Anna Diamantopoulou

Anna Diamantopoulou was born in Kozani in 1959 and is a civil engineer with postgraduate studies in Regional Development. She is the President of the Greek think tank DIKTIO (2013) for Reform in Greece and Europe. She served as a member of the Greek parliament with PASOK for eleven years. She was the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs (1999 - 2004). From October 2009 to March 2012, she was the Minister of Education, and subsequently, until the May 2012 elections, the Minister of Development. In 2012, she taught European issues in the postgraduate program at Harvard Kennedy School (Fisher Family Fellow). She has also lectured on EU topics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore in 2015, and since 2016, she has been a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin. She was awarded the Legion of Honor by the President of the French Republic in 2003 for her contribution to EU social policy. She received the international award from the Scandinavians for institutionalizing Corporate Social Responsibility and promoting social dialogue in the EU. In 2012, she was honored by the Patriarch of Jerusalem with the Cross of the Holy Sepulchre for her collaboration with the Patriarchate. She has a significant body of written work.