Xenophon Zolotas

Xenophon Zolotas
Ξενοφών Ζολώτας
Zolotas in 1989
Prime Minister of Greece
In office 23 November 1989 – 11 April 1990
President	Christos Sartzetakis
Preceded by	Ioannis Grivas
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Mitsotakis
Governor of the Bank of Greece
In office 27 November 1974 – 29 October 1981
Preceded by	Panagotis Papaligouras
Succeeded by	Gerasimos Arsenis
In office 5 February 1955 – 5 August 1967
Preceded by	Georgios Mantzavinos
Succeeded by	Dimitrios N. Galanis
In office 12 October 1944 – 8 January 1945
Preceded by	Theodoros Tourkovasilis
Succeeded by	Kyriakos Varvaresos
Personal details
Born	Xenophon Euthymiou Zolotas (1904-04-26)26 April 1904 Athens, Greece
Died	10 June 2004(2004-06-10) (aged 100) Athens, Greece
Political party	Independent
Spouse	Lola Zolotas
Alma mater	University of Athens Leipzig University University of Paris

Xenophon Euthymiou Zolotas (Greek: Ξενοφών Ζολώτας; 26 April 1904 – 10 June 2004) was a Greek economist and served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.

Life and career

Xenophon Zolótas was born in Athens in 1904. His father, Efthymios Zolotas, was a renowned jeweler and goldsmith in Athens. He studied law at the University of Athens for two years (1920-1922). Then, he left to study Economics in Leipzig. In May 1924 he became a Doctor of Law from the University of Athens with honors, and in 1926 he became a Doctor of Economics from the University of Leipzig, also with Honors. He then left for Paris to study French literature. In 1928, he was appointed professor at the University of Thessaloniki and then professor at the University of Athens in 1930. In 1955, he became Governor of the Bank of Greece, a position he held until 1981, at the except for the years from 1967 to 1974, during the period of the dictatorship, during which he resigned. In 1958, he married Kallirhoe Ritsou, nicknamed "Lola".

As a member of the board of directors of UNRRA in 1946, he held important positions within the International Monetary Fund and other international organizations between 1946 and 1981. He is the author of numerous works on the Greek and international economies. He was considered a moderate, a champion of fiscal conservatism and monetary stability. On November 23, 1989, when the result of the legislative elections showed no majority, neither in favor of PASOK of Andréas Papandreou, nor in favor of the New Democracy party of Konstantínos Mitsotákis, Zolótas, then aged 85, accepted the post of interim prime minister until a new election is organized. He resigned after the April 1990 elections resulted in Mitsotakis winning by a narrow margin. A true workaholic, a keen swimmer even in winter, he made it a point of honor to swim every morning, even though he was in his nineties. On October 2, 1959, at an IBRD meeting in New York, he delivered, in English, a speech that remained famous, containing almost only words of Greek etymology1.

Speeches

Two of his speeches in English at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development are considered to be historic and notable because they contained mainly terms of Greek origin.

See also

• List of prime ministers of Greece

External links

• Zolotas' speeches