New Zealand Embassy & Mission to the European Union, , Mr Vangelis Vitalis

Mr Vangelis Vitalis, Head of Mission to the EU and NATO, and Ambassador to Sweden Vangelis studied politics and economics at Auckland and Harvard. He has worked at the OECD Secretariat and in a range of roles with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Most recently, Vangelis was New Zealand’s Deputy High Commissioner to Australia (2009-2011). Prior to his posting in Canberra, Vangelis was New Zealand’s chief negotiator who led the team which concluded free trade agreements with the twelve members of ASEAN and Australia (in 2008-9) and separately with (in 2009). He had previously been a senior New Zealand negotiator at the WTO and worked on the economic modelling for the New Zealand- FTA Joint Study. Vangelis was also New Zealand’s lead negotiator on the investment chapter of New Zealand’s FTA with China, as well as the trade and labour and trade and environment instruments concluded with China alongside the FTA.

At the OECD, Vangelis was the Chief Adviser to the OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development (2001-2004) and was a member of the International Economics Expert Group advising the OECD Ministerial Task Force on IUU Fishing (2004-6). He also worked as part of a team developing a partial equilibrium model for the Russian Ministry of Agriculture to assess the impact of WTO accession on the sector. He is currently Chair of the OECD Committee on Trade and Environment and has chaired the OECD Global Forum on Trade and Climate Change.

Vangelis has published extensively, including on the economics of sustainable development, trade and agricultural reform and the relationship between trade, innovation and growth.

Vangelis speaks German, Greek and Russian and is a fanatical supporter of the Wellington Phoenix, Olympiakos and the New Zealand All Whites football teams. He is married and has three children.