Speaker

George Papaconstantinou is Professor of International Political Economy and Director for Executive Education at the School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute. He was born in Athens in 1961, and studied economics in the UK and the US, obtaining a Ph.D in Economics from the London School of Economics. He worked for 10 years at the OECD in Paris as a senior economist, and subsequently returned to Greece to serve in a policy advisory capacity for the government. In 2007, he was elected to the Greek Parliament, and in 2009 to the European Parliament. In October 2009 he was appointed Finance Minister and from that position he played a key role in the Greek crisis, negotiating the first Greek bailout. Subsequently, as Minister of Environment and Energy, he pursued policies to advance Greece’s sustainable growth agenda. His book on the crisis Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis, has been published in Greek, English and German. His recently published new book Whatever It Takes – The Battle for Post-Crisis Europe debates the lessons from the Eurozone crisis for the governance of the EU and the euro in the context of current challenges.