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Ms. Alexandra Palli-Giannakopoulou

Alexandra Palli-Giannakopoulou serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at CSR HELLAS, representing the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), as well as Chair of the Board of Directors at Kithairon Farms S.A.

She is also an elected Deputy Regional Governor for Entrepreneurship and European Programming in the Region of Attica.

In addition, she is the CEO of LGN Investment S.A., a member of the Board of Directors of the Sivitanidios Public School of Trades and Vocations, a Governance Advisor for the “Together for Children” Organization, and Vice President of the Center for Special Individuals “Ηara.”

In the past, she has served as Secretary General of the ACCI, Vice President of EuroCommerce, and Vice President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce. She has also been a member of the International Olympic Academy and the Plenary Session of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, where she chaired the Committee on Sport and Environment.

Alexandra Palli-Giannakopoulou studied Marketing, Management, and Business Administration, as well as International Business, in Athens and London.

H.E. Mr. Arif Mammadov

Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Hellenic Republic Mr. Arif Mammadov

Education:

  • 1999-2003: Bachelor in International Relations, Baku State University, Azerbaijan
  • 2003-2005: Master in International Relations, Baku State University, Azerbaijan
  • 2008-2010: Master in International Relations and European Studies Prague Metropolitan University, the Czech Republic
  • 2014-2017: Master in Business Administration, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada

Work experience:

  • 2004-2007: Attaché, Department of Human Rights, Democracy and Humanitarian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • 2007-2012: Attaché /Third Secretary/ Second Secretary, Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Czech Republic
  • 2012-2016: Second Secretary/ First Secretary, Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Canada
  • 2017-2018: Head of Humanitarian Affairs Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • 2018-2020: First Secretary and Counselor, Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan To Switzerland
  • 2020-2021: Senior Counselor / Head of Section, Administration of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • 2021-2023: Director of the Transport Policy Department & Chairman of the Governing Board of the State Maritime & Port Agency, Ministry of Digital Development & Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Since December 2023: Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Hellenic Republic

Foreign languages: Russian, English

Marital status: Married with one child

 

Professor Spyridon Flogaitis

He is Professor of Administrative Law at the Law School of the University of Athens, Attorney at Law at the High Court and the Council of State of Greece, former President of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and former Caretaker Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs (2015) and Former Caretaker Minister of Interior, Greece (in 2007and 2009). He is also an Honorary Fellow at Wolfson College of the University of Cambridge and Doctor Honoris Causa at the NSPSPA in Bucharest, Romania, the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon in Portugal, at the Titu Majorescu Univeristy in Bucharest, Romania, the State University of Mariupol in Ukraine, and the USPEE in Chisinau, Moldavia. He is Vice-President at the Appeals Board of the European Space Agency, Member of the Appeals Board of  EUMETSAT, Member of the Appeals Board of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. He is Judge at the Administrative Tribunal of EBRD and holds the Chair of the Joint of the Appeals Board at IFAD in the UN. He is former Vice-President of the Organization of Intellectual Property, former Judge at the Supreme Court of Greece, former Arthur Goodhart Professor at the Faculty of Law, Cambridge University, former Yorke Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law in Cambridge University.

He was born in Lefkas (Greece) and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Athens with a degree in Law. He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas and a PhD in History from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and a degree (Diplôme) of the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes-IVème Section, Histoire et Philologie.

He speaks fluently English, French, German, Italian and Greek and is the author of many publications in the area of public law.

He was awarded with the distinction of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur of the French Republic, the distinction of Cavaliere dell’Ordine di Merito of the Italian Republic, the La Croix d’Officier de l’Ordre du Merite de Hongrie and  was honored as Grande-Oficial da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique from the Portuguese Republic

Ms. Merâl Güzel

Meral Guzel leads ands coordinates United Nations’ Women’s Entrepreneurship’s Accelerator, a multi-partner initiative designed to advance women entrepreneurship ecosystem around the world in collaboration with six United Nations agencies. She joined UN Women in 2015 as Empower Women Regional Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia and later established WEPs Secretariat within UN Women. Previously, she founded and launched the Women’s Banking department of BNP Paribas TEB and also designed and managed several multi-country programmes at the World Bank. Meral has over 18 years of senior-level experience within international development, advancing gender agenda in collaboration with the private sector, financial institutions, and institutional partners. Meral’s expertise also includes women’s entrepreneurship, gender and blended finance and women’s empowerment at the workplace.

Ambassador Lazar Comanescu

Ambassador Lazãr COMÃNESCU (born in 1949), is a graduate of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (BUES) and a PhD in international economics of the same university. He also graduated the Sorbonne course of “Langue et civilisation françaises contemporaines”. He worked, from 1972 to 1982, in the in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign (Department of International Economic Organizations) then, from 1982 to 1990 as a lecturer Professor at BUES.

Back to the MFA in early 1990, he was deputy head of the Mission of Romania to the European Community in Brussels until November 1994 after which, until March 1998, he served successively as director general and Secretary of State for European and Euro-Atlantic affairs in the MFA. From March 1998 to May 2001, he was Ambassador to NATO and from May 2001 to April 2008 Ambassador to the EU. In April – December 2008 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, and from 2009 to 2015Ambassador to Germany. Back to Bucharest in February 2015 he served until mid-November as Diplomatic Adviser to the President of Romania and from November 2015 to January 2017 again as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Subsequently, until June 2020, he was Senior Adviser (foreign relations) with the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Ambassador COMÃNESCU has been awarded with:

* Order of Loyal Service with Great Cross (Romania):
* Grosses Verdienstkreuz (Germany);
* Légion d’Honneur au Grade d’Officer (France)

Ambassador COMÃNESCU has also been a member of the Scientific boards of two Romanian Think-Tanks: European Institue and New Strategy Center”.

Ambassador COMÃNESCU was elected for a three-year term-in-office by the BSEC Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs as the Secretary General of the Permanent International Secretariat of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS), assuming his duties on 1 July 2021.-