When: Wednesday, May 7, 2025 | 18:30 – 19:45
Where: ACG Events Hall

Organized by
ACG Office of Public Affairs
ACG Office of Advancement-Alumni
ACG Greek Alumni Chapter

About the event:

The 2nd ACG Distinguished Speakers Series 2025 proudly features General Andrew Poppas, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces Command, in an engaging panel discussion with Alexandros Costopoulos, CEO of Foresight Strategy & Communications and Secretary General of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), and Dr. Constantinos Filis, Director, ACG Institute of Global Affairs and Deree Professor of International Relations & European Affairs. This event promises to provide invaluable insights into leadership, integrity and the role of values in shaping successful individuals and organizations.

Launched in January 2024, the ACG Distinguished Speakers Series (DSS) features top policy makers, academics, field experts, diplomats, business executives and community leaders coming from the US. Speakers present and discuss topical issues of their choice and engage in an interactive discussion on areas of their expertise, while sharing points and tips from their personal professional trajectory.

A reception will follow.

The event is open to the public. Parking upon availability.

For further clarifications, please contact [email protected]

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The event will also be live-streamed through the link below

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About the speaker

General Andrew Poppas
Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces Command

General Andrew Poppas assumed command of U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) on July 8, 2022, leading the Army’s largest organization with over 710,000 soldiers and 13,000 civilians. A Wisconsin native, he graduated from West Point in 1988 and has served in key leadership roles across the Army, including the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions, Joint Staff, and as a foreign area officer in Greece. He has deployed multiple times in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Prior to FORSCOM, he served as Director of the Joint Staff, advising the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. General Poppas holds an advanced degree from Kansas State University and is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute and a fellowship at Harvard. He and his wife, Beth, have three children.

Alexandros Costopoulos
CEO, Foresight Strategy & Communications and Secretary General of AMCHAM

Secretary General of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) With over 25 years of experience in U.S.-Greece relations and global affairs, Alexandros Costopoulos is a strategic communications architect and thought leader in international economic, business, and institutional engagement. Alexandros is the Secretary General of the American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, having served for 15 consecutive years as an elected member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, playing a key role in advancing the Chamber’s mission. He is the Founder and CEO of FORESIGHT, a premier strategic advisory and communications firm at the forefront of shaping high-impact strategies that strengthen economic, business, and institutional ties between companies, organizations, and governmental entities and the U.S. ecosystem at the highest level.
FORESIGHT designs and implements bespoke, results-driven tactics that strengthen economic diplomacy, strategic communications, public affairs, and investment promotion, enabling organizations to navigate complex global dynamics effectively. With a strong focus on the transatlantic landscape, FORESIGHT leverages its expertise in American affairs, reputation management, and civic society engagement to elevate the influence and positioning of major corporations and institutions on the international stage. Over the years, Alexandros has built collaborations with top U.S. corporations, universities, think tanks, and government institutions, including – inter alia – Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the U.S. State Department, and the Department of Commerce. His expertise has been instrumental in shaping intergovernmental engagement strategies between the United States and countries such as Ukraine, Serbia, Cyprus, and Greece. Additionally, he has worked extensively with Greek-American organizations and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
.In 2011, he founded Repo(we)r Greece, an international public diplomacy alliance dedicated to reshaping Greece’s global perception in the global economic and investment circles. He is the Director for Greece of American Citizens Abroad and Co-Founder of the Institute for Regional Dialogue and Strategy. He is the author of two books, “Bridges of Cooperation – The Marshall Plan and Greece” and “Bridges of Liberty – American Philhellenism in the 18th and 19th Centuries”. He has been repeatedly invited to participate as mentor our judge in leading entrepreneurship empowerment programs and as a speaker in esteemed academic institutions including Harvard, NYU, Georgetown, the Athens Economic University, the Metsoveio National Technical University of Athens and the American College of Greece.

Constantinos Filis, PhD
Director, Institute of Global Affairs and Associate Professor, IREA

Dr. Filis is President of the Foundation of Thracian Art and Tradition, Director of the Institute of International Affairs, Associate Professor at The American College of Greece, Director of the International Olympic Truce Centre and research fellow at the Foreign Policy Planning Centre of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of International Relations, Panteion University; the board of directors of the International Olympic Academy; and the Sportsmanship, Ethics and Deontology Committee. He served as Executive Director of the Institute of International Relations, Panteion University, and as Director of Research Programmes at the same institute. Dr. Filis was elected Senior Associate Member (SAM) at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford (2007-2009), and in tandem was a Member of the International Council of the Research Institute for European and American Studies. He was also a researcher at the Center for South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), University of Oxford (2008-2010). He lectures at the Diplomatic Academy, the Naval Academy, the National Defence Academy and the National Security Academy. He has published extensively, including books, papers and studies. Most recently:

• “The future of history. How the war in Ukraine is changing the global landscape”
• “Assertive patriotism. Anatomy of a conversation that never took place”
• “Greece in its neighbourhood”
• “A Closer Look at Russia and its Influence in the World”
• “Refugees, Europe, Insecurity”

Dr. Filis is a member of the Greek-Turkish Forum and a corresponding member of the Institute of Energy for Southeast Europe (IENE). He is also an energy and geoeconomics advisor for the Hellenic Association of Entrepreneurs.