The Future Makers Podcast

Every time Dr. Nicoletta Demetriou returned to Cyprus, fewer of the elderly musicians she was interviewing were still alive. Funding applications went unanswered or were rejected. Their stories could not wait.The ethnomusicologist, writer and performer joins Annetta Benzar on The Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus to discuss the work behind The Cypriot Fiddler, which won the 2026 European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Grand Prix in Research.

Links:
The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/
https://www.youtube.com/@thefuture-media
https://www.instagram.com/thefuturemedia.eu/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thefuturemedia
https://www.tiktok.com/@the.future.media

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Marianna Hadjiandoniou grew up in Cyprus at a time when, as she remembers it, there was a “right pathway” for women: finish studying, return home, find a good man, marry and have children.

She chose differently.

In this episode of The Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar sits down with Marianna, an HR leader with more than 20 years of experience, to talk about the choices that shaped her career and the workplace battles she encountered along the way.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar sits down with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

Women Building Cyprus follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be.

A production of The Future Media.

Links:

The Future Media:

https://thefuturemedia.eu/

https://www.instagram.com/thefuturemedia.eu/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/thefuturemedia

https://www.youtube.com/@thefuture-media

https://www.tiktok.com/@the.future.media

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Marianna Hadjiandoniou: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bizandlove/

Women are told they can balance everything. Katya Solov thinks balance is a fairy tale.

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar sits down with Katya Solov, Founder and CEO of Miranna, to talk about growing up at the end of the Soviet Union, entering Russia’s male-dominated venture capital industry, motherhood, startup failure and why she built the support system she could not find for herself.

They also discuss why women have been expected to carry so much without calling it extraordinary, the pressure to raise investment before a company is ready, and why managing work and family is less about balance than deciding what must come first today.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar sits down with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

Women Building Cyprus follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be.

A production of The Future Media.

Links:
The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/
https://www.instagram.com/thefuturemedia.eu/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thefuturemedia
https://www.tiktok.com/@the.future.media

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Katya Solov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katya-solov-26506821/

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar speaks with Georgia Solomou, Managing Partner at OSPHERA and Founder & President of Women4Cyber Cyprus.

Georgia has spent more than 20 years in technology and security, working across Cyprus, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In this conversation, she reflects on what it meant to build a career and business in IT and cybersecurity at a time when she was often the only woman in the room.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar sits down with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

The first season, Women Building Cyprus, follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be.

A production of The Future Media.Links: The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/

https://www.instagram.com/thefuturemedia.eu/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/thefuturemedia

https://www.tiktok.com/@the.future.media

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar speaks with Ekaterina Miroshnichenko and Marina Stasevich, co-founders of SOTA, about leaving senior corporate HR roles, building a company together, moving across countries, working with founders and tech teams, and why confidence is often built after the first step, not before it. They discuss co-founder alignment, people strategy, women in male-dominated rooms, motherhood, self-doubt, Cyprus as an international business base, and the kind of future they want to help shape.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar speaks with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

This series, Women Building Cyprus, follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be. A production of The Future Media.

Links: 

The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/ 

https://www.instagram.com/thefuturemedia.eu/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/thefuturemedia

https://www.tiktok.com/@the.future.media 

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Sara Gunnervik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-gunnervik-186a4b2/ 

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar speaks with Serena Kara Gasparini, programme and community designer and founder of FemNEST, a startup building financial freedom for women.

FemNEST is built around an often overlooked reality: when women face health challenges, pregnancy, maternity leave, caregiving or self-employment, their income and independence can be directly affected. Serena shares how her own experience of fertility treatment, motherhood, her son’s health condition and three years with little income shaped the problem she is now trying to solve.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar speaks with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

Women Building Cyprus follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be. A production of The Future Media.

Links:

The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/
Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Serena Gasparini: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serena-gasparini/

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar speaks with Ioanna Hadjicosti, Director of Contemporary Culture Department at the Deputy Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cyprus.

Ioanna reflects on how culture becomes part of who we are long before we understand it: through family, language, songs, stories, memory and the parts of heritage that no one can take away. From growing up in post-war Cyprus to studying ancient Greek literature, working with Greek children in London, leading the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and moving into public cultural policy, she explains why culture is not a luxury.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar sits down with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

The first season, Women Building Cyprus, follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be.

A production of The Future Media.

Links:

The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Ioanna Hadjicosti: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ioanna-hadjicosti-b34383160/

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar speaks with Kathy Kattashis, Founder and Director of MITRA Cyprus Menopause Centre.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar sits down with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

Women Building Cyprus follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be.

A production of The Future Media.

Links:

The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Kathy Kattashis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-kattashis-a468ba66/

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar speaks with Costantia Manoli, the award-winning author of Tomatoes in My Lunchbox and The Fig Tree.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar sits down with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

Women Building Cyprus follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be.

A production of The Future Media.

Links:

The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefuturemedia.eu/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/forbes-cyprus-the-future-of-fintech-summit/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.future.media

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Costantia Manoli: https://www.costantiamanoli.com/

In this episode of Future Makers: Women Building Cyprus, Annetta Benzar speaks with Angie Iacovou, co-owner and manager of Kahuna Surfhouse.

The Future Makers Podcast is a series of in-depth conversations about how future-makers are made, in Cyprus and beyond. Host Annetta Benzar sits down with people who are a leading force in our shared future and looks past the titles. Together, they travel back to the people and moments that shaped them, walk through the choices and challenges they are living through now, and look ahead to the futures they are trying to build.

Women Building Cyprus follows women whose lives and decisions are changing what this island can be.

A production of The Future Media.

Links:

The Future Media: https://thefuturemedia.eu/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefuturemedia.eu/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/forbes-cyprus-the-future-of-fintech-summit/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.future.media

Annetta Benzar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetta-benzar-13645710a/

Kahuna Surfhouse: https://kahunasurfhouse.eu/