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AHI
Executive Director Completes Annual Winter Trip to Greece
On November 29-December 6, 2003, American
Hellenic Institute (AHI) Executive Director Nick Larigakis, accompanied
by AHI Advisory Board member and legal counsel, Nick Karambelas, completed his Annual trip to Greece. Mr. Larigakis met with many
Greek government officials and business leaders, discussed the
organization's goals and objectives and focused on engendering
new areas of mutual cooperation and development between leaders
in Greece and the Greek American community.
On the occasion of
Mr. Larigakis’ trip
to Greece, the AHI Athens Chapter hosted a reception on December
1, 2003 at the Athens Plaza Hotel, where Dr. Stratos Safioleas, Athens 2004 International Media Relations Manager, spoke on "The
International Press and the Athens 2004 Olympic Games."
The
event started with a welcome address by Mr. Ilias Malevitis, President of AHI Athens Chapter and ended
with greeting speeches by Nick Karambelas and Nick Larigakis.
Over 100 people attended the event from the Greek government,
political, business and media sectors. In addition, an Art Exhibit
was displayed with an "Olympic Games" theme. Also,
the artists donated 4 of their works that were raffled off with
the proceeds benefiting the AHI Athens Chapter. The reception
was sponsored by Olympic Investors LLC, LAVRIS Productions,
Ltd., EYROIKISTIKI E.P.E., Morax Publications, T.G.S. Petroleum
Co.,
Inc., Greek Dream, Inc, Greek Voice Radio & TV Stations, and Mr. Jason Stratos.
Messrs. Larigakis and Karambelas met with
Athens Mayor, Dora Bakoyianni, where they discussed the
2004 Olympic Games. Mr. Larigakis extended an invitation to Ms.
Bakoyianni
to attend the 29th Anniversary Hellenic Heritage Achievement
and National Public Service Awards Dinner, on March 13, 2004
and to speak on the Athens Olympics.
In
separate meetings, Mr. Larigakis met with Ms.Demetra Egan, Manager
of Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers for the 2004 Athens
Olympics, and Mr.Costas Veloudakis, Section Manager of Ships
and Accommodation Department.
From the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Messrs. Larigakis and Karambelas held meetings with Deputy
Foreign Minister Ioannis Magriotis and with representatives from
the Foreign
Ministry's division on Greek American Relations, Dionyssis
Kalamvrezos and Ambassador Chrysoula Karikopoulou. In separate
meetings, the AHI group
also met with Ambassador Elias Clis, Director of the A4 Department
for Turkish Affairs, and with Ms.Anna Korka, counselor at the
Ministry's A2 Department for Cyprus.
At the U.S. Embassy in
Greece, Messrs. Larigakis and Karambelas met with Ambassador
Thomas Miller to discuss
issues concerning the Olympic Games, and issues of mutual cooperation
between the U.S. and the Greek American community.
From the
business sector, Mr. Larigakis met with the leadership of the Union of Greek
Shipowners, which
included President Nicos D. Efthymiou, Secretary Matheos Los and attorney
at law Ana Brademas-Savopoulou. A meeting was also held with
Mr. Vassos Vamvas of the Hellenic Center for Investment,
ELKE.
From the political sphere, Messrs. Larigakis
and Karambelas, met with Member of Parliament Grigoris
Niotis, and with New Democracy Party Diplomatic
Adviser, Georgios
S. Koumoutsakos.
From the media sector, meetings were held
with Ms.Athena Vorillas, Assistant Supervisor of
GE NBC in Greece, Ms.Rozanna Papadopoulos, General manager
of Odyssey
Magazine,
Ms. Katerina Thanasoula, from ERT, and with Konstantinos
Alavanos, Director of Audiovisual Production of Vouli TV.
After the completion of his trip, Mr. Larigakis
stated: "Mr. Karambelas and I had a very busy week in Athens,
but we feel that our meetings were very positive and productive.
We are also very optimistic about the possibility regarding a
number of projects that we had the opportunity to discuss that
would be of mutual interest between AHI and certain entities
in Greece."
For digital photographs from AHI's visit
to Greece or additional information, please contact Angeliki
Vassiliou at (202) 785-8430 or
angeliki@ahiworld.org.
For general information
on AHI, please view our Web site at http://www.ahiworld.org.
# # #
The AHI Business Network is a
division of the American Hellenic Institute initiated in1989 to
reach out to the business experience of Greek Americans and to
put it to work helping other Greek Americans. Its purpose is to
share business information and contacts. Its concept is people
helping people by sharing experience, knowledge and ideas. |
