User:Kalamgeo/George Tsourapas

George Tsourapas ...

George Tsourapas (born January 12, 1978) is currently an established Greek entrepreneur in the global stone market. It is noticeable that despite his current field of interest, George studied his first degree in the field of Biochemistry at the University of Essex, UK (2000).

He then gained a full PhD scholarship co-funded by Smith & Nephew and University of Nottingham to study at the Pharmacy School of Nottingham University the subject "Tissue Engineering and regeneration". Part of his work has been presented at the 15th International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (12-16 Sept 2005) and published a cited article on Tissue Engineering constructs at the Applied Surface Science Journal (Volume 252, Issue 19, 30 July 2006, Pages 6693-6696).

George received his first stone market-related training during his PhD studies when he engaged in part time work for Haris G. Tsourapas Co as an export sales assistant in the United Kingdom. His innovative web marketing and business initiatives, dating back to 1997, along with his excellent post-sales service provision, boosted sales in the UK private house market segment by approximately 150%.

George in 2005 founded G.M. Greek-Marble Ltd. His international background provided him with the opportunity to establish his stone activity in the world market.

During 2005, GT signed his first seminal 3-year contract with one of the largest oil drilling fluid company in the world (MISWACO), ensuring the supply of 12,000 tons/yr of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) Marble Chips for the SAFE-CARB product of MISWACO.

In 2006, George secured among others, an important architectural design project for the internationally acclaimed landscape architects Martha Schwartz Partners. The undertaking involved manufacturing for Fountain Works Ltd two CNC-manufactured triangular stone fountains for Dublin's Grand Canal Square as part of a Perkins & Will executive design scheme.

Since then, his company has accomplished prestigious projects in the world through his well developed stone supply network.

At the Merchant Square Project in London, UK G.M. Greek-Marble Ltd supplied the main stone feature in the lobby of 5, Merchant Square designed by Mossessian & Partners. In the article signed by Edwin Heathcote at The Architect's Journal AJ with the title "Sculpting the Void" it noted that "... A wall of theatrically black Greek marble is grooved, which makes it look somewhere between a curtain and a water wall...". The story behind that statement is that a zero tolerance CNC technology was used by G.M. Greek-Marble Ltd in coordination with the designers Mossessian & Partners and the installers VetterUK in order to present a wall cladding effect of perfection.

Under the same scheme, G.M. Greek-Marble Ltd designed and supplied the exterior wall cladding application and supplied the stone used for the interior design of the Kalyvides Partnership retail & residential building at 4, Merchant Square. The three delineated stone sections above the ground floor features eight, three storey panels, clad in honed Crema Iris marble, selected personally by Tryfon Kalyvides from the quarry and factory in Greece near Nafplio city.

Furthermore George came to agreement with the John Hopkins Hospital construction team to supply a delicate Nestos white marble for the 1.5-million - sq ft Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) New Clinical Building medical building. The design team was led by Perkins+Will. Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers, LLC, of Boston, was the mechanical and electrical consultant and Thornton Tomasetti, of Washington, D.C., was the structural consultant. Clark/Banks, A Joint Venture was composed of Clark Construction Group, LLC, of Bethesda, Md., and Banks Contracting Company, Inc., of Baltimore to act as the general main contractor.