Biography: Corporate Governance

Dr Kypros Chrysostomides, founder and managing partner of Dr K Chrysostomides & Co LLC, is one of Cyprus' leading corporate and tax lawyers. He specialises in business law, human rights law, international and constitutional law, and has published extensively on all these subjects. Dr Chrysostomides studied Law at Athens University and Comparative Law at the Luxembourg Law School, followed by postgraduate studies at the University of Bonn, where he gained his PhD, specialising in Company Law. In 1981 he founded Dr K Chrysostomides & Co LLC, now one of the largest legal firms in Cyprus.

During the early years of his career, Dr Chrysostomides was appointed a research fellow in Private International Law at the University of Bonn and later also worked at the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Parallel to his legal career, Dr Chrysostomides has also been active in politics. He served as government spokesman (minister for press and information) of the Republic of Cyprus between 2003 and 2006, and in May 2006 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, where he served as deputy chairman of the Home Affairs committee. He was appointed minister of justice and public order in February 2008.

Dr Chrysostomides is a member of the Cyprus Bar Association, the Greek Institute of International Law, the International Law Association, the International Bar Association, the International Fiscal Association and the International Tax Planning Association. He was twice decorated by the Republic of France with the National Order of Merit, and by the president of Greece, with the Grand Cross of the Order of Phoenix in 2004.