Greek Ambassador-at-Large Gianna Angelopoulos to Give a Pitt Lecture March 28 About Her Country’s Past and Future

PITTSBURGH—Gianna Angelopoulos, ambassador-at-large of the Hellenic Republic (Greece), will deliver a free public lecture at the University of Pittsburgh at 2:30 p.m. March 28 titled “For the Glory of Greece: Looking Forward by Looking Back.” The talk will be held in 2500 Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet St., Oakland.

 

Angelopoulos, a former member of the Greek parliament, will discuss how she headed Greece’s successful bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games, an achievement that led to her appointment, in 1998, as ambassador-at-large. She was later asked to assume the presidency of the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, taking over preparations that were significantly behind schedule and over budget. Under her leadership, Athens held what International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge called “unforgettable, dream Games.”

      

More recently, Angelopoulos has served as an active member of the Clinton Global Initiative and as vice chair of the Dean's Council for Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Former President Bill Clinton has said of her, “From Crete to Athens and Zurich to London, Gianna Angelopoulos has made a career of turning ideas into action.”

Angelopoulos’s forthcoming memoir, My Greek Drama: Life, Love and One Woman’s Olympic Effort to Bring Glory to Her Country, will be published by Greenleaf Book Group Press in May 2013.

Immediately following the talk, a reception with refreshments will take place.

The event is sponsored by Pitt’s European Union Center of Excellence and the European Studies Center, Pitt’s Center for Russian and East European Studies, and the American-Hellenic Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and is offered with support from the European Union.

###

3/25/13/amm/jdh