Andreas Messis
Lecturer of Economics
Andreas believes that having a creative mind can help you dream big and also solve business problems that emerge. A creative person can keep thinking outside the box, and corporations need creative people today more than ever. He is the former Co-Founder of transFORM Home. After co-founding three companies: a home storage design, manufacturing and installation company, a Software as a Service company (SAAS) and an art gallery, Andreas wants to share his entrepreneurial journey with students at Purchase College.
More About Me
Andreas Messis was born in New York City, grew up in Cyprus (EU), and returned to the U.S. at age 20 to study engineering. He transferred to Purchase to pursue a BFA in scenic and lighting design in the Conservatory of Theatre Arts. This program prepared us not just to be successful in design, but also to be entrepreneurs and leaders as we had to work with so many people, at so many levels with the shop, the director, the actors, and the administration.
He worked for a few years on Broadway as a freelance theatre designer and then became a co-owner of a franchise company that did home storage design, manufacturing and installation.
By 2005, he co-founded a closet and storage design company, which we called transform Home. The following year, we launched a start-up Software as a Service company (SAAS) that created an application to manage the sales-force and installation for closet and storage industry companies, including our own.
Parallel to transFORM Home and being a lover of the arts, he assured that transFORM’s two showrooms in Westchester and NYC incorporated original artwork that brought the company’s custom designs to life. This evolved into the creation of transFORM Gallery to support the arts and hosted curated shows featuring works by local and international artists which gave them a platform to showcase and sell their art pieces.
Andreas enjoys art, music, theater and traveling with his wife and his son, finding
entrepreneurial, cultural and design inspiration through his travels.