Secretary General for Civil Protection

Nikos Papaefstathiou was born in Athens in 1969. He is a graduate Engineer and holds a degree from the Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens. He also holds a Master of Science (MSc) in “Geographic Information Science-G.I.S.” from the National Technical University of Athens.

He has served as President of the Hellenic National Center of Emergency Care, National Health Operations Centre (EKAB-KEPY) from 2014 to date, as well as during the four-year period 2006-2010.

Since October 2019, the Hellenic National Center of Emergency Care, National Health Operations Centre was upgraded to the sole operational arm of the Ministry of Health and managed the public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2004-2006, he served as Vice President of the Hellenic National Center of Emergency Care and as Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health.

He has participated as a keynote speaker at numerous national and international conferences, presenting topics related to the strategic and operational planning of health services, emergency and crisis management, major accidents, emergencies and mass casualty incidents, health services management through the use of geographic information systems, health planning of migration crisis, etc.

Throughout his service in the aforementioned positions of responsibility, he has handled all major emergency situations and crises that occurred during those periods. He has been officially recognised with four commendations for his operational action in major mass disasters events.

He is married.