Interview of SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos in “Beyond Borders”, Citi Private Bank’s Magazine

Citi Private Bank, which published the article, also produces a Global Citizens video series, which featured Mr. Dracopoulos in March. The video also explores how the philosophy of the founder continues to influence the work of SNF.

“Collaboration is at the heart of what we do,” Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), says in a new interview.

The interview appears in the first annual edition of Beyond Borders, a publication of Citi Private Bank. “We aren’t trying to replace the state. Society’s problems – in Greece and elsewhere – are much too big for the government, or private sector, or for philanthropists to tackle alone. Collaboration is the only way forward and philanthropy can play a bridging role, providing ideas and funding.”

The article highlights SNF’s largest grant to date, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center  (SNFCC) in Athens, which was delivered to the Greek people in February of 2017. “That’s the true spirit of dimokratía,” said Mr. Dracopoulos, “where the people are the ultimate owners.”

The vision for the SNFCC and 4,000-odd other grants awarded since the foundation’s beginning grew out of the thinking of the late Stavros Niarchos, whom the article also profiles. His parents had emigrated from Greece to the United States, but returned to Greece shortly before his birth. From this bi-cultural background, his worldview only expanded through his global shipping business. “For him, the best way to express his global citizenship was through philanthropy,” said Mr. Dracopoulos. “The classical Greek meaning of philanthropy is ‘the love of mankind.’ And that is the true spirit of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.”

Το read the full interview click here.