Advisory Board

Vasilis Papaefstathiou

Deputy Mayor for Strategic Planning of the Municipality of Kalamata, Civil Engineer with postgraduate specialisation in Architecture and Environmental Design of Cities and Buildings.

He is a graduate of the School of Civil Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), with postgraduate studies at the NTUA School of Architecture, MSc in Architecture / Urban Planning, and at the School of Science and Technology of the Hellenic Open University, MSc in Environmental Design of Cities and Buildings. He is a PhD candidate in Architecture at NTUA and, since 2024, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Planning and Climate Neutrality of the Municipality of Kalamata.

He is co-founder of the interdisciplinary group “Ev-topos”, which works to promote the value of public space and organised the exhibition “Imagine the City: Kalamata 2015”, as well as co-founder of Filmhouse / New Film Club of Kalamata. He also participates in initiatives such as Kalamatamove, an interactive mobility platform for people with disabilities in Kalamata, and “Voices through Buildings”, an online database documenting and showcasing the buildings of Kalamata.

Christos Doulkeridis

Christos Doulkeridis was born in Brussels on 6 March 1968. For more than 25 years, from 1999 to 2025, he was a prominent political figure in Brussels, where he held a variety of positions, including Member of Parliament, President of the French-speaking Parliament of Brussels, Minister in the Brussels Government responsible for Housing, Tourism, Emergency Services and the Budget, as well as Mayor of the central municipality of Ixelles.

Today, as a consultant and personal and professional development coach, he applies his recognised knowledge and skills in facilitating solutions, crisis management and transition dynamics.

Antonios Makrydimitris

Professor Emeritus of Administrative Science, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

He studied Law and Political Science at the University of Athens and pursued postgraduate studies, obtaining an LLM and PhD with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY), at the London School of Economics and Political Science and University College London. As a Fulbright Fellow, he was a visiting researcher at Princeton University in the United States in 1992. He has also conducted studies and delivered lectures at the Universities of Cambridge and London.

From 1985 to 2022, he taught at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens, initially as a Special Scientist, from 1988 as Assistant Professor of Administrative Science, from 1992 to 1998 as Associate Professor, and subsequently as Professor. He has served as Director of the Division of Administrative Science and Public Law, as well as Director of the Laboratory of Administrative Sciences of the University of Athens.

He has served as a member of expert committees on public administration issues in Greece and abroad, Vice-President of the Hellenic Institute of Administrative Sciences, member of the National Commission for Human Rights, the Scientific Council of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, and the Editorial Board of the International Review of Administrative Sciences, as well as the United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee of Experts on Public Administration.

He has served as Adviser to the Prime Minister, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the public television broadcaster, and caretaker Alternate Minister of the Interior and Administrative Reconstruction. He has written studies and articles on administration and governance, public policy, political and administrative history, and political and social theory. His research interests include state reform, political leadership, and ethics in public administration and politics. He is also actively engaged in literature.

Nikolaos-Komnenos Hlepas

Professor of Regional Administration and Local Government, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

He studied Law at the University of Athens. He subsequently pursued postgraduate studies in Germany with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation at the University of Bremen, where he obtained his Doctorate in Law. The publication of his doctoral dissertation was funded, following a selection process, by the Nolting-Hauff Stiftung in Germany. Since 1993, he has taught at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

He has worked as Head of the Legal Service of the Greek Council for Refugees. He has been a member of the National Commission for Human Rights, the Scientific Council of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government, and the Institute of Local Government. He served as President of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government from 2010 to 2012.

He has participated in numerous legislative drafting and other committees as an expert and served as Vice-President of the legislative drafting committee for the “Kallikratis” reform law. He is a full member of the Independent Group of Experts at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the International Review of Administrative Sciences, published by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.

He has participated in a large number of Greek and international research programmes and studies, while his articles have been published in Greek and international academic journals and edited volumes. He has published five monographs and edited ten collective volumes.

Theodoros Sakellaropoulos

Professor Emeritus of the Economic and Social History of 20th-Century Greece, Department of Sociology, Panteion University.

Professor Emeritus at Panteion University. He has served as Dean of the School of Social Sciences of Panteion University and as Secretary General for Social Security at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Since 2006, he has published the academic journal “Social Cohesion and Development”.

Argyris Passas

Professor Emeritus of State Administration and European Integration, Panteion University.

Anargyros (Argyris) G. Passas is Professor Emeritus of State Administration and European Integration and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in Public Administration and European Integration. He studied Political Science and International Relations at the Free University of Brussels and specialised in European Studies at the Institute for European Studies of the same university.

He holds a doctorate from the Department of Public Administration of Panteion University with a dissertation entitled “European Political Cooperation and the Limits of Intergovernmentalism: A Contribution to the Study of Integration Dynamics. Effects on the Functioning of the State Apparatus following the Introduction of the Single European Act”.

He has taught at Panteion University, the Hellenic Open University and the National School of Public Administration and Local Government, and is a regular academic associate and instructor at the Cyprus Academy of Public Administration. He has published books, articles and studies in academic journals and edited volumes in Greece and abroad in the fields of European integration, public policy and public administration.

During his professional career, he has worked at the European Parliament and served as a special scientific adviser at the Ministries of Education and Religious Affairs and Foreign Affairs in connection with the third and fourth Greek Presidencies of the Council of the European Union. He has been a member of the Scientific Council of the European Institute of Public Administration and served as Secretary General of the National Centre for Public Administration.

His research interests include European Integration, Public Policy and Public Administration at national, European and international level.

Giannis Kostis

Administrative Scientist, Deputy Ombudsman.

Giannis S. Kostis studied Political Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and holds a postgraduate degree from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the same University, specialising in “State and Public Policy”.

He is a graduate of the National School of Public Administration and Local Government. He serves as a Special Scientist at the Greek Ombudsman and served as Deputy Ombudsman for Social Protection from 2018 to 2021.

His academic interests focus on the organisation and effectiveness of Public Administration. He has published articles on historical and social institutions, as well as on social security and solidarity, with particular emphasis on organisations operating in the field of social protection.