About The American College of Greece

Located in Athens and founded in 1875 in Smyrna, Asia Minor by women missionaries from Boston of the United Church of Christ, ACG is the oldest, comprehensive, U.S.-accredited college in Europe and the premier private college in Greece. An independent, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, co-educational, institution, the College has sought since its founding to offer a transformative, U.S.-style learning experience to its students while instilling the ethos “Non ministrari sed ministrare”
(“Not to be served but to serve”), a dictum which continues to underpin the College’s mission and vision.

About the event

At a time when U.S.-Greece relations are at a peak and the interest of U.S. universities and investors in Greece is growing and as part of the celebration of ACG’s 100-year anniversary of operations in Greece in 2023 and 150-year anniversary of its founding in 2025, this event aims at highlighting the importance of and ACG’s leading role in delivering U.S.-style education in Greece. The event will feature high-level speakers from the Greek Embassy in the U.S., the U.S. State Department and the U.S. and Greek business communities and will showcase ACG’s long- standing ties with U.S. academic institutions, top-quality education and research programs, and economic and social impact in Greece. The event is “by-invitation” only; guests are asked to register in advance.

When: Thursday, March 2, 2023 | 6-8pm

Where: The Dupont Circle Hotel, Dupont Ballroom. 1500 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20036

Organized by: The American College of Greece, Under the Auspices of the Embassy of Greece in Washington DC and in collaboration with the American – Hellenic Chamber of Commerce

If you are interested in attending, please contact [email protected]

Program

5:30 | Arrival of guests – Registration

6:00 | ACG Video

6:03 | Welcome
Ambassador Daniel Smith, Chair, ACG Board of Trustees

6:05 | ACG Institute of Hellenic Growth & Prosperity (IHGP) Report Presentation & the ACG 150 Strategic Plan
Dr. David Horner, ACG President

6:15-6:45 | Panel 1: “Education as a pillar of U.S. – Greece relations”
Panelists:
• Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to the U.S., HE Alexandra Papadopoulou
• Ethan Rosenzweig, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
• Erika Olson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
• Moderator: Bill Antholis, CEO of UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, ACG Trustee

6:50-7:20 | Panel 2: “Education as a pillar of Greece’s economic growth”
Panelists:
• Allyson Knox, Senior Director of Education Policy at Microsoft Corp.
• Nikolaos Bakatselos, President, American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce
• Marina Hatsopoulos, Entrepreneur and Writer, Board Chair, Levitronix Technologies
• Moderator: Katerina Sokou, Washington DC Correspondent and Foreign Affairs Analyst

7:20 | Closing remarks
Dr. David Horner, ACG President

7:25-8:00 | Networking reception

 

Bios of the speakers

Ambassador Daniel Smith
Chair, ACG Board of Trustees

Daniel B. Smith joined the Board in 2021 and serves as Chair of the Board.  Before he retired from the Department of State with the Department’s highest rank of Career Ambassador, he served as Acting Secretary of State and Acting Deputy Secretary of State.  Prior to that, he was Director of the Foreign Service Institute from 2018 until 2021. Ambassador Smith served as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research from 2013 to 2018 and as Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic from 2010 to 2013. Previously he was Executive Secretary of the State Department, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, and Deputy Executive Secretary. In addition to Greece, his overseas service includes tours in Bern, Istanbul, Ottawa, Stockholm.  His last overseas assignment was as chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Mission in India.  He also taught Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Ambassador Smith is a recipient of the Arnold L. Raphel Memorial Award, the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award, a Presidential Distinguished Service Award, and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Colorado and M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Stanford University.  He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Diane.

 

David G. Horner
ACG President

Since becoming president in 2008, David Horner has provided transformative leadership to The American College of Greece resulting in:

• 71% increase in total enrollment
• 800% increase in student financial aid
• “In-bound” and “out-bound” study abroad programs serving over 1,000 students annually
• Over 1,100 Greek public university students studying annually in “parallel” at Deree
• Over 3,000 students and business professionals enrolled annually in Alba graduate business and Executive Education programs
• Over 1,300 children enrolled in Deree Sports Academies and Summer Camp
• Over 56,000 children educated through the Behrakis Foundation Youth Anti-Smoking Initiative

Previously, Dr. Horner served as president of North Park University (Chicago) from 1987-2004 and Barrington College, his undergraduate alma mater, from 1979-1985. At the time of his Barrington appointment, he was the youngest (age 29) college or university president in the U.S. and led the College into its successful merger with Gordon College (MA). During his North Park presidency, enrollment tripled, major capital projects were completed, and the endowment grew six-fold.

