Meet the people behind five consecutive Cyprus Tax Firm of the Year wins
Twelve professionals, including tax and trust practitioners, bring different backgrounds and areas of expertise. After Elias Neocleous & Co LLC was named Cyprus Tax Firm of the Year for the fifth consecutive year, we look beyond the trophy to the people behind the achievement.
A trophy is simple. It displays a name, a year, and a winner. It doesn’t reveal the late nights, the tough calls, the intricate puzzles, and, above all, the people who turn challenges into victories.
When Elias Neocleous & Co LLC was named Cyprus Tax Firm of the Year at the 2026 International Tax Review Europe Tax Awards, it wasn’t the firm’s first time receiving the distinction. It was its fifth consecutive win.
Winning once is an achievement. Doing it five years in a row naturally raises another question:who are the people behind that consistency?
The answer is a team with very different backgrounds and areas of expertise. Their work spans international taxation, corporate structuring, private wealth, EU law, finance and technology, as well as emerging areas such as digital assets.
In many ways, that mix reflects what tax practice looks like today.
Tax is rarely just about tax
A client does not always arrive with a problem that fits neatly into one legal category. A corporate restructuring can raise tax, financing and regulatory questions at the same time. An entrepreneur moving to Cyprus may need advice on tax residence and non-domicile status, as well as how to structure a business or manage family wealth across different jurisdictions.
Tax is often one part of a much bigger picture, and the people behind the firm’s Tax practice reflect that.
At the centre of the practice is Elias Neocleous, the firm’s Managing Partner, whose career has developed alongside Cyprus’s own evolution as an international business centre. Over the years, his work in international taxation, corporate transactions, investment structures and private wealth has earned him numerous distinctions from leading international legal directories and publications. Yet perhaps more important to the team’s story is the
perspective that comes with that experience: the ability to look beyond an immediate tax question and understand the wider commercial objective behind it.
That wider perspective is complemented by Kyriacos Xenofontos, whose professional background itself tells an interesting story. He is both a lawyer and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, allowing him to move naturally between the legal and financial sides of a matter. His work with ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, funds and financial institutions, together with his role as head of the firm’s affiliated trust company, places him at the point where tax, finance and long-term wealth structuring meet.
The ability to approach a matter from more than one angle becomes even more important when the work crosses borders, as much of the team’s work does.
An international practice by nature
For Elena Christodoulou, PQE-15 Cyprus qualified advocate and Counsel, the international dimension is closely connected to Europe. Practicing tax law, commercial law, and EU law, Elena leads a team of four associates and manages numerous portfolios of blue-chip clients and high-net-worth individuals across multiple jurisdictions. International ranking houses recognize her prominence in the field, further highlighted by her recognition as both a Women Leader and Rising Star in the 2027 ITR World Tax rankings. Elena is also a leading author in tax and private client publications.
If Elena brings a distinctly European dimension, Fabian Cabeza brings perhaps the most multicultural profile within the team. His international background is reflected in a practice that spans jurisdictions, industries, and client types, from multinational groups and high-net-
worth individuals to startups and investors. His work ranges from transfer pricing and permanent establishment questions to restructurings and the Cyprus IP regime, while his involvement with fintech and technology businesses gives his practice an additional contemporary edge. In many ways, his profile mirrors the clients the team increasingly advises: international, mobile and rarely confined to a single jurisdiction.
Alexis Christodoulou has a different international story. His professional path connects Cyprus and South Africa, giving him first-hand experience of working across two very different legal and business environments. Today, as a Senior Associate, he works across corporate tax planning and restructurings as well as tax residence, non-domicile status, trusts and wealth structuring. That combination is particularly relevant for clients whose businesses, assets and personal lives increasingly span more than one country. His Advanced Diploma in International Taxation adds a further technical dimension to that cross-border experience.
The international character of the team’s work is therefore not simply about transactions across borders. It is also reflected in the backgrounds of its people and in the different perspectives they bring to the same table.
As the nature of international business changes, a younger generation within the team is beginning to face new questions.
Building the next generation
Five consecutive years of recognition are also a story of continuity. Alongside the firm’s more experienced practitioners, a younger generation is developing its own expertise while gaining exposure to increasingly sophisticated international work.
Theodora Alexandrou, an Associate specialising in corporate and tax law, has already worked across international structuring, financing transactions, reorganisations, VAT and permanent establishment matters. Her technical focus is reflected in her Advanced Diploma in International Taxation (with distinction) and her status as an International Tax Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. This is a strong foundation for a career at a time when
international tax is becoming more, not less, complex.
But technical tax expertise is only part of what the next generation will need. Technology is steadily changing both the businesses being advised and the questions advisers are being asked.
That is particularly visible in Avgi Michael’s work. Alongside Cyprus tax residency, non-domicile and VAT matters, her broader practice covers technology, privacy, data protection and cybersecurity. These may sound like separate fields, but for businesses operating internationally and digitally, they increasingly overlap. Her profile brings a different perspective to the team — one shaped by the regulatory questions that accompany an
increasingly digital economy.
Alexandros Neofytou brings yet another dimension. His work spans corporate, banking and finance matters, alongside his interest in tax planning and advanced business structuring. He is also interested in blockchain and crypto-assets, areas that continue to create new questions for lawyers, regulators and tax advisers alike. His profile points to a broader challenge for the profession: applying established legal and tax principles to technologies and business models that keep evolving.
The tax questions of the next five years will not necessarily look like those of the previous five. Different generations and areas of expertise within the same team help prepare for that change.
Different people, one team
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the team is that its members are not eight versions of the same tax lawyer. There is a Managing Partner with decades of experience and extensive international recognition; a lawyer who is also a chartered accountant; an EU and international tax
practitioner whose work has earned individual recognition from ITR; a multicultural adviser whose career reflects the cross-border nature of modern business; and a lawyer whose professional path connects Cyprus and South Africa.
Alongside them is a younger generation bringing strong technical credentials and experience in areas ranging from international structuring and VAT to technology, cybersecurity, blockchain and digital assets.
Their backgrounds are different, but that is precisely the point. Modern tax advice increasingly sits at the intersection of business, regulation, finance,
technology and people. As the connections between those areas become stronger, the ability to bring different perspectives together becomes increasingly important.
And that brings the story back to where it began: the trophy. Five consecutive Cyprus Tax Firm of the Year titles are an achievement worth celebrating. But a trophy can only show the result. It cannot show all the people, conversations, decisions, and pieces of work that made it possible.
That is the story behind the fifth win. The trophy has one name engraved on it. The achievement has many names behind it.
