Nikolaos Sapountzis
Deputy Chief of Mission
Embassy of Greece in Washington, DC

Mr. Nikolaos Sapountzis serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Greece in Washington, DC, a position he has held since December 2023. A career diplomat with nearly three decades of service, he has held postings across Europe and beyond, including Political Counsellor at the Embassy of Greece in Moscow and multiple assignments in Vienna as Deputy Head of Mission and later Chargé d’Affaires a.i. to Austria and the Permanent Mission to International Organizations. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens, he has served as Head of the Office of the Political Director as well as Head of the Department for Maritime and Aeronautical Issues within the Directorate for Turkey. Earlier in his career, he was Consul at the Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul and Deputy Head of Mission in Ljubljana. Mr. Sapountzis joined the Hellenic Diplomatic Service in 1999 after earning a law degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In addition to his native Greek, he speaks English, French, German, and Turkish.

Dr. Ed Wingenbach
President
The American College of Greece

Edward Wingenbach became the eighth president of The American College of Greece in 2025. From 2019–2025 he served as president of Hampshire College, part of the Five College Consortium with Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts. At Hampshire, he led a turnaround: applications doubled and enrollment increased more than 50% after introducing a curriculum organized around solving contemporary challenges. He strengthened philanthropy and external partnerships, raising over $53 million in operational support, securing record gifts, and increasing alumni giving to 35%. Hampshire also became one of only fifteen U.S. colleges to achieve full carbon neutrality.

Wingenbach has held senior administrative and faculty roles at Ripon College, the University of Redlands, and the University of South Carolina. He earned his PhD in political science from the University of Notre Dame.

 

Panagiotis Karampinis
Managing Director
Endeavor Greece

Panagiotis is the Managing Director of Endeavor Greece. He joined the organization in 2012 and played a pivotal role in shaping the network, supporting leading Greek entrepreneurs such as Workable, FrezyDerm, and Ergon. As Head of Endeavor’s Global Food & Beverage Community, he developed collaborations with 80 founders across 30 countries. Since 2018, he has led Endeavor Greece, fostering innovation, collaboration, and Greek entrepreneurship on a global scale. In January 2026, he was also appointed Regional Managing Director for Europe.

Michael Printzos
Country Director
The Hellenic Initiative (THI) in Greece

Michael Printzos is the Country Director of The Hellenic Initiative (THI) in Greece, where he leads programs that invest in the nation’s future through direct philanthropy and economic revitalization. Working closely with THI’s teams in the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, and Greece, he has helped expand the organization’s impact by overseeing initiatives that create jobs, empower young professionals, strengthen entrepreneurship, and support vulnerable communities across Greece and Cyprus. THI has championed flagship programs such as ReGeneration, Venture Fair, Venture Impact Awards, and the Summer Youth Academy, while also funding critical social impact initiatives in areas such as food security, healthcare, and education.

Before joining THI, Michael worked in the commercialization of R&D results, collaborating with companies and organizations across the USA, UK, Germany, Singapore, and Greece, and serving as a trainer and invited speaker at conferences on innovation management and incubation. He is also the co-founder of a medical imaging software startup based in Oxford. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Science from Oxford University, and in 2015 was recognized as one of the 40 under 40 European Young Leaders, representing Greece.

Marcos Veremis
Partner
Accolade Partners

Marcos is currently a Partner at Accolade Partners, a venture capital and growth equity fund of funds in Washington, DC with $8 billion in total assets under management. Prior to Accolade, Marcos was a Partner at Evanston Capital Management. Before joining Evanston, Marcos worked at Cambridge Associates. At Cambridge Associates, he worked mainly with endowments and foundations, in the US and Europe, on their investment strategy. Marcos holds a BA from Oxford University and an MA and MBA from Columbia University.

Katerina Sokou
Executive Director
American – Hellenic Chamber of Commerce USA

Katerina Sokou is the Executive Director of the American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce USA. She is also a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, and a contributor columnist at Greek daily Kathimerini. Her research interests include international political economy, geopolitics, trade and transatlantic relations.
In the U.S. since 2012, she has been Washington D.C. correspondent for Kathimerini and SKAI TV, the inaugural Theodore Couloumbis Fellow on Greek American relations at ELIAMEP, a visiting scholar at GWU’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and a member of the editorial board at the European Institute. Before that, she was a financial reporter at To Vima and International Financial News editor at Kathimerini.

Katerina studied History at the University of Ioannina and holds postgraduate degrees in International Studies from the University of Warwick and in Journalism from Columbia University, where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism.

This event is exclusive and attendance is by invitation only.