Ilias Iakovidis

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Mr Iakovidis was unable to attend the conference. He was kindly replaced by Mr Peteris Zilgalvis.

Mr Pēteris Zilgalvis is Head of Unit, ICT for Health, Directorate - ICT addressing Social Challenges, Information Society and Media Directorate General (INFSO). Earlier, he was Head of the Unit, Infectious Diseases in the Health Research Directorate. Until 2010, he was Head of the Governance and Ethics Unit, Directorate Science, Economy and Society at DG Research, European Commission.  From 1997 to 2005, he was Deputy Head of the Bioethics Department of the Council of Europe, in its Directorate General of Legal Affairs.  In addition, he has held various positions in the Latvian civil service (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Environment). He was Senior Environmental Law Advisor to the World Bank/Russian Federation Environmental Management Project and was Regional Environmental Specialist for the Baltic Countries at the World Bank.

Mr Zilgalvis studied political science (cum laude) at the University of California, Los Angeles. At the Law Center of the University of Southern California he obtained his JD (Doctor of Jurisprudence).  He is a member of the California State Bar.  He has published over 25 publications on bioethics, economics, European and environmental law in English and in Latvian.