Name
Yanis Varoufakis (one ‘n’ not two)
Jobs
economist, sudden politician, academic, poet – writer, blogger, video game consultant
Means of travel
Yamaha XJR 1300, by foot, taxi, chooses economy class for his business trips
Nationality
Dual citizenship (Greek and Australian)
Born in Athens, studied in London, taught in Australia, Greece and the United States
Education
Born in Athens, 1961, where he completed his secondary education, Varoufakis moved to England to read Mathematical Economics (Essex), Mathematical Statistics (Birmingham) and to complete a PhD in Economics (Essex). His academic appointments (teaching economics, econometrics and political philosophy and game theory), began at the University of Essex and then took him to the Universities of East Anglia, Cambridge, Sydney and Glasgow. Since 1996 he is Hoover Fellow in Economic and Social Ethics at the Université Catholique de Louvain. In 2000 Varoufakis returned to his native Greece to take up an appointment at the University of Athens as Professor of Economic Theory as well as to found UADPhilEcon, an international doctorate program in economics. He is currently Director of the Division of Political Economy.
Political beliefs
Son of an exiled communist
He says he founded one of socialist PASOK’s youth wings
Active in support of the Troops Out of Movement campaign for British withdrawal from Northern Island
Libertarian Marxist, though he has described himself as an ‘erratic Marxist’
He is not a member of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) even though he sits with them in parliament and was not a politician before the January 25 elections
Personal life
Twice married
First wife: Margarite Poulos, a second-generation Greek-Australian academic. Together they have a 10-year-old daughter Xenia
Second wife: Installation artist Danae Stratou
Family background
Born to an affluent family, he attended prestigious Moraitis private school
Father Giorgos Varoufakis was imprisoned as a communist and exiled to the isle of Makronisos during the Greek Civil War
Following the war, his father became chairman of Greece’s steel producer Halyvourgiki
Mother active in Women’s Union of Greece for gender equality
Yanis says he set-up one of socialist PASOK’s first youth-wings
His favorite vacation spot
The isle of Aegina, where his wife’s family owns a holiday home. It is rumored that he met SYRIZA head Alexis Tsipras on this island.
Sex appeal
Billed by Bild as a ‘sex machine’ there are a number of teeny boppy Greek fans who have started taking an interest in politics, known in Greece as “Varoufitses”
Style
Fashion icon with no ties, untucked shirts (purple, blue, black) and jackets
Burberry scarf
Shaved head
How the press sees him
