He was born in Larissa in 1973. His parents are Fani and Xenofon Kantonias, the founder and managing director of BIOKARPET Group till his withdraw in 2006.
He studied Public and Business Administration in the University of Cyprus, with major in Marketing/Management. He graduated in 1996. In 1998 he completed his Master Degree in the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and acquired the title of MBA. He was awarded for his performance by the Business Honor Society ΔΜΔ (DMD).
Since 1999 he worked in BIOKARPET Group initially in the Purchase department and then as the Purchasing Manager. In 2001 he was the Purchase Manager of the entire Group, including the leading company EXALCO. In June 2006, along with the other members of Xenofon Kantonias’ s family he withdrew from BIOKARPET enterprises, to create their own industrial extrusion unit. In the Fall of 2008 a new company, COSMOS ALUMINIUM, was set up and since then he is the Vice President and Commercial Manager.
During his term of office as Commercial Manager, COSMOS ALUMINIUM which is a purely export company managed to increase its sales from 12,324 tn/year in 2010 to 42,232 tn/year in 2020, classifying it as the first Greek company in aluminium profile sales (in metric tons).
Yannis Kantonias is married to Athina Kyriazou and they have three children: Xenofon (2004), Miltiadis (2006) and Fani (2009).
