Pappas Named Special Advisor

Dr. David Horner, president of The American College of Greece (ACG), has announced the appointment of Gregory C. Pappas of Chicago, Ill., a member of Leadership 100, as a Special Advisor to the College, effective January 1, 2009. Pappas will advise ACG’s president and senior administration on issues related to communications, community outreach, and development for the College’s activities in the United States, as well as for strategy related to academic and study abroad programs.

ACG is the oldest and largest American-sponsored institution of higher education in Europe. Founded in Smyrna in 1875, the College relocated to Athens in 1922 at the invitation of Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, following the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

Today the College is considered one of the most prestigious American international institutions, with a long list of illustrious alumni, which includes the current Prime Minister of Greece, Constantine Karamanlis, as well as many business, civic and political leaders who have assumed high profile posts throughout the world.

Deree College, the undergraduate division of ACG, was the first international institution accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and offers bachelor of science and bachelor of arts degrees in 16 areas of the liberal arts and business.

The College’s main campus is located on 64 green acres at the foot of Mt. Hymettus in the Athens suburb of Aghia Paraskevi. Minutes away, in the center of Athens, is ACG’s downtown campus. The school’s extensive course and extra-curricular offerings are highlighted at www.acg.edu

Gregory Pappas has spent the better part of his 15-year career working in the Greek American community. He founded and continues to publish Greek America Magazine, the nation’s most widely circulated periodical for Greek Americans.

He attributes much of his career’s focus on the Greek American community and love for his Greek heritage to the year abroad he spent studying at The American College of Greece in the early 1990s.

His company, Cosmos Communications Group Inc., handles a number of public affairs advisory-related services for clients in Greece and the United States as well as strategic corporate planning, media relations and event planning throughout the world.

Pappas serves on the boards of several church or public benefit foundations and organizations. He is a Public Affairs Advisor to John P. Calamos Sr., Chairman and CEO of Calamos Investments in Naperville, Illinois.

He also serves on the Advisory Council of the X Prize Foundation, an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the X Prize Foundation captured world headlines when Burt Rutan, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private vehicle to space to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

In his capacity as publisher of Greek America—a magazine reaching over 250,000 readers throughout the nation, Pappas has interviewed dozens of business, religious, entertainment and political leaders throughout the world and has written dozens of critically-acclaimed articles and profile pieces. He also writes for a number of political and lifestyle publications in Athens, Greece.

Pappas, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, supports a host of church and community organizations in his native Pittsburgh, PA, as well as his adopted home, Chicago.