Who is Yannis Tafyllis
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
The man named by PASOK president Evangelos Venizelos as implicated in judicial disputes with the defense ministry, Yannis Tafyllis is also a member of the SYRIZA Secretariat for Defense and Foreign Relations, and parliamentary candidate. Mr Venizelos also accused Tafyllis of being the man with whom Alexis Tsipras sets up machinations and backroom deals in defense related issues.
Yannis Tafyllis was born and grew up in Deskati, Thessaly. He went on to study at the Air Force Academy, graduating as a pilot-officer and proceeded to getting two graduate titles (MSc, PgDip) in IT from the University of Sussex.
He served in the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) for 25 years, first as a fighter pilot and later as a staff officer. The Air Force finally entrusted him with leading the bureau charged with designing and developing the IT support systems for the HAF, still in use today.
During his military career he garnered five honorary awards, one of which for his contribution in discovering and documenting problems and issues with aircraft purchased in the 1980s.
He served as manager of the bureau for software employed on NATO AWACS based in Germany, managing staff from twelve different countries.
He was later hired as IT consultant at South Central European Command and was placed in charge of R&D for large scale IT systems. Tafyllis also undertook the realization of information projects for the “Partnership for Peace” initiative concerning infrastructure and high tech applications in command and control issues.
He has since worked as consultant and technical manager in IT firms active abroad.
He is currently a member of the SYRIZA Secretariat for Defense and Foreign Relations and is responsible for defense issues. He is married to Aphrodite Kolonitsou and the father of three children, Theodora, Myrto, and Konstantinos.
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