Yiannis Boutaris, Mayor of Thessaloniki since 2011. Born in Thessaloniki (1942), oenologist and winemaker. Managing Director at the family winery BOUTARI until 1996, founding member of KIR-YIANNI winery (1998), the NGO Arcturos Brown Bear Sanctuary and the Macedonian Museum of Modern Art. He has served as President and member of the Board of Directors of many professional, cultural, and environmental organizations and has received many national and international awards and distinctions, both as a winemaker and as Mayor of Thessaloniki.