The new Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to the Kingdom of the Netherlands is H.E. Mr. Nicolas P. Plexidas, a seasoned diplomat with over 35 years of experience in the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both in Athens and throughout the world.
A warm and sociable person, who has managed to positively impress the diplomatic community of the Netherlands with his excellent work since his arrival to The Hague a few months ago. This is how H.E. Mr. Nicolas P. Plexidas, the new Ambassador of Greece to the Netherlands, is described by his colleagues. In October 2019, Ambassador Plexidas took up the role of Ambassador in The Hague – a new high point for his 35-years-long career in the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Born in Thessaloniki in 1956, Mr. Plexidas attended a Greek-American high school in his native city, before moving on to study Spanish Language and Literature in Barcelona. After coming back to Thessaloniki, Mr. Plexidas graduated in Economic and Political Science at the city’s “Aristotle University”, only then to leave again to perform his military service in Brussels, at Greece’s Permanent Representation to NATO.
After these stimulating experiences, Mr. Plexidas – then aged 29 – decided to undertake the diplomatic career. After one year at the Diplomatic Academy in Athens, Mr. Plexidas officially joined his country’s Foreign Service, where he occupied an extremely wide array of positions, alternating between posts at home and missions abroad.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Athens, Mr. Plexidas dealt with a large number of issues, working first in the Directorate for Political Relations with Asia and Oceania, and then in the Directorate for International Organizations and Conferences, where he became the Head of the UN Department. Raising through the ranks of the Ministry, in the last 15 years Mr. Plexidas assumed increasingly high-level roles, becoming Head of Department for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and eventually Director of NATO and Euroatlantic Security.
The Ambassador’s long career at the Greek MFA was interspersed with numerous posts in several of Greece’s missions around the world. For several times in his career, Mr. Plexidas represented his country in key international organizations, working at Greece’s Permanent Representations to the United Nations (both in New York and in Geneva) and to the European Union.
He also performed important duties as Consul and General Consul in Vancouver, Cologne, and Dusseldorf, as well as Head of Greece’s Liaison Officer in Pristina, Kosovo. Moreover, over his career Mr. Plexidas also took up increasingly high-level posts in his country’s Embassies, working as Deputy Head of Mission in Iran and Portugal, as Ambassador in Slovakia, and finally as Ambassador in The Netherlands.
Ambassador Plexidas speaks an impressive amount of languages – six, with English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese complementing his mother tongue Greek. The Ambassador is father to three daughters, and his partner is Anna-Maria Panagiotakopoulou. In 2015, Ambassador Plexidas received an important award from his country, Greece, which decorated him as Grand Commander of the Order of the Phoenix.
The diplomatic community of the Netherlands wishes all the best to Ambassador Plexidas, his family, and all the Embassy’s staff!
