Evangelos Venizelos - Personal Life and Studies

Personal Life and Studies

Evangelos Venizelos was born in Thessaloniki on 1 January 1957. He is unrelated to his famous namesake, Eleftherios Venizelos. He is married to Lila A. Bakatselou and has a daughter. He was an undergraduate at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 1974 through 1978 and completed postgraduate studies at Pantheon-Assas University in France. In 1980, he received his Ph.D. in Law from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

In 1984, Venizelos was appointed lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and subsequently Professor of Constitutional Law. Among other positions, he has held a post on the board of the National Centre of Public Administration, the National Bank of Greece, and the Committee for Local Radio (independent authority responsible for the oversight of local radio stations in Greece). He became a national figure in 1989, when he successfully defended Andreas Papandreou from corruption allegations. During the trial, Venizelos demonstrated his powerful gift of oratory. Impressed with his young lawyer, Andreas Papandreou included him in the PASOK list of parliamentary candidates in 1993, and when PASOK returned to power that year, Venizelos became the Government Spokesman.

He speaks French and English.

Venizelos is the author of a number of books, monographs and papers, including most recently Agenda 16 Greek: Ατζέντα 16) in 2007, a collection of writings about the future of the university system in Greece, including some articles previously published on the web. Other writings have dealt with current political issues and the media, foreign policy, and developmental policy. His recent works focus more on political theory and cultural issues. He strongly opposes the clash of civilizations theory, and has written extensively about the Greek "civilization of civilizations" (Venizelos, 2001).