Speaker Bio

George Zavvos is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Development Bank, that is focused on facilitating SMEs’ access to financing, while promoting innovation and SMEs’ green and digital transition. From July 2019 to August 2021, he served as Deputy Minister of Finance responsible for the financial system. During this time he designed, negotiated with the EU institutions and implemented the Hercules Asset Protection Scheme (APS). As a result of the Hercules APS, the non-performing loans of the Greek systemic banks were reduced to 6.8% in the end of 2022 from 45% in July 2019 - “a magnitude of improvement unsurpassed by the banking industry anywhere” as Bloomberg recently noted. Furthermore, he introduced significant reforms in the functioning of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund as well as in the Greek capital market (law on corporate governance) and microfinance. Previously, George Zavvos served at the European institutions for over 30 years, including as a Member of the European Parliament (1990-1994), European Commission Ambassador to Slovakia (1994-1997) and Legal Adviser at the Legal Service of the European Commission (2002 -2017). George Zavvos was Professor at the Solvay Business School (ULB) in Brussels (1991-1993) and Visiting Professor at Queen Mary, University of London (2004-2007). He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Athens University and a postgraduate Degree in EU Law from the College of Europe (Bruges). He has written and lectured extensively on EU banking and financial services law matters. He is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Economics in Bratislava (2004) and Doctor Honoris Causa of the Department of Economics of the University of Piraeus. He has been awarded the Double Cross of the Slovak Republic.