The Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism on Tuesday awarded the 2022 Lord Byron International Prize to the former president of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker, Jack Lew, former secretary of the US Treasury, Klaus P. Regling, chief executive officer of the European Financial Stability Facility and managing director of the European Stability Mechanism (Germany) at a special ceremony held in Athens.
The Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism (SHP) founded the Lord Byron Prize, which is organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was first awarded in 2021, to three figures from the fields of politics, academia and business.
It comes with a diploma, a silver medal and a $10,000 grant paid by the SHP to a foundation or organization of the laureate’s choice.
The awards ceremony took place at the Academy of Athens and the prizes were presented to the laureates by HE the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
The three laureates of 2022 were introduced by ministers of the Greek government, namely Development and Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis, Digital Governance Kyriakos Pierrakakis and Finance Minister Christos Staikouras.
The ceremony was followed by a dinner and debate, with the participation of Lew, Regling, Pierrakakis and Staikouras, in collaboration with the American College of Greece, at the campus in Agia Paraskevi at 7.45 p.m., on the topic “Responding to Crises: A Values-Based Approach.”
The Lord Byron Prize was founded with the aim of promoting internationally the values of Hellenic culture and philhellenism as a virtue with a beneficial effect on the societies of the entire civilized world.
The laureates for 2021 were former US senator and secretary of state John Kerry (descendant of Thomas Winthrop, president of the emblematic Philhellenic Committee of Boston), former French minister Jack Lang, and Swiss banker Charles Pictet (descendant of the Pictet de Rochemont / Eynard family, friends and supporters of Ioannis Kapodistrias).
[Kathimerini]