Dr. Lazarakou is Chair of the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission (HCMC) since September 2019. In December 2020 she was elected as a member of the Management Board of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for a term from 1 January 2020 until June 2023. She has also been elected as Chair of the ESAs‘ (ESMA, EBA & EIOPA) Joint Sub – Committee on Securitisations. She is also an Alternate Member of the Enforcement Panel of ESMA.

Dr. Lazarakou has a Doctorate in Law (JSD) from New York University School of Law, New York, U.S.A. and her Doctoral thesis was on “Greek privatizations in International Perspective”. She also has an LLM in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law and Bachelor in Law from the Athens University, School of Law. She is a lawyer admitted at both the Athens Bar and the New York Bar Association with expertise for more than 25 years on securities, M&As, privatizations and corporate law. She has worked as Partner at prominent law firms, heading the relevant Banking, Capital Markets and Finance Department. From 2012 -2015 she was the First Vice-Chair of the HCMC when she achieved the political agreement for the adoption of the EU legislation on “Markets in Financial Instruments” (MiFID II/ MIFIR) as Chair of the relevant Council’s Working Group.