Stelios Kiosses, a leading psychologist, who has pioneered a new approach to tackling stress in the workplace, has become the first UK resident to receive a knighthood from the Order of St Constantine The Great.
The 40-year-old is the founder of Birmingham-based Tri Health Consultants.
It gives businesses and their employees a range of individually tailored services, including a nationwide network of therapists who provide face-to-face counselling.
The aim is to offer urgent help to stressed out employees as and when they need it and enable businesses to boost their productivity by putting in place strategies designed to drastically reduce the causes of acute and chronic stress in the workplace.
"Stress is the big epidemic of the modern age," said Mr Kiosses.
"It places unbearable mental and emotional strains on individuals. It affects their performance at work, their relationships with other people and their ability to enjoy life. It can lead to depression, drug and alcohol addiction and even suicide.
"Stress also causes physical problems from tension headaches to life-threatening conditions such as a heart attack or stroke.
"Up to five million UK employees say they feel badly stressed at work. Almost 13 million working days are being lost due to stress, depression or anxiety every year."
Mr Kiosses, who lives near Kidderminster, with his wife Ruth, a former BBC costume designer, and their two young children, set up Tri Health in 2003 following a career in the NHS and private sector as a psychotherapist.
Tri Health has a network of 1,000 counsellors. Clients are matched to a counsellor within a 20-mile radius and initial contact is made within 24 hours.
Tri Health's client list already includes more than a dozen national and international firms. Among them are Group 4 Securicor, American international investment group AIG and Cadburys.
Only 550 people worldwide have ever been knighted by the ecumenical Order of St Constantine the Great including the first man to walk in space, Russian Aleksey Leonov; Nobel prize winning physicist Zhores Alferov; and the former Prime Minister of Finland, Harri Holkeri, who chaired the United Nations General Assembly and played a major role in securing the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement.
Recipients have come from all parts of the world, but this is the first time one has been a resident of the UK.
Mr Kiosses said: "I'm very honoured, very humbled and very touched to be have been considered for this knighthood."
