Theodora Bakogiannis

Theodora (Dora) Bakoyannis was born in Athens in 1954. She is married to Isidoros Kouvelos and has two children, Alexia and Kostas.

Dora Bakoyannis has been elected an MP since 1989. She was first elected as Member of Parliament for Evrytania, the constituency of her late husband, the journalist and scholar Pavlos Bakoyannis, following his assassination by a terrorist group.

Political Career

Dora Bakoyannis was Minister of Foreign Affairs, from February 2006 to October 2009, the highest position ever held by a woman in the Greek Cabinet. She was also Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2009. Previously, she was the Mayor of Athens, from 2003 to 2006, the first female mayor in the city's history so far, and the first woman to serve as mayor of a city hosting the Olympic Games. She was appointed Minister for Culture in December 1992 and Under-Secretary of State in October 1990. Dora Bakoyannis served as Chief of Staff for the New Democracy leader Konstantinos Mitsotakis from 1984 until 1989. In 1977, she entered the Ministry of Economic Coordination working for the Department of European Economic Community (EEC) Affairs. Dora Bakoyannis and her family were exiled to Paris in 1968 by the military dictatorship that ruled Greece for 7 years. They returned in 1974. She has been awarded the International Leadership Award by the International Centre for Women and her valuable contribution to culture was recognized by the 14th International Symposium Fontana di Roma. In 2003, upon the invitation of Romano Prodi, then President of the European Commission, she joined a group of 12 high-level independent figures from Europe, as a member of a prestigious round-table conference, contributing proposals on the social character, cultural identity and economic future of new Europe. Dora Bakoyannis was voted World Mayor in 2005. Since 2006, she has been included in the Forbes annual list of the Worlds’ Most Powerful Women for three consecutive years. In 2008, she was awarded the “Emperor Maximilian Award - European Award for Regional Policy and Local Government” by the State of Tyrol and the city of Innsbruck. In 2009, she was named as the first female foreign associate of the French Academy of Human and Political Sciences (Académie Française des Sciences Morales et Politiques). During the same year, she was named Honorary Senator of the European Academy of Sciences and Art. In 2010, Dora Bakoyannis has been awarded the National Order of the Chivalry of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic (Ordre Nationale de Chevalier de la Legion d' Honneur). In May 2010, Dora Bakoyannis was expelled from the “New Democracy” party and in November 2010 she founded the “Democratic Alliance” party. In May 2012, “Democratic Alliance” decided to suspend its operation and to co-operate with “New Democracy”.

Education

She was educated at the German School of Paris. After studying Political Science and Communication at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, she continued her studies in Political Science and Public Law at the University of Athens. She speaks English, German and French.