After studying chemistry in Germany and France and obtaining his PhD, Kanellakopoulos began his career in 1990 at Bayer as a lab manager in crop protection research. He first came into contact with custom manufacturing as plant manager in charge of piloting and initial production of customer-specific pharmaceutical intermediates. After further positions in marketing for exclusive synthesis, he became head of the newly created Global Strategic Sourcing unit in the Crop Protection division. When he moved to BASF, he took over the position of Head Sourcing & Contracting, where he was responsible for the global chemicals purchasing portfolio in the Agricultural Products division with a focus on outsourcing. Most recently, he was Manager Site Services at W.R. Grace’s site at Worms, Germany.