August 16, 2024 – For the 9th year, Greek-American students and young professionals from across the country met with and were mentored by some of our country’s most successful.
Over 40 current and former US government officials, business leaders and influential thought leaders of Greek heritage – and even some Philhellenes – held intimate meetings with these young Greek-Americans from July 31 – August 2 in Washington, DC in person and from around the world over zoom.
This annual program is hosted by the National Hellenic Society and implemented by Manatos & Manatos.
Meetings took place again this year in the White House complex, the US Capitol Building (including on the Floor of the US House of Representatives and on the balcony of the Speaker of the House), the Embassy of Greece, the iconic Monocle Restaurant on Capitol Hill, and a bus tour of Washington, DC architecture and monuments inspired by ancient Greece.
Each speaker shared insights on their personal connection to their Greek heritage and how Hellenic principles and values, that burned bright in their family’s immigrants, have lived on in the generations that followed and influenced their careers and professional development.
Values such as hard work, honor, and humility, education, excellence and empathy, family, faith and philotimo were key values defining the success of many of our speakers this year.
Now in its ninth iteration, this program has imparted a deeper understanding to our participants on the unique position Greek-Americans hold in impacting and igniting change regionally and globally.
Mentors in the 2024 Heritage America Program included:
Business Leaders.
Dean Metropoulos, Principal, Metropoulos & Co.
Michael Psaros, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, KPS Capital Partners.
John Calamos, Founder, Chairman, Calamos Investments and Chairman, National Hellenic Museum.
John Koudounis, CEO, Calamos Investments.
George Stamas, Co-founder and President, Gibson & Dunn, Partner / The Hellenic Initiative.
Manny Rouvelas, Partner, K&L Gates.
Michael Kratsios, Former White House Chief Technology Officer / Scale AI, Managing Director.
Alissa Davies, Global Fintech Policy & Public Affairs Lead, Google.
Diana Doukas, Economic Opportunity & Advocacy, Meta Platforms.
Christos Polymeropoulos, Vice President Medical Director, Vanda Pharmaceuticals.
Vasilios Polymeropoulos, Director of Medical Analytics, Vanda Pharmaceuticals.
Dimitri Sigounas, Chair, Adventist Healthcare Neurosurgery.
Joe Ragonese, Managing Partner, Balos Estiatorio.
Vassilis Koutsoumpas, Co-founder / Greece Forbes 30 Under 30, WeFor.
Sofia Skliros, Associate Brand Manager, Nestlé.
Government.
General Andrew Poppas, Commanding General of the US Army Forces Command, 4 Star General.
Admiral James Stavridis, Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Global Forces.
George Tenet, Second-longest Serving CIA Director.
John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and former White House Chief of Staff.
George Tsunis, U.S. Ambassador to Greece.
Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, Lieutenant Governor of California.
Greg Steele, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Communications Director.
Athina Lawson, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Press Secretary.
Lisa Kountoupes, Former Special Assistant to President Clinton for Legislative Affairs / Kountoupes, Denham, Carr & Reid, Founder and President.
Alex Angelson, Former Special Assistant to President Trump for Legislative Affairs / Michael Best Strategies Principal.
Bethany Poulos, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Marco Rubio.
Jake Friedman, Legislative Assistant for Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH).
Nathan Stamps, Legislative Assistant for Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL).
Colby Harriman, Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV).
Alex Schroder, Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY).
Diplomatic Core of Greece and Cyprus and NHS Leadership.
Ekaterini Nassika, Ambassador of Greece to the US.
Myranthis Spathi, Embassy of Cyprus Chargés d’affaires.
Colonel, Odysseas Papaevangelou, Defense Attaché, Embassy of Greece.
Colonel Ioannis Markakis, Air Attaché, Embassy of Greece.
Captain Nikolaos Lazakis, Naval Attaché Embassy of Greece.
LTC Evangelos Zacharis, Military Attaché, Embassy of Greece.
Art Dimopoulos, National Hellenic Society Executive Director.
Mike Manatos, Heritage America Co-Founder / President of Manatos & Manatos
Media
George Stephanopoulos, ABC News Chief Anchor.
Athan Stephanopoulos, Former EVP and Chief Digital Officer, CNN Worldwide.
Mike Emanuel, Fox News Channel, Chief Washington Correspondent.
Laura Evans Manatos, Former Fox 5 News Anchor / Laura Evans Media, President and CEO.
Petros Kasifikis, Athens News Agency.
John Sakellariadis, Cybersecurity Reporter, Politico.
