Gikas Hardouvelis

Gikas A. Hardouvelis (born October 8, 1955) is a Greek economist and former senior government official serving as chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Greece (NBG).

Prior to Rutgers University, he was assistant professor of economics at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City (1983–1989).

His academic research extends in the fields of Finance and Macroeconomics and is published in many internationally renowned journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Business, and others.

Hardouvelis has worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as an Economist, Senior Economist and then Academic Adviser (1987 – 1993).

His NY Fed research on margin requirements, and on the yield curve's ability to predict economic activity had a major impact in academia and in policy decisions.

From 1989 to 1993 he was Associate Professor and then Full Professor of Finance at the Business School of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

He was included in the Hall of Fame of the top-50 referenced authors worldwide in applied econometrics over the period 1989 to 1995.

Hardouvelis’ academic research at the New York Fed on the predictive ability of the yield curve for future economic activity is pioneering.

He joined the Bank of Greece (the Greek central bank) in 1994–1995, as an Adviser and Alternate of the Governor at the European Monetary Institute (the precursor to the ECB).

At the Bank of Greece, he actively participated in the decisions on the formation of the rules that govern the ECB architecture, plus on the rules that would allow EU countries to become member of the Euro Area.

Hardouvelis’ government activity in Greece spans across the political spectrum as he was called by Prime Ministers originating from different political parties to serve as an expert technocrat.

Hardouvelis is a Full Professor of Finance and Economics in the Department of Banking and Financial Management of the University of Piraeus in Greece since 1994.

Earlier, he was in the United States.

He was also a member of Board of Directors of National Securities, S.A. from 1995 to 2000.

He initially joined NBG in 1996 as the Director of Strategic Planning & Research and Group Chief Economist.

He also headed and expanded the Bank's Risk Management Division and created both the Assets-Liabilities Management as well as the Investor Relations departments.

Hardouvelis has played a critical role in the establishment of the Athens Derivatives Exchange (presently merged with the Athens Stock Exchange) as a founding member of its board of directors (1997-2000).

The first time was from May 2000 to March 2004, when he served under Prime Minister Costas Simitis and the government of PASOK.

In 2005, he joined EFG Eurobank Ergasias as the Chief Economist of the group and the Head of Economic Research, and later became a Member of the executive committee.

The second time as Director of the Economic Affairs Office of the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic took place during the Greek economic crisis from November 2011 to May 2012, when he served under Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who was also a technocrat and headed a coalition government.

Hardouvelis was involved in the negotiations with bondholders about a partial write-down of public debt (the so-called Private Sector Involvement or PSI) and the subsequent bank recapitalization framework, as well as in the negotiations with the country's official lenders to design the second economic adjustment program for the period 2012–2014.

He was the Minister of Finance of the Hellenic Republic from June 2014 to January 2015.

Hardouvelis is professor of Finance and Economics in the Department of Banking and Financial Management of the University of Piraeus.

Hardouvelis has a lengthy and broad career in four separate areas: Academia in the United States and Greece, central banking at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of Greece, banking in two Greek systemic banks, and government, having worked closely as an expert technocrat with three different prime ministers from across the political spectrum.

Currently he is also active in several non-profit organizations in Greece.

He is the President of MIET, a Greek cultural foundation for the support of the humanities, fine arts, and sciences.

He is a Trustee of Anatolia College, a non-profit primary, secondary and tertiary private educational institution.

He is also the First Vice Chairman of the board of directors and member of the executive committee of the Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research, a non-profit research institute.

Gikas A. Hardouvelis was elected chair of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Greece (NBG) by its board members in July 2021.

In the previous two years, he was already a member of the Board of NBG, serving as the Senior Independent Director.

In June 2014, he was appointed Minister of Finance of the Hellenic Republic by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who headed a coalition government of the leading center-right New Democracy party together with the center-left PASOK.

Hardouvelis’ time in office as Finance Minister marked the beginning of an economic turnaround, immediately following a six-year deep economic crisis.

The economy began growing again with economic sentiment improving, Foreign Direct Investment picking up and unemployment declining.

Hardouvelis negotiated the almost closure of the 2nd Economic Adjustment Program and the country's exit from the tight surveillance by its official lenders, the so-called “Troika” (the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank).

Aspects of the negotiation are popularly known as the “Hardouvelis e-mail.” After his departure in early 2015, when a new government came to power and flirted with Grexit, growth stalled and turned negative.

During his term in office, Hardouvelis also enacted legislation for the establishment of DTC (Deferred Tax Credit), which counts as regulatory capital by SSM, the European bank supervisor.

DTC was substantial in magnitude and shielded Greek banks from yet another forced recapitalization.

As of June 2022, DTC continues to be approximately 63% of the total regulatory capital of Greek systemic banks.

Prior to being Minister of Finance, Hardouvelis had already served previous governments twice.

This was from the position of the Director of the Economic Affairs Office of the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic.