Stefanos Fotiou

Founder (FoodDiplomacy Network) & University Board Member

Agricultural University of Athens • Temps partiel

Apr 2026 - Present • 6 mos

Today I work where food systems meet diplomacy, trade and investment. Decisions there increasingly shape food markets, yet few people connect them. As founder of the FoodDiplomacy Network, I am building an independent platform that brings governments, investors and businesses together across the globe. I set its strategy, governance and service lines, and I lead its founding partnerships. Its work combines policy intelligence, research on food systems governance, and living labs where public authorities and industry test new approaches in practice. That practical work needs a strong base in science, so I also serve on the Council of Administration of the Agricultural University of Athens who is the academic host of the FoodDiplomacy Network. Besides sharing in the University's strategic and financial oversight, I lead its international cooperation on food systems, connecting its research and teaching with governments, multilateral organisations and the private sector. Together, the two roles let me see food system change from the market and the science side at once, and turn both into practical options for the organisations I advise.

Senior Director

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations • Temps plein

Aug 2021 - Apr 2026 • 4 yrs 8 mos

I built two new organisations from scratch inside a large institution: the FAO Office of SDGs and the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub. Within ten months I had grown them to teams of 11 and 25, and set up their strategy, governance and service lines. Together they moved food systems from a policy commitment to country-level action in more than 30 countries. I built partnerships across governments, the EU, UN agencies and the private sector, and co-chaired the operations committee of the UN Food Systems Summit process. I also coordinated two global summits that secured commitments from over 30 Heads of State and 120 Ministers. I mobilised over $35M in under two years, exceeding targets by more than 50%. This included co-founding a $30M food systems financing window, backed by Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain, that attracted a further $15M in co-funding.

Director

United Nations • Temps plein

Mar 2006 - Aug 2021 • 15 yrs 5 mos

For 15 years I worked with governments and industry across Asia-Pacific and globally on one question: how do economies change the way they use resources, and what does it take for institutions to keep up? Part of the answer was building institutions. I helped create regional platforms, policy forums and multi-stakeholder partnerships where ministries, businesses, researchers and civil society could set shared directions, and I built the capacity of the people running them so these structures could outlast any single project. Institutions need rules to work with, so I worked with governments and industry on the regulatory frameworks that shape markets. I analysed how environmental and industrial policies affected competitiveness, brought regulators and businesses to the same table, and helped design frameworks that were ambitious enough to drive change and practical enough to be adopted. Rules alone rarely change behaviour, so I focused on institutional change. Inside the UN and with partner governments, I restructured programmes, created new mechanisms and service lines, and guided organisations through shifts in their mandates, funding and markets. I learned that change holds when it builds on what an institution already does well, not when it is imposed from outside. Because these transitions never follow a single path, I led foresight exercises that mapped possible futures with experts, governments and industry. The aim was not to predict, but to prepare: to give decision makers strategies that would hold up whichever path the future took.