Inaugural Meeting of the AHI-New England Chapter

Washington, DC—The New England Chapter of the American Hellenic Institute (AHI) and the AHI Business Network held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday, December 5 at the Radisson Hotel in Boston with founder and president, the Honorable Gene Rossides, Esq. as keynote speaker. Mr. George Chryssis, a long time AHI member and past honoree was master of ceremonies and introduced several prominent including former Governor Michael Dukakis, Mr. Leonidas Raptakis, Rhode Island State Senator, Greece’s Ambassador to the U.S., Alexandros Mallias, a long time advocate of AHI and Mr. Constantine Orphanides, Consul General of Greece.

Governor Dukakis welcomed the AHI New England Chapter and stressed the importance of involvement in the political process. He pledged his support to AHI’s efforts.

State Senator Raptakis echoed Governor Dukakis regarding the political process and the importance of grass roots activities with all candidates.

Ambassador Mallias stressed the importance of AHI in the public policy arena and its role as a think tank. Consul General Orphanides pledged the support of his office.

Mr. Rossides gave a brief history of the organization which started in August of 1974 and then continued to discuss the importance of the role of the Greek American in the coming 2008 Presidential and Congressional elections and what steps must be taken to insure that the needs and concerns of the Greek American community are heard and appropriately acted upon. This would include setting up leadership teams which would assign 2-3 people per Senator and Congressman, as well as to Presidential and Congressional candidates in order to keep them informed and to monitor their positions specific to Greek-American matters.

Mr. Rossides stressed the need to follow the model of other ethnic communities that have advanced their causes and cited the Jewish, Black American and Cuban communities as being successful in this endeavor.

Ms. Tina Papadopoulos was then introduced as the NE Chapter President. Tina is the Assistant Director for Development of Anatolia College/The American College of Thessaloniki. She reinforced the action points that need to be taken with elected officials as well as the business network that is being built around the country with AHI.

Ms. Papadopoulos then introduced the initial board members: Georgia D. Katsoulomitis, a lawyer with significant experience in nonprofit management, strategic philanthropy, government relations and communications, is the Managing Director of the Boston Bar Foundation (BBF), the charitable affiliate of the Boston Bar Association, which funds civil legal aid programs that serve low-income populations in Greater Boston. She holds the position of Vice-President for the AHI NE Chapter. Jason A. Panos is a commercial real estate/land use attorney with the law firm of Devine, Millimet & Branch, P.A.. He is involved in various aspects of the Hellenic community as a director of both the Hellenic Bar Association and the IOCC and serves on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Builders Association and sits on the Zoning Board of Appeals in the City of Peabody. Mr. Apostolos Fertis is a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and is President of the Hellenic Students Association of MIT.

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For additional information, please contact Georgia Economou at (202) 785-8430 or georgia@ahiworld.org. For general information regarding the activities of AHI, please view our Web site at https://www.ahiworld.org.