what families actually need, and where guests are given an authentic Greek aesthetic. Thirteen suites in Paleochora, in the Chania region of Crete, opening in summer 2027.
HERA manages it. Guests who choose Sunctuary have peace of mind over the planning of the holiday and over the whole of their stay.
The hotel is being developed by Peach Greece Holdings, where Anastasia Roumelioti is Managing Director.
The principle
A guest should feel a building respond to them without ever being asked to operate it. The systems that make that possible are HERA's work, and they are meant to go unnoticed.
What stays visible is the place itself, and the aesthetic it belongs to.
HERA and Sunctuary are building their teams.
Writing
Anastasia Roumelioti works out her thinking on governance in the form of board memos. Governance, on her account, is less a matter of sentiment than of holding balance and justice: a virtue as old as ancient Greece.
Writing and communication
Thinking into action
Board memos are how she turns analysis into a view that others can act on. The sequence is always the same.
Board Memos
A set of briefing papers designed to surface contemporary societal and economic risks through the lens of governance.
The Blogging Edge
Essays on digital transformation, AI, ESG, hospitality and responsibility, 2024 to 2026.
On Substack
Essays published on Substack. Each opens in a new tab.
All Substack posts: substack.com/@anastarou
Speaking and advisory
Facilitating breakthroughs in strategic design and human-centred innovation.
Ideas that stand up to questioning
Anastasia Roumelioti speaks to boards, conferences and universities on governance, accountable innovation, and the human experience behind technology and hospitality. She prefers arguments that can be tested in the room, and answers challenge directly.
Keynotes, panels, moderation, board briefings and advisory sessions.
She has spoken and moderated at conferences, universities and alumni institutions in the UK and across Europe, most recently on industry and artificial intelligence.
Topics
Governance and accountability: what boards owe, and to whom.
Accountable innovation: artificial intelligence, hubris and the limits of the tool.
Time and leadership: the calendar and the decisive moment.
Culture as strategy, and hospitality as human experience.
Selected appearances
Conferences, panels and interview events, most recent first.
On stage
Judging
Press kit
For organisers, boards and journalists.
Biographies and images
Three biographies are below, in short, medium and long versions, to copy and use as written.
High-resolution headshots are available on request.
Photo credit: Jade Alana Photography. Media enquiries: get in touch
Short 57 words
Anastasia Roumelioti FRSA is a board director and entrepreneur working across business growth, digital transformation and governance. She is Managing Director and co-owner of Peach Greece Holdings, developing the Sunctuary Hotel in Paleochora, Crete, and founder of HERA (Hospitality Excellence Resort Accommodation). A Wharton MBA, she has held roles at Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Danone and Reckitt.
Medium 250 words
Anastasia Roumelioti is a business leader, board director and entrepreneur whose work spans business growth, digital transformation and governance. She is Managing Director and co-owner of Peach Greece Holdings, developing the Sunctuary Hotel in Paleochora, Crete, and founder of HERA (Hospitality Excellence Resort Accommodation), a hospitality business.
Her career includes roles at Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Danone and Reckitt, alongside experience with Giorgio Armani in New York and Hawes & Curtis. She has served on the boards of Kodak Alaris and Raffolux, bringing a commercial perspective shaped by multinational organisations, privately owned businesses and entrepreneurial ventures.
Anastasia holds a BSc in Economics, an MSc in Economic Theory and an MBA from the Wharton School, with a double major in Marketing and Operations Management. She is a Penn Ambassador, a Director of the Wharton Club of the UK and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
An advocate for ethical AI, women’s rights and gender equality, she participates in the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as a UN Women UK delegate. Her advocacy challenges the tolerance of male violence in all its forms and calls for accountability across institutions and society.
Her research explores governance in Ancient Greece, examining the organisation of the polis beyond voting to encompass wider civic responsibilities, religious institutions and divination.
Born and raised in Greece, Anastasia speaks Greek, English, French and Italian, and enjoys chess, painting and reading classical literature and philosophy in the original Ancient Greek. She lives in London.
Long 541 words
Read the long biography
Anastasia Roumelioti is a business leader, board director and entrepreneur with experience across multinational companies, privately owned businesses, startups and growing ventures. Her work brings together commercial strategy, digital transformation and governance, alongside a commitment to ethical AI, women’s rights and the responsibilities of leadership.
She is Managing Director and co-owner of Peach Greece Holdings, where she leads real estate development in Greece, including the Sunctuary Hotel in Paleochora, Crete. She is also the founder of HERA (Hospitality Excellence Resort Accommodation), a hospitality business. These ventures draw on a career spanning consumer goods, luxury and fashion, technology and hospitality.
Anastasia has worked for Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Danone and Reckitt. At Danone, she led the Digital Centre of Excellence for its Specialised Nutrition business; at Reckitt, she worked as a director within the e-business team, focusing on consumer-centric experience and unlocking the lifetime value of a household for the company’s portfolio of brands. Her board experience includes serving as an independent Non-Executive Director of Kodak Alaris and Raffolux. She is also a Council Member of the Hellenic Society (the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies).
