Zachary Cotronakis
Executive Director
Nick Larigakis
President & CEO
NICK LARIGAKIS has held different positions with AHI since joining the organization in 1987. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the College of New Jersey, and did post graduate work in International Affairs at American University. For his work in support of Hellenism, Mr. Larigakis has been honored with the 1995 Hermes Expo International Award, the 2007 Hellenic News of America Award, the 2008 Society of the Argonauts Award, and by the Greek Independence Day Committee of Tarpon Springs, FL, where he served as Honorary Grand Marshall of the 2001 and 2009 parades.
Other recognitions include an honorary award from the Hellenic National Defense General Staff. He is a member of AHEPA, and received the Inaugural AHEPA Outstanding Public Advocacy Award (April 2012). During the 2004 Olympic Games he served as a volunteer. In 2003, Mr. Larigakis was invested as an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As of the fall of 2013, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the American Community Schools of Athens and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation USA. In 2015, he received the St. Katherine Community Service Award in Falls Church, Virginia.
ZACHARY COTRONAKIS is a second-generation American with a extensive history of contributing to efforts that benefit the Greek-American community and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Zac works very closely with the National Hellenic Society, an association of Greek-American leaders that works to perpetuate and preserve Hellenic culture in the United States. He serves as National Chairman of the National Hellenic Society’s Young Professionals Network, carefully designed to connect the next generation of Greek-Americans with jobs, internships, and mentors across all professional fields. In this capacity, he is an active participant in NHS Board Meetings.
Cotronakis’s paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Chania, Crete, and his maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Karlovasi, Samos. He is a native of Cleveland, Ohio.
Cotronakis is a graduate of The George Washington University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and history.
Alexander Christofor
Legislative Director
ALEXANDER CHRISTOFOR is a Greek American who has experience interacting with Congress since 2018. Before joining AHI, Christofor served as a congressional intern for U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Jim Himes. He also worked on over a dozen different political campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels. Most recently, Alexander served as an administrative assistant for the Delphi Economic Forum’s 4th Southeast Europe & East Mediterranean Conference and as an assistant for the 2023 Cyprus & Hellenic Leadership Conference.
Christofor’s family is originally from Pontos but had to move to the village of Lefkadi in the province of Kozani after the Greek Genocide. With help from AHEPA, his grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1951 and later served as the official translator of the Greek language for his city. Before moving to Washington in 2018, Christofor lived in Connecticut and New York.
Christofor is a graduate of American University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies: Communication, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government with a minor in Public Policy & Administration.
Elias Gerasoulis
Policy Consultant
ELIAS GERASOULIS currently serves as AHI’s policy consultant since 2021. Previously, he served as AHI’s Director of Legislative Affairs and as an adviser to the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations.
Elias has a long history of encouraging greater United States engagement in the Eastern Mediterranean, an area of growing geo-political importance and significance. He has worked with officials in the Congress, the State Department, and White House in the furtherance of this policy mission. He successfully promoted several legislative measures in the Congress that strengthened U.S.-Greece relations, upgraded U.S.-Cyprus relations, supported energy development in the Eastern Mediterranean, and provided official congressional recognition of “3+1” alliance between Greece, Israel, and Cyprus, in conjunction with the United States. In addition, Elias organized an official congressional briefing in 2020, under the auspices of the House Foreign Affairs Chairman, to highlight the benefits of the energy triangle formed between Greece, Israel, and Cyprus. Furthermore, he actively advocated for the religious freedom of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, including by initiating legislation in Congress.
Yola Pakhchanian
Publications Director
YOLA PAKHCHANIAN has navigated several roles since joining AHI in 1983, including Legislative Assistant, Executive Director, Director of Communications while overseeing the AHI Internship Program and AHIF College Student Foreign Policy Trip. In her current capacity as Publications Director, she oversaw the production of over a dozen books and the annual issue of the AHIF online journal, American Journal Of Contemporary Hellenic Issues.
During the 1980s she helped organize a group of women in the U.S. to support the Women Walk Home movement in Cyprus. In 1987 and 1989, they participated in the marches into occupied Cyprus to advocate for the right of Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their homes and to draw attention to the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. She served as the President of the PTA at the Hamasdegh Armenian School and the HSA at St. Elizabeth Catholic School. Additionally, she served as a Board Member of the Metropolitan Ballet Theatre and mentored young minds in STEM through the FIRST Robotics program. Yola holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley with a focus in International Relations, specifically the Eastern Mediterranean. Originally from Cyprus, she is a dedicated wife and mother of three grown children.