Yanis Varoufakis Keynote Speaker

Yanis Varoufakis is currently one of the world’s most sought after keynote speakers on global finance.  He is best known for serving as the Minister of Finance for Greece in 2015.

Varoufakis taught economics and econometrics at the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia. In 1988, he spent a year as a Fellow at the University of Cambridge. From 1989-2000 he taught as senior lecturer in economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Sydney and in 2000 he accepted the offer to become Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens.

From 2004-06, Varoufakis served as economic advisor to George Papandreou, then Leader of the Opposition during 2004-06. In 2012 Varoufakis became Economist-in-Residence at Valve Corporation. He researched the virtual economy on the Steam digital delivery platform, specifically looking at exchange rates and trade deficits. From 2013-14 he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin as a visiting professor.

On 25 January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis was appointed finance minister by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after the election victory of Syriza in the parliamentary election. Varoufakis resigned as Finance Minister on 6 July 2015.

Yanis Varoufakis studied economics in the UK, first at the University of Essex and secondly mathematical statistics at the University of Birmingham. He has a PhD in economics.