Athanasios ‘Thanos’ Dimadis

Thanos Dimadis

Dimadis is the President/Executive Director of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States (AFPC-USA), the leading independent organization serving foreign correspondents in America. Dimadis has vast experience in building and developing partnerships with corporations from the private sector to create an impact in support of international correspondents through scholarships, prizes of excellence, programs, training, and journalism resources. Dimadis is an adjunct Professor at the George Washington University Political Management School and the Journalism Department of the University of Florida.

Dimadis carries 20 years of experience in broadcast, print, and online journalism. He is an experienced interviewer, and some of his latest interviews include CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the CEO and President of Microsoft, Brad Smith, and the American author Fran Lebowitz. As a foreign correspondent himself from London, Washington DC, New York, and Brussels, Dimadis covered the Eurozone financial crisis from the beginning of Greece’s economic collapse, providing daily reporting for Skai Tv and Alpha TV from the International Monetary Fund, the White House, and State Department. Dimadis was the head of the political reporting division for Alpha TV and created a documentary on the Greek financial crisis aired on Alpha TV. He is the author of two books published in Greece. Dimadis was the speechwriter and communications advisor for the former minister of National Education, Marietta Giannakou, and for various members of the Hellenic and European Parliament.

From 2016 to 2019, under the leftist government of Syriza in Greece, Dimadis was the target of the government’s attempt to shut down his reporting, which led Dimadis to file a lawsuit against the former Minister and his acquaintances. The State Department recognized in its annual human rights report the journalist who was “slandered by a former minister.” As a victim of an attempt by the government to retaliate against him for doing his job as a journalist, Dimadis has devoted his entire career since then to press freedom advocacy. For his journalism career, Dimadis was honored by Columbia Journalism School with the prestigious Knight-Bagehot Fellowship. As part of his public advocacy, Dimadis has given speeches in various fora in the US and has given speeches on press freedom issues at Nasdaq’s Closing and Opening Bell Ceremonies in Times Square in New York, the World Trade Center, the Roosevelt House, and the University Club in New York.

Dimadis holds four master’s degrees: a Master’s degree in Political Management from the George Washington University Political Management School; a Master’s degree in Media (City University of London), a Master’s degree in Political Science (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), a Master’s degree in European Law and Policy (Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences of Athens). Dimadis graduated with merit from the Department of Journalism and Mass Media from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences of Athens where he obtained his bachelor. He completed the Executive Education program “Leadership in the 21st Century” at Harvard Kennedy School. He was honored with a scholarship from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation. He served on the board of the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association of New York and on the U.S. Alumni Board of the Business School of the City University of London.

Dimadis is a US citizen born in Veroia, Greece, raised in Brussels, Belgium. Dimadis lived in New York for a decade and currently resides in Washington DC.