“Makis Drakopoulos is the Director of Programmes and Institutional Fundraising at ActionAid Hellas, where he leads the programmatic work of the organization in Greece involving 3 Community Centers in Athens, Thessaloniki and N. Evia and a nation-wide educational work. For the past 10 years he has been involved in the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of a wide range of social programmes in the field of social policy, diversity and inclusion, poverty and social exclusion based on the needs of different social groups, having worked with various stakeholders in Greece and EU level.  He has also been involved in the design and review of social strategies in Greece providing expertise on technical matters to government officials through his role as consultant of social development. His expertise includes knowledge of diverse EU funding instruments and mechanisms related to social programming. In the past, he has also worked as researcher for social and economic affairs at Gold Mercury International, a London based think tank. He has studied Sociology at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences as well as in Universite Paris 5 (Sorbonne) and holds a MSc on Culture and Society from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). ”