Elizabeth Filippouli is a journalist, author, and fiction writer, with a career spanning print, radio, TV in Greece, the US, the UK, and the Middle East. Her professional journey of the last 25 years spreads over broadcasting, print media, and non-profit work supporting youth and women. Since 2001 she has been working on media and community projects of global character.
Between 1991-2010 she worked for: the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), Athens Capital 9.84 Radio, Eleftherotypia Daily, CNN International and Al Jazeera English. With a flair for geopolitics and international affairs, she investigated and produced a series of documentaries: Greekgate, Italygate, A King Without a Country, and Crossroads.
Her paper for Oxford University’s Saïd Business School ‘Novel Narratives for Inspiring, Engaging and Mobilising Communities’ analyses the importance of shared vision, embracing cultural diversity and values-driven thinking for forming collaborative human networks, and discusses partnership opportunities for digitally connected communities.
Over the last 25 years, she has interviewed or worked with leading figures such as Ted Turner, James Rubin, Deepak Chopra, Queen Rania of Jordan, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Dr Raja Al Gurg, Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed al Qasimi, Prince Hassan bin Talal, Mohamed El Baradei, Nawal El Saadawi, Elif Shafak, Santiago Calatrava, Al Gore, Susan Sarandon, Lord Robertson, Christiane Amanpour, Peter Arnett, Chris Patten, King Constantine of Greece, Lord Sebastian Coe.
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Elizabeth’s book ‘From Women to the World-Letters for a New Century’ was published by IB Tauris in July 2021 and is an anthology of letters in the form of mini-memoirs. The book received praise in the international press, Vanity Fair, The Independent, The Guardian, The New Arab, The National, and Vogue Arabia. Her book ‘The Invisible Reality’ (published in 2004) analyses geopolitical trends and stories of global impact from 2000-2005.
In parallel to her writing work, she is the founder of the mentoring programs ‘Athena and Telemachus’ helping women and youth with soft skills building and cross cultural understanding.
Elizabeth has lectured at the London Business School, the University of Bath, Said Business School, the University of Seattle and is often invited as a keynote speaker. She has given two TedX talks, in Stormont, Northern Ireland and at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey.
Filippouli has worked extensively with youth based in Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, and MENA, through the mentoring programmes ‘Athena and Telemachus’. She has served on the Global Advisory Board of the Prince’s Trust International and supported the expansion of its vocational training programs to underprivileged youth in various countries. She has a long experience working in the UAE with local associations, companies and institutions. In April 2023, she advised the FAST Foundation in Armenia on how to re-imagine schooling and higher education for the future.
As part of her fiction work, in 2023 she adapted and directed for the British Library in London the staged reading ‘Alexander the Great-Between Dreams and Imagination’, a play revisiting Alexander the Great’s persona. Character development through external and internal conflict meets Greek philosophy and myth, inviting the audience to re-imagine the idea of greatness in leadership and deconstruct long established social perceptions that have lost resonance with our contemporary societies.
Her studies include a Minor in Classics; BA in German Literature; MA in Transnational Media and Communication, London City University; MBA-level Diploma, Saïd Business School University of Oxford; MLA in Creative Writing, Harvard University.
She is also an amateur travel photographer with a deep love for still image and its changemaking power.