Former CSE chairman, Cyprus education minister dies of heart attack

Akis Cleanthous, a former education minister and leading member of the coalition partner Democratic Party, died Monday from heart failure, according to press reports.
Cleanthous, 46, was a party candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections on May 22.
He studied at Baruch College in New York and got an MBA in quantitative analysis from St. John’s University, New York.
He worked in the banking sector and later in the IT sector, having served as chairman of the Cyprus Stock Exchange from 2003 to February 2007, when he was appointed Education and Culture Minister, remaining in that post until the presidential elections in February 2008.
He was chairman of the CSE-listed Sea Star Capital.
Within the centre-right Diko party, Cleanthous was a member of the executive committee and headed the political planning bureau. He was also chairman of the Spyros Kyprianou Institute, a think-tank in the name of the party’s founder.
He was married and had one child.