Her experience in luxury and retail includes working at Giorgio Armani’s New York headquarters and leading marketing and communications at Hawes & Curtis, the British heritage brand owned by entrepreneur Touker Suleyman, known for BBC’s Dragons’ Den. During her MBA, she also undertook work study projects with Neiman Marcus and the United Nations.
Her entrepreneurial experience includes BetTrade, Lady & Lara LLC and HERA Ltd. While at Wharton, she was a member of the Wharton Venture Initiation Program, and in 2013 became a Fellow of the Startup Leadership Program’s UK chapter, adding to her experience of building businesses and working with founders.
Anastasia holds a BSc in Economics, an MSc in Economic Theory and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a double major in Marketing and Operations Management. She remains actively involved in the university community as a Penn Ambassador and a Director of the Wharton Club of the UK.
A speaker and moderator on business growth, digital transformation and AI, she has contributed to industry events including summits, conferences and panel discussions, as a keynote speaker, moderator or panelist. She advocates for technology that serves people, with ethical responsibility and accountability embedded in the decisions of boards and business leaders.
Anastasia is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is committed to positive social change. She participates in the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as a UN Women UK delegate, advocating for women’s rights, gender equality and an end to the tolerance of male violence in all its forms.
Alongside her business and advocacy work, her research focuses on governance in Ancient Greece. She explores the organisation of the polis and the responsibilities of citizenship beyond voting, including the place of religion and divination in civic life and collective decision-making.
Born and raised in Greece, Anastasia is the daughter of two economists. Her father is also a Paralympian, world champion and gold medallist in archery. She speaks Greek, English, French and Italian, and enjoys chess, painting and reading classical literature and philosophy in the original Ancient Greek. Anastasia lives in London with her family and is the mother of a daughter.
Contact
Ideas begin conversations.
Privacy notice
How personal data is handled on anastasiaroumelioti.com. Last updated 6 October 2026.
In brief
This website collects as little personal data as possible. Your details are used to reply to your messages, to keep the website secure and, only if you agree, to understand how visitors use the site. Your data is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to make automated decisions about you.
Who is responsible for your data
Anastasia Roumelioti, based in London, United Kingdom, is the controller of the personal data collected through this website. Personal data is handled in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). For visitors in the European Union and European Economic Area, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) is applied to the same standard.
For any question or request about your data, please email roumelioti.anastasia [at] gmail.com, an address used only for privacy matters. You can also use the contact form and choose “Privacy request” as the topic.
What is collected, why, and on what legal basis
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Changing your mind: you can withdraw or give consent at any time through “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that took place before.
3. Security and the reliable running of the website
What: when you visit, the hosting provider automatically processes technical data such as your IP address, browser type and the time of your request. Messages sent through the contact form are screened automatically for spam.
Why: to deliver the website, keep it available, and protect it and its visitors against spam, abuse and cyber attacks.
Legal basis: legitimate interests in network and information security (Article 6(1)(f) and Recital 49 GDPR).
How long: technical logs are kept by the hosting provider for a limited period, in line with its own retention policy, and are not used to identify or profile visitors.
4. Your cookie choice
Your “Accept” or “Decline” choice is saved in your own browser so that the banner does not appear on every visit. This record stays on your device and is not sent to anyone. It is strictly necessary to respect your choice, so it does not require consent.
What is never done with your data
Your data is not sold, rented or shared for marketing. It is not used for advertising, remarketing or profiling. No decisions about you are made by automated means, including profiling, that produce legal or similarly significant effects (Article 22 GDPR).
Artificial intelligence and transparency
Although this website is operated from the United Kingdom, it follows the transparency standards of Article 50 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689).
This website does not use any AI system that interacts with you, such as a chatbot or automated assistant, and does not use emotion recognition or biometric categorisation. No AI-generated or AI-manipulated images, audio or video of real people are published here; the photographs are by Jade Alana Photography.
The website was designed and built with the assistance of AI tools. All text published here is written or reviewed by Anastasia Roumelioti, who takes editorial responsibility for it. Messages sent through the contact form are not used to train AI systems and are not subject to automated decision-making.
If any of this changes, this notice will be updated and any interaction with an AI system will be clearly labelled before it begins.
Who processes data on this website’s behalf
Netlify, Inc. hosts the website, receives contact form messages and provides security and spam filtering. Google provides Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager (only with your consent) and the email service through which contact form messages are delivered. These providers act under data processing terms and may only use the data to provide their services.
The fonts on this site are stored on the site itself, so no font or other third-party service is contacted before you make a cookie choice. Links to other websites, such as LinkedIn and Substack, are governed by those websites’ own privacy policies.
International transfers
Netlify and Google may process data in the United States. Where this happens, transfers are protected by recognised safeguards: the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, where the provider is certified, and standard contractual clauses with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.
How your data is protected
The website is served only over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Access to the accounts that hold your data is restricted and protected, and data is kept only for as long as described above.
Your rights
You have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its use, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time. Requests are free of charge and will be answered within one month.
If you are unhappy with how your data has been handled, please get in touch first so the matter can be put right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. If you live in the EU or EEA, you may also complain to the data protection authority in your country.
Children
This website is intended for adults and does not knowingly collect data from children.
Changes to this notice
This notice is reviewed regularly and whenever the website changes in a way that affects your data. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.