Kostas Ioannou was born in Athens in 1973. He graduated from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in 1996 and holds an MSC in International Transport from University of Wales, Cardiff and a MSC in Finance from ALBA Graduate Business School (2008). He is also holder of the Market Maker certificate of the Athens Derivatives Stock Exchange. He works for almost fifteen years in shipping, first at Tsakos Shipping & Trading, then for 8 years at the Shipping finance department of Piraeus Bank and the last two years at the Shipping Special Assets Unit of National Bank of Greece. Moreover, he has worked for Papastratos Tobacco company and the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games Athens 2004.

He is a member of the Association of Banking & Finance Executives of Hellenic Shipping since 2011 and member of the BoD since 2016. At the same time, he is an active member of the Ilioupoli Volunteer Firefighting and Forest Protection team since 2008.