Spyros Kouvelis (; born in 1964 in Athens, Greece) is a Sustainability Expert and the former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece. Early life Spyros Kouvelis was born in 1964 in Athens, Greece. His origin is from Aitoloakarnania and Crete. Early career Spyros Kouvelis has a major in Economics from the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a Masters of Science in Agricultural and Environmental Economics from the University of Reading, in Reading, Berkshire, U.K. He is fluent in English and French. He started his career in 1991, working for the World Wildlife Fund for Nature as a Conservation Director. From 1995 until 1997 he served as a member of the Management Team directing the organization. Spyros Kouvelis was a member of the Agriculture and European policy teams of World Wildlife Fund International, and chair of the WWF Mediterranean Team. He has also worked from Athens as a consultant to the WWF European Policy Office. Since 2001, he held the position of MedWet Coordinator, directing the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative Unit in Athens, a Ramsar outposted unit for the entire Mediterranean region. He was president of the International Film and Visual Arts Festival of Rhodes – Ecofilms from 2007 until 2007. Since May 2007 he joined the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Programme, as officer in charge of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development and the implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development. Politics Spyros Kouvelis started his political career in 1997, when he was appointed as an Advisor to the Deputy Minister of Environment, Planning and Public Works of Greece, a post that he held until 2001. He was elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament with the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in the National Elections of September 2007. He was re-elected in the 2009 Greek legislative election and in October 2009, he was appointed his first position as a Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, responsible for Economic and Green Diplomacy, Development Cooperation, and Cultural Affairs. He left the post with the reshuffling of 2011. In 2012, with his letter to the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament he announced that he is becoming an Independent MP. Consequently, he did not run in the 2012 elections. Sustainable Development Spyros Kouvelis focused on Sustainable Development for the most part of his work career. After leaving politics in 2012, he collaborated closely with