Christos Christou, the head of the Greek branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, has been elected president of the international humanitarian agency.
In an announcement on Monday, MSF said Christou was elected in June and has already assumed his post.
Christou was born in Trikala, in central Greece, and graduated from Aristotle University’s medical school in Thessaloniki, going on to get a PhD in surgery from the University of Athens, where he also did a masters in health crisis management.
He specialized in emergency surgery and went on to work at King’s College Hospital and North Middlesex University Hospital in the UK, joining MSF, in the meantime, in 2002.
According to MSF, his first assignment was in Greece as a field doctor, working with migrants and refugees. He then worked as a doctor in an HIV/AIDS project in Zambia in 2004 and 2005, returning to field missions in 2013 and working in conflict zones including South Sudan, Iraq and, most recently, Cameroon.
Christou was first general secretary, then vice president and finally president of MSF Greece from 2005 until his election as international president in June.
Source: ekathimerini.com