Long before Aleksander was leading hospitality ventures in Cyprus, he was a kid selling lemonade on the corner, unknowingly sharpening the instincts that would guide him through a lifetime of entrepreneurship. That early drive to build, to take risks, to back his own ideas, never really left him. It simply matured.
By the time he stepped into his role as Market Director at Joe & The Juice in his early twenties, Aleksander was already familiar with risk. What the experience taught him, though, was the nuance of leadership: that not everyone thinks the way you do, and that real leadership is about trust.
“I’ve always tried to be open and honest with people”, he reflects. “It has burned me sometimes, sure. But it has also built the best relationships”.
At 23, leading teams came with lessons that can’t be learned from any textbook, like understanding what drives people, and how the right motivation can help make things happen. It’s a philosophy that stuck. When choosing who to work with today, Aleksander doesn’t look for the flashiest resumes or the loudest voices.
He looks for drive, determination, and discipline. The simple habits, like good sleep and staying active signal someone ready to handle the unpredictable demands of building something from scratch.
That same no-nonsense mindset shapes how Aleksander evaluates the startups and ventures he gets involved with. For him, it's not just about market size or margins. It has more to do with fit. “I have to feel good about the product. It has to enrich people’s lives,” he says simply.
Lately, that focus has zeroed in on Cyprus, where he’s helping to shape a new kind of hospitality through projects like Tutto Passa and The Agora Hotel. Authenticity, for Aleksander, is at the core of what he builds. He knows not every concept will appeal to everyone, and he’s fine with that. “Not everybody has to like it”, he says. “I’d rather create something true to what we believe in rather than something watered down for mass approval”.
His understanding of culture runs deeper than most. As a child placed in schools where he didn’t speak the language, he learned to read gestures, to interpret the unsaid. Over time, this non-verbal literacy became a quiet superpower, helping him anticipate needs and design experiences that feel effortless to the guest, but are anything but accidental.
At The Agora Hotel, these lessons take tangible form. One signature offering: cycling experiences, built around connection. For Aleksander, cycling is a mental escape, a physical reset, and a communal ritual. “It’s not about racing”, he explains. “It’s all about feeling good about yourself. A long ride, a good steak, a cold beer, it’s about balance. That’s the life we’re curating here”.
And it’s more than the bike. The Agora is designed as a gathering place, a home away from home where friendships form naturally. Lighting, sound, food, and service, all are tuned to create an environment where connection happens without being forced. “You can’t fake community”, he says. “It has to be built into the bones of a place”.
Aleksander is meticulous about details when it comes to curation “You’re buying into someone else’s experience”, he says of hospitality. From the thickness of the towels to the grams of goose feathers in the pillows, every choice at The Agora reflects the lived experiences and personal preferences of Aleksander and his partner Emilie.
For Aleksander, hospitality is a craft, a calling. It’s about creating spaces that feel as good as they function, where guests feel a sense of belonging.
Aleksander’s career follows a clear throughline: an early appetite for building ideas into reality, sharpened by leadership roles that tested his judgment and shaped his approach to people. Today, his work in Cyprus reflects that evolution. Projects like The Agora Hotel carry the imprint of those lessons, blending practical detail with a deliberate sense of place. The progression from small-scale ventures to shaping hospitality on the island is seen in leaps based on principles he has applied from the start of his journey.