Culture Min announces board directors for Greek museums recently turned private

The new management of the five Greek museums whose status was recently changed to a private entity were announced on Holy Thursday by the Culture & Sports Ministry.

Each museum has seven board members and one general director or CEO.

Under a law that passed on the ruling New Democracy party’s votes in February (5021/2023), the five museums will continue receiving state funds but will also be independently responsible for fundraising and outreach campaigns.

Listed below are the names of each museum’s top leadership in order of board president, vice-president, and CEO:

– National Archaeological Museum: Dimitris Economou, Maria Lagogianni-Georgarakou, Anna-Vassiliki Karapanagiotou

– Byzantine & Christian Museum of Athens: Giorgos Panetsos, Natalia Poulou, Katerina Dellaporta

– Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki: Niki Manou-Andreadi, Vassiliki Missailidou-Despotidou, Anastasi Gadolou

– Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki: Charalambos Bakirtzis, Yiannis Kanonidis, Agathoniki Tsilipakou

– Archaeological Museum of Heraklion: Ioakeim Gryspolakis, Constantinos-Alketas Ugrinis, Stella Chryssoulaki

In its announcement of the appointees, the ministry also noted that under the new law “the board members appointed are individuals who have contributed to their professional or social sphere, people of recognized stature in the arts, literature, and science. In addition, every museum has a board member who is selected from among the directors of the ministry’s departments, as foreseen by the law, and that person holds the sixth position in each board. The seventh member is proposed by the ministry’s general assembly of the Panhellenic Fedeartion of Culture & Sports Ministry Employees (POE-YPPO), as long as they hold a graduate degree and have a minimum of four years’ experience in a responsible position.”

The ministry added that the general managers were required to have a doctorate in archaeology, museology, history of art, or a science related to the purpose, nature, and operation of a museum. They also needed to have published recognized and authoritative scientific papers in Greece or abroad and to have a minimum of eight years’ honorable organizational and managerial experience in a high-level position.

Each board will serve a three-year term, the ministry noted.