Columbia University and SIPA are honored to welcome numerous international leaders to campus each year. SIPA welcomes George Papandreou to our community as a SIPA Global Fellow. Greece today is a living laboratory for some of the key global public policy challenges of our time – including economic policy and social policy. The former Prime Minister George Papandreou will teach a seminar course at SIPA in the spring 2013 semester. His seminar course will focus on the European financial crises of recent years.
George A. Papandreou served as prime minister from October 2009 to November 2011. He was selected as one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2010 for “making the best of Greece’s worst year.” He previously held government posts including undersecretary of culture, minister of education, and, from 1999 to 2004, foreign minister. As leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement political party, or PASOK, from January 2004 to March 2012, Papandreou launched radical reforms of the Greek party political system.
“George Papandreou has been a leader in challenging times,” said Provost John Coatsworth. “He brings to Columbia and SIPA a wealth of knowledge and experience from more than 30 years as a policymaker in Greece, as a major participant in the development of the European Union and its evolving institutions, and as a thoughtful commentator on a wide range of global public policy issues. I am confident his presence will be of great value to our community.”