President Horner received a: bachelor’s degree (philosophy), summa cum laude, from Barrington College; MA (philosophy) from the University of Rhode Island; MBA and PhD in higher education administration and policy analysis from Stanford University. Together with his late spouse, S. Sue Horner, he has two grown children and four grandchildren.

 

Alexandra Papadopoulou
Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to the U.S.

Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou was appointed as Ambassador of Greece to the U.S. in February 2019. Prior to that, she has served as Head of the Diplomatic Cabinet of the Greek Prime Minister, Permanent Representative of Greece to the EU, Director General for European Affairs/in charge of the Greek Presidency of the EU in 2014, Head of the Greek Liaison Office in Skopje and Deputy Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations.

 

She also served as Head of the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) in Kosovo.

 

Ambassador Papadopoulou holds a Law Degree from the University of Athens and a Master’s Degree in International Relations/International Law from the University of Pennsylvania (Fulbright Scholar).

 

Ethan Rosenzweig
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
U.S. Department of State

Ethan joins the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) from Atlanta, GA, where he worked at Emory University’s School of Law as Associate Dean overseeing enrollment management and student services including international recruiting and engagement activities.

A graduate of Emory Law, Ethan clerked for the Honorable G. Ernest Tidwell of the U.S. District Court of Northern Georgia and then practiced law in Charleston, South Carolina.  Before Emory, he completed a Presidential Management Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Education, and received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in public policy from American University.

Originally from Louisiana where his family still resides, he says he doesn’t return often enough and misses the crawfish and jambalaya.

 

Erica Olson
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs

Erika Olson is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State overseeing policy for Southern Europe and the Caucasus. She previously served as Director for Regional Political Military Affairs in Europe guiding U.S. participation at NATO and the OSCE. From 2019-2021 she directed the Office of Northern Europe, the Baltics, and Arctic Security.

While serving as Economic Counselor for the United States Mission in Turkey from 2016-2019, she won the Department’s Herbert Salzman Award for Excellence in International Economic Performance. Overseas she has also served as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia; Deputy Political Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia; Political Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Consul and Economic Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. In Washington she was Senior Advisor and Acting Chief of Staff to Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom and a Watch Officer/ Senior Watch Officer in the Secretary of State’s Operation Center. She entered the State Department as a Presidential Management Fellow in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Olson worked alongside Ambassador Robert Oakley at the National Defense University on conflict and resilience. She advised the Director General of the Foreign Commercial Service at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and worked for Microsoft and the Mitsui Corporation.

Erika holds a M.A. in Foreign Affairs with a concentration in international economic policy from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and a B.A. with Honors in psychology and Japanese studies from Whitman College. She studied at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. She speaks Turkish and Russian, and has studied Japanese, Georgian, and Slovak.

 

Bill Antholis
CEO of UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, ACG Trustee

William Antholis joined the ACG Board of Trustees in 2015 and is a member of the Advancement & Public Affairs Committee.  He is director and CEO of the Miller Center, a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history. From 2004 to 2014, he was managing director at the Brookings Institution, and before that he served for five years as director of studies at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From 1995 to 1999, he served in government: At the White House, he was director of international economic affairs on the staff of the National Security Council and National Economic Council, where he served as the chief staff person for the G8 Summits in 1997 and 1998. He also was deputy director of the White House climate change policy team. At the State Department, he served on the policy planning staff and in the economic affairs bureau. He has published two books, as well as many articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces on U.S. politics, U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, the G8, climate change, and trade. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University in politics (1993) and his B.A. from the University of Virginia in government and foreign affairs (1986), where he was an Echols Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa, and where his Politics Honors thesis won the Stevenson Award.

 

Allyson Knox
Senior Director of Education Policy at Microsoft Corp.

Allyson Knox is Senior Director of Education Policy and Programs in Microsoft’s Washington DC office.  She currently serves as an advocate at the federal and state levels for the company’s positions on STEM education (particularly computer science), workforce development, and technology in education. She recently led an initiative to make computer science courses count as core high school graduation credits in all fifty states and now is leading policy efforts focused on expanding the cybersecurity workforce.

Throughout her career at Microsoft, Allyson has created public/public partnerships resulting in programs such as InterroBang (an interactive online/real-world game), CareerForward (virtual course), and the Scaling-Up Innovation (in-person trainings).

