European Ombudsman
Jacob Söderman (1995 - 2003)P. Nikiforos Diamandouros (2003 - today)
Born on 25 June 1942 in Athens, Greece
Married, two children
P. Nikiforos Diamandouros is, as of 1 April 2003, the European Ombudsman. From 1998 to 2003, he was the first National Ombudsman of Greece. He has also been Professor of comparative politics at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens since 1993 (currently on leave). From 1995 to 1998 he served as Director and Chairman of the Greek National Centre for Social Research (EKKE).
He received his B.A. degree from Indiana University (1963) and his M.A. (1965), M.Phil. (1969) and Ph.D. (1972) degrees from Columbia University. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Athens in 1988, he held teaching and research appointments at the State University of New York and Columbia University respectively (1973-78). From 1980 to 1983, he served as Director of Development at Athens College, Athens, Greece. From 1983 to 1988, he was Program Director for Western Europe and the Near and Middle East at the Social Science Research Council, New York. From 1988 until 1991, he was the Director of the Greek Institute for International and Strategic Studies, Athens, a policy-oriented research organisation established with joint funding from the Ford and MacArthur Foundations. In 1997, he held an appointment as Visiting Professor of political science at the Juan March Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Madrid).
He has served as President of the Greek Political Science Association (1992-98) and of the Modern Greek Studies Association of the United States (1985-88). In 1999 and 2000, he was appointed member of Greece’s National Commission on Human Rights and the National Council for Administrative Reform respectively. In 2000, he was a participant in the Bilderberg Conference. Since 1990, he has been co-chair of the Subcommittee on Southern Europe of the Social Science Research Council, New York, whose activities are funded by a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. He is also joint General Editor of the Series on the New Southern Europe published by the Johns Hopkins University Press and the recipient of Fulbright and National Endowment for the Humanities research grants.
He has written extensively on the politics and history of Greece, Southern Europe and Southeastern Europe and, more specifically, on democratisation, state and nation-building, and the relationship between culture and politics.
His hobbies include reading, writing, classical music and films.
