Yanis Varoufakis

Former Finance Minister of Greece

In his own words, Varoufakis was “thrust onto the public scene by Europe’s inane handling of an inevitable crisis”.

Having been elected to Greece’s Parliament in January 2015 with the largest majority in the country, Varoufakis served as Greece’s Finance Minister from January to July 2015. He resigned the finance ministry when he refused to sign a loan agreement that he believed would perpetuate Greece’s debt-deflationary cycle.

Yanis read mathematics and economics at the Universities of Essex and Birmingham and subsequently taught economics at the Universities of East Anglia, Cambridge, Sydney, Glasgow, Texas and Athens where he still holds a Chair in Political Economy and Economic Theory. He is also Honorary Professor of Political Economy at the University of Sydney, Honoris Causa Professor of Law, Economics and Finance at the University of Torino, and Visiting Professor of Political Economy at King’s College, London.

He is the author of a number of best selling books, including: Adults in the Room: My struggle against Europe’s Deep Establishment; And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability; and The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the World Economy.

In February 2016 Varoufakis co-founded DiEM25, the Democracy Europe Movement, which has grown in numbers across Europe since then.

Yanis read mathematics and economics at the Universities of Essex and Birmingham and subsequently taught economics at the Universities of East Anglia, Cambridge, Sydney, Glasgow, Texas and Athens where he still holds a Chair in Political Economy and Economic Theory. He is also Honorary Professor of Political Economy at the University of Sydney, Honoris Causa Professor of Law, Economics and Finance at the University of Torino, and Visiting Professor of Political Economy at King’s College, London.

He is the author of a number of best selling books, including: Adults in the Room: My struggle against Europe’s Deep Establishment; And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability; and The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the World Economy.

In February 2016 Varoufakis co-founded DiEM25, the Democracy Europe Movement, which has grown in numbers across Europe since then.