Ambassador a.h. Michel SPINELLIS
General Director
General Directorate of National Defence Policy & International Relations Hellenic Ministry of National Defence
Michel Spinellis was born in Athens in 1953.
He graduated from the Law School of the Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki. Afterwards, he served his military service. He began working in the private sector (ErgoBank).
In 1979, Michel Spinellis entered the Greek diplomatic service as Attaché. He served, in addition to the Headquarters, in chronological order, at the Embassy to Algeria, the Permanent Mission to International Organizations in Geneva, the Embassies in Belgrade and London. In 1992, he served as Head of the Greek Observer Mission in the framework of the European Community Monitoring Mission (ECMM) in Yugoslavia.
Promoted to Ambassador, he served at the Embassies of Belgrade, Tel Aviv, Moscow, and as Permanent Representative to the Permanent Missions at the United Nations and UNESCO, where he was unanimously elected (2018) Chairman of the Finance and Administrative Commission. He retired in 2019 and returned to active duty as Ambassador-at-Large in 2021, in the capacity of Inspector General, until September 2023, when he retired again.
In 2014, he was elected Honorary Professor at the Utah Valley University (USA).
Since 7 February 2024, he has been appointed General Director of the General Directorate of National Defence Policy and International Relations of the Hellenic Ministry of National Defence.
Michel Spinellis has been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Phoenix, the Grand Commander of the Order of Phoenix, the Yugoslav Star First Class, the Star of Saint Sava of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Order of the European Community Observer Mission to the former Yugoslavia.
In addition to his native language Greek, he speaks English, French, German and Serbian.