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  • Athens , Greece

Constantine Iliopoulos

Constantine’s mission is to co-create with people, cooperatives, organizations, and communities innovative, sustainable solutions to pressing organizational challenges and social dilemmas. He achieves this through leadership, action research, writing, facilitation, experiential training, systems-wise team building, and coaching. With over 30 years of experience in top-quality research projects across numerous countries, Costas combines: (1) a lifelong passion and deep expertise in cooperatives and team dynamics, cultivated through three decades of collaboration with the Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership (GICL) at the University of Missouri, USA; and (2) advanced training in systems thinking and system dynamics at MIT, Processwork Hub Athens, and AKMA. For 28 years, he has worked with leading agribusiness cooperatives worldwide, including California Tomato Growers and Land O’Lakes (USA), Co-operative Bulk Handling (Australia), ZON, FrieslandCampina, and CRV (Netherlands), KEVILI (Estonia), Koperattiva Produtturi tal-Halib Ltd. (Malta), Santo Wines, Kefalonia Fisheries, and ThesGi (Greece), among others. Costas is co-founder and senior researcher at the Co-opAbility Institute, Director of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute in Greece, and a visiting scholar at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) in Germany. He is widely published in esteemed academic journals and edited volumes. A sought-after speaker, he regularly presents at international conferences, industry events, and annual meetings of agricultural cooperatives in more than 30 countries, sharing insights on cooperative leadership, governance, and sustainable development.

Individual Researcher

Publications

Iliopoulos, C., Valentinov, V., Theodorakopoulou, I., Karantzavelou, V., Stithou, M. (2026). “Institutional barriers to climate adaptation: Repurposing stakeholder salience in six European living labs.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 561; 148393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2026.148393. Kiisk, T., Iliopoulos, C., Lemsalu, K., Värnik, R., (2026). “Evaluating the Performance of Agricultural Cooperatives: A Micro-Level Conceptual Framework for Benchmarking.” Sustainability, 18(3): 1671; https://lnkd.in/dCUSQs5x. Iliopoulos, C., Theodorakopoulou, I., Gonzalez Diaz, M., Filippi, M., Nizza, U.,Tektas, A. (2026). “Challenges Facing Agricultural Cooperatives in Mediterranean Countries.” Journal of Rural Studies, 123 (2026); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104004. Valentinov, V., and C. Iliopoulos (2024). “Moral and managerial perspectives on cooperatives: Towards a Luhmannian reconciliation.” Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2024:1-12; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sres.3012. Iliopoulos, C., and M.L. Cook (2023). “Organizational Costs in Agricultural Cooperatives: Comparison of European and U.S. Approaches.” In M. Boland and M. Elliott (Eds.), Research Handbook on Cooperatives and Mutuals, Edward Elgar; https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-research-on-cooperatives-and-mutuals-9781802202601.html.