Constantine Michalopoulos

Constantine (Costas) Michalopoulos, was born in Athens on March 16, 1940 to Antigone and Nicholas Michalopoulos. Both parents had been born in Alonia, a small village outside Kalamata, in southern Greece but had moved to careers in business administration and the military, respectively, in Athens. He spent his early years in Crete where his father had fought the Nazi invasion in 1941. His return to occupied Athens in 1943 was followed by continued national and personal turmoil: the communist insurrection in 1945 and later civil war were succeeded by the death his mother in 1948. With the nuclear family broken up and his father stationed outside Athens, he was admitted on a scholarship to an elite boarding school, Athens College, in 1950. 

            Michalopoulos graduated with a high school degree cum laude from Athens College in 1957 and left to pursue higher education studies in the US.  He studied political science and obtained a BA degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in Political Science in 1960. He subsequently received a Master of International Affairs (MIA) degree in 1962 and a Ph.D. in Economics in 1966 from Columbia University, 

            Following his studies he embarked on an academic career and taught economics, first at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, 1965-1967, and then Clark University, Worcester Massachusetts, 1967-1969. During this period he also worked for a time as a consultant to UNIDO on issues of regional economic integration.

            In 1969 he moved to a position at the US Agency for International Development, in Washington DC, starting a long career of public service in national and international organizations focused on economic development and global poverty eradication. He worked in USAID until 1982 holding progressively more senior assignments under both Republican and Democratic administrations ending as the USAID Chief Economist in 1981-1982.

            At the World Bank, initially he held senior appointments in the Economic and Research Staff, including as Director of Economic Policy Analysis and Co-ordination, 1983-1987. Later he became involved as Senior Advisor in the World Bank operations departments working in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In this capacity he led the first World Bank missions to Bulgaria in 1990 and Ukraine and Moldova in 1992.

            Throughout his career at the World Bank and especially following his retirement in 2001, he held a number of advisory positions in various international organizations and national development agencies, including appointments at the World Trade Organization (1997-1999) the IMF (2005-6), the UK DIFD, Sweden’s SIDA, and Germany’s GTZ (2003-2005) on aid, trade, finance and economic development.  At the same time Michalopoulos maintained his contacts with academic research on these subjects as well as teaching, holding positions of adjunct professor at American University and the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

            He is the author of ten books and over 100 articles and monographs. His most recent books include Ending Global Poverty: Four Women’s Noble Conspiracy (2020), Aid Trade and Development: The Future of Globalization (2022) and Greek Trade and Finance: The Mixed Blessings of Economic Dependence (2025).

            Since 2001, he has spent more time in Greece and in 2019 he was appointed Senior Policy Adviser at ELIAMEP, (Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy), a think tank in his native Athens- a non-resident part time position. Michalopoulos has three children (Elizabeth, Nicholas and Christine) from earlier marriages to Meline Parker and Milicent Cranor, and four grandchildren (Anais, Juliet, Avraam and Alex) all of whom live in the United States. More details about his personal life can be found in his semi-autobiographical book, Migration Chronicles, Revised Edition (2023). During the summers you can find him swimming in Rafina, on the coast east of Athens, the winters skiing in Vail, Colorado and the rest of the time at his home on the Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, all with Eveline Herfkens, his partner in life and work for the last three decades.