A career diplomat with more than 35 years’ experience, Vassilis Kaskarelis has served as Greece’s ambassador to the United States since June 2009.

 

Born in Athens on November 26, 1948, Kaskarelis holds an economics and political science degree from the University of Thessaloniki and a law degree from the University of Athens. 

 

He joined the Greek Foreign Service in 1974, and worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first two years of his career. He was third secretary at the Greek embassy in Ankara, Turkey, from 1976-1979, and then consul in Venice, Italy, for four years. In 1983 took over as first secretary at the Greek embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, moving up to counselor the following year. In 1987, Kaskarelis began serving in West Berlin, Germany, as head of the military mission and, after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, as consul general.

 

Kaskarelis returned to Athens in 1991 as deputy director of the Turkish Desk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

Kaskarelis headed the cabinet of the secretary general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993-1995.

 

He was made deputy representative of Greece to the United Nations in New York in 1995.

 

Five years later, he became Greece’s representative to NATO in Brussels, Belgium, while also serving as negotiator for the Confidence Building Measures between Greece and Turkey (2000-2003).

 

Before coming to Washington, Kaskarelis was Greece’s representative to the European Union in Brussels from 2004 to 2009.

 

He and his wife, Anna, have two sons.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Official Resume (Embassy of Greece)

Speech by Vassilis Kaskarelis at University of Illinois at Springfield (YouTube)