Spyridon (Spyros) Antonelos is the World Bank Group Mediation Officer for ECA (Europe and Central Asia) region.

Spyros, a Greek national, has joined the WBG regional hub in Sofia, Bulgaria, in June 2019. He is the first full-time Mediation Services staff member located permanently in the country office. Since then, Spyros is a Scientific Advisor of Resolve Mediators offering his valuable help on a pro bono basis.

Prior to joining the WBG, he enjoyed a multifaceted international career: a lawyer by training, since 2000, he has studied and worked in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Greece. After receiving his mediator’s accreditation from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (U.K.) in 2008, he became a mediation pioneer in his country.

In 2013, he completed the Weinstein JAMS Fellowship and received advanced training at Pepperdine University in the United States as well as participated in civil and commercial mediations at JAMS.

In 2014 he created along with Greek mediators Eleni K. Plessa and Irini Matsouka “RESOLVE Mediators and ADR Experts”, a leading Greek ADR firm (www.resolve.gr) that he co-managed until 2019. From 2016 to 2019 Spyros also created and directed the Athens SMEs Chamber Mediation Centre (www.diam-acsmi.gr) and taught Mediation and Negotiations at MEF University in Istanbul, Turkey. He has mediated various important Greek and international commercial, banking and personal injury disputes.

Since 2011, he has promoted mediation to thousands of legal professionals around Europe and has trained hundreds of mediators and lawyers in mediation, collaborating with various Greek and foreign Bar Associations.

Spyros advised the Greek Ministry of Justice (2012-2018) and is the co-author of two mediation reference books in Greek along with Greek mediator and trainer Eleni K. Plessa and French mediator and trainer Beatrice Brenneur.

He is currently exclusively employed by the WBG, mediating multicultural disputes, training its personnel in dispute prevention and resolution, facilitating group dialogue and promoting mediation in 23 countries.