Christodoulos Protopapas was born in Cyprus in 1961 and he was graduated with honours (9.73) from the Electrical Engineering Department of the National Technical University of Athens. During 1990s he founded the first private TV station (1990-1992) and the first Internet Service Provider (1995) in Cyprus.
Over the course of a more than 30-year career in space and satellite, Christodoulos Protopapas has promoted satellite communications and connectivity across Europe, the Middle East and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. He founded Hellas Sat, the national satellite operator of Greece and Cyprus, in 2001 and has served as its CEO for 24 years.
Today, Hellas Sat operates a fleet of three geostationary (GEO) satellites that serve locations across Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa. While serving as CEO, Christodoulos started recently the transformation of Hellas Sat from satellite operator to a solution provider with the introduction, among others, satellite managed services and the first tier IV Data Center in the Balkans. This period is working for the development of HS 5 satellite program which will have optical communications payload and other innovative technologies.
Christodoulos served two terms as Chairman of the European Satellite Operators Association (ESOA, 2007 and 2010) and a term as Chairman of the Hellenic Space Agency. While serving in these positions, he promoted the protection of satellite spectrum in ITU and proposed the use of satellite internet to bridge the digital divide in Greece, Cyprus, Albania the European Union as a whole and South Africa. Christodoulos even went a step further and provided these proposed connectivity services. Under his direction, Hellas Sat connected 172 rural schools in Albania via satellite internet in 2009, rural schools and hospitals in Greece, 142 rural communities in Cyprus in 2008, several remote rural islands in Greece in 2008 and 2009 and 150 hospitals in Zimbabwe in 2021. Christodoulos has continued to work as an advocate for space while completing these projects, and he was crucial to the Greek government securing Govsatcom services.
