PwC Greece, in collaboration with Microsoft, is creating a new satellite office based in Volos to promote innovation, technology, and education, but also to support the local community by creating new jobs in the wider region of Thessaly.

PwC Greece's new initiative in collaboration with Microsoft is expected to initially create 50 new highly skilled jobs, supporting the effort to decentralise and retain local talent. It is worth noting that in the wider region of Thessaly, there are six academic institutions offering a wide range of modern scientific studies that are in high demand in the labour market.

PwC's Center of Excellence, in collaboration with Microsoft, aims to develop innovative solutions in the areas of data analytics & AI, security, & cloud engineering, which PwC designs and implements using Microsoft's modern tools and digital platforms. It also plans to offer integrated technological solutions in critical areas such as environmental protection and rural development, responding to the specific needs and challenges faced by the region of Thessaly and actively contributing to the effort to strengthen the resilience and sustainable development of the region.

The new satellite office is expected to start operating in early autumn, and the staffing process has already begun. In parallel, the PwC and Microsoft teams are holding a series of meetings with the local community and academia, aiming to develop and expand synergies.

Kyriakos Andreou, Territory Strategy, Clients & Markets Leader of PwC Greece, on the occasion of the new initiative, said: "As part of the global alliance between our organisations, PwC Greece and Microsoft are working together to create a new innovation cell in the region of Thessaly. We seek to combine our experience in complex and large-scale digital transformation projects with Microsoft's expertise and state-of-the-art tools and platforms, creating a highly specialised team that will harness emerging technologies for the benefit of the local economy. The investment aspires to act as a catalyst for the creation and emergence of an innovation- and IT-focused ecosystem in Thessaly that will attract other similar investments. To this end, PwC is committed to assisting in any initiative to create research centres and start-up incubators in the region."