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2010 Career Updates from Kokkalis Program Alumni


Kritonas Arsenis (Greece; Executive Education 2005), in the 2009 European Parliamentary election in Greece, was elected as a member of the European Parliament as a PASOK party candidate.

Kosta Barjaba (Albania; Mid Career Master in Public Administration 2005) has been appointed as the dean of the School of Political Sciences at the newly founded Mediterranean University of Albania (MUA). He also serves as an instructor at MUA in sociology and strategic management. Irina Bokova (Bulgaria; Executive Education 1999) has been appointed Director-General of UNESCO on 22 September 2009 at the UN organization’s headquarters in Paris. With her new appointment, Irina Bokova has become the first woman, the first Eastern European, and the fifth European to head UNESCO. Bokova had been serving as the Bulgarian ambassador to France and as a permanent delegate to UNESCO since 2005.

Mirela-Iulia Cojocaru (Romania; MPA-Two Year 2011) has completed an internship in Brussels at the European Parliament under MEP Monica Macovei.

Burak Erdenir (Turkey; Mason MC/MPA 2008) has been appointed Secretary-General at the Ministry of EU Affairs of Turkey. Prior to his new appointment, Erdenir served as senior expert at the European Union Secretariat General of the Turkish Prime Ministry, the governmental body which oversees Turkey’s pre-accession process for European Union membership.

Kosmas Kaprinis (Greece; MPP 2010) is matriculating at Oxford University in October 2010 to begin his PhD studies in Political Science.

Angel Kelchev (Bulgaria; MPA 2011) founded the NGO Pathways, an ambitious public-private partnership initiative in Bulgaria aimed at providing high quality computer science education, extensive English language curriculum and wide ranging entrepreneurship resources. The project, which is the largest such initiative in Bulgaria, received $500,000 seed funding from USAID and has been supported in numerous ways by a diverse group of partners across five countries, including the Athens Information Technology, Kokkalis Program, and HKS Public-Private Partnerships Study Group at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Nadezhda Mihaylova (Bulgaria; Executive Education 2008), in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, was elected as a member of the European Parliament as a Blue Coalition party candidate.

Stela Mocan (Moldova; MC/MPA 2009) has been appointed as an advisor to Prime Minister of Moldova Vlad Filat. Her extensive portfolio covers a broad range of issues, including strategy and policy development; coordination of development assistance; and governance reform.

Kyriakos Pierrakakis (Greece; MPP 2007) was appointed chairman of the Greek Institute for Youth, a governmental non-profit organization overseen by the Greek Ministry of Education. The role of the institute is to coordinate youth policies on the national level (along with other government agencies) and implement EU youth programs in Greece. The institute’s current programs focus on youth entrepreneurship and civil society initiatives.

Ussal Sahbaz (Turkey; MPA/ID 2010) has joined the World Bank headquarters in D.C. as a consultant in the South Asia Finance and Private Sector Development division.

George Saravelos (Greece; MPA/ID 2010) has re-joined Deutsche Bank as a vice president in the FX strategy department.

Jelena Sesar (Bosnia and Herzegovina; MC/MPA 2009) is working in Jalalabad, Afghanistan with the USAID-Development Alternatives Inc. as a field director. She leads a challenging program, the Afghan Stability Initiative, involving development projects at the community level in three provinces bordering Pakistan.

Simonida Subotic (Montenegro; MPP 2010) has joined the Boston Consulting Group-Middle East offices in Abu Dhabi as an associate consultant.

Damir Tokic (Bosnia-Herzegovina; MPP 2008) is working at the OSCE Mission of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a national political officer in the Head of Mission’s Cabinet.

Radoslav Totchev (Bulgaria; Executive Education 2009) has assumed duties as consul general of the Bulgarian Consulate General in New York, which covers all of New England.

Esra Unluaslan (Turkey; MPA-ID 2011) has completed two internships during the summer of 2010: the first in Singapore with Impact Investment Exchange, a start-up stock exchange listing social enterprise in Asia that aims to provide a liquid and transparent market where social enterprises can raise capital to expand their impact and investors can achieve both financial and social returns; and the second internship in Abu Dhabi with the Office of Strategic Consulting to the Crown Prince. Vesselin Valchev (Bulgaria; Executive Education 2007) was appointed as the Bulgarian Ambassador to Cyprus, and began his ambassadorial duties as of 1 September 2009. Prior to this appointment, he served as the head of office of the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, at the Council of Ministers.

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KOKKALIS FOUNDATION

Irodotou 23, 106 74

Athens, Greece

+30 216 8003090-91

kf@kokkalisfoundation.gr

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