Prior to joining Microsoft, Allyson managed workforce programs at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC.  Prior to coming to Washington, DC, Allyson worked in a number of community roles in Michigan.  She directed the Young Spartan Program at Michigan State University, taught entrepreneurship through Michigan State University Extension, trained community leaders at the Michigan Community Service Commission, wrote federal grants at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, and created a nationally-recognized community outreach program at Jocundry’s Books.

Allyson received her B.A. from University of Michigan, an MA in Educational Leadership from Michigan State University, and a Masters in Education from Harvard University.

 

Nikolaos Bakatselos
President, American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce

Nikolaos Bakatselos is the President & CEO of “Pyramis Metallourgia A.E.” and “Pyramis Deutschland GmbH”.

Nikolaos Bakatselos was Member of the Board of Directors, and Deputy Managing Director, of “Northern Greece Publishing S.A.”. He has held the position of Managing Director of “Imperium AEEX”, and Member of the Board of Directors of “Egnatia Bank Securities S.A.”.  He was a Member of the Board of Directors of Attica Bank from February 2014 until June 2016.

Nikolaos Bakatselos was a Member of the Steering Committee of the “International Hellenic University” from 2006 until January 2014 and Member of the Board and President of the Northern Greece Committee of EEDE.  He is Member of the Committee Support CERTH, Trustee of Anatolia College, Member of the Board of Directors of SVE, Member of the Board of Directors of IOBE and Honorary Consul of Belgium for Northern Greece.

After being a Member of the Board of Directors of the American – Hellenic Chamber of Commerce for several years, in June 2010 he was elected Vice President of AmChamGR and President of the Northern Greece Committee and since June 2019 he is the President of AmChamGR.

Nikolaos Bakatselos is Founding Member and Member of the Board of Council of Competitiveness of Greece.

From October 2019 until February 2022 he was elected President of Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A. by the General Assembly of HEDNO.

He holds a B.A. in Sociology from University of Reading and a MSc in Shipping, Trade and Finance from City University Business School.

 

Marina Hatsopoulos
Entrepreneur and Writer, Board Chair, Levitronix Technologies

Marina Hatsopoulos was Founding CEO of Z Corporation, an early market leader in 3D printing out of MIT, from 1994 through its sale in 2005. She is Board Chair of Levitronix Technologies, the worldwide leader in magnetically-levitated bearingless motor technology, and President of Hellenic Innovation Network. She is on the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She is on the Advisory Board of the Nantucket Conference, MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, Eurobank’s EGG incubator, Mindspace Startup Program and MIT ReACT. She was a member of the National Board of Research & Innovation for the Republic of Cyprus. She is a regular guest speaker at MIT Bootcamps, Brown University and other universities. She was a Director of Cynosure Inc., a $400 million leader in the laser aesthetics market; GSI Group, a $300 million supplier of laser-based equipment; and Contex Holding, a $100 million leading manufacturer of large-format scanners. She was an investor and Director of Dear Kate performance apparel and Tea Forte, a luxury tea brand. She has also written articles, essays and short stories which have been published in Venturebeat, The Observer, CEOWORLD Magazine, Antioch Review, Missouri Review, Bellevue Literary, and numerous other journals (also at windystreet.com). She holds B.A. degrees from Brown University in Math and in Music, and an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering.

 

Katerina Sokou
Washington D.C. Correspondent – Foreign Affairs Analyst; Theodore Couloumbis Research Fellow on “Greek-American Relations” at ELIAMEP

Katerina Sokou is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Future Europe Initiative of the Atlantic Council and the inaugural Theodore Couloumbis Research Fellow on “Greek-American Relations” at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).

She is the Washington DC correspondent for Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini, where she is also a columnist. In Washington since 2013, she has been a visiting scholar at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she conducted research on the U.S. role in the Greek debt crisis, a member of the editorial board at the European Institute, has written for the Washington Post, and corresponded for SKAI TV.

Katerina studied History (First Class Honors) 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. She started her career as a financial reporter at To Vima, covering Greece and the Eurozone, and was International Financial News editor at Kathimerini during the global financial crisis.

She has covered extensively the Greek financial crisis, providing commentary for news media in the US and Europe. Katerina is a PhD candidate at the University of Piraeus, a director at The Hellenic Initiative Canada, a member of the advisory committee at the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism, and a member of the Hellenic American Women’s Council.