Vice Admiral (ret) Dimitrios Kavoulakos HN is a retired naval officer. He was born in Athens, Greece in February 1966.
He entered the Hellenic Naval Academy in 1983 and graduated as a Battle Officer in 1987 with the rank of ensign. He retired in 2021.
His service at sea was mainly onboard Frigates in all the echelon of duties.
His staff experience as a senior officer includes positions as Department Head of Defense Planning for the Hellenic Navy General Staff, Director for Intelligence in the Hellenic Fleet, Director for the Chief of the Fleet Office, Exercise participation consultant for Partner Countries to NATO at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, Director for Human Resources and Organization for the Hellenic Navy General Staff, Director for Policy, Defense and Operational Planning and Crisis Management for the Hellenic Navy General Staff, Chief of Staff for the Frigates Command.
As a Flag Officer, he assumed duties as Director for the Chief of the Hellenic Navy Office, Director for Defense Planning, Strategy, Programming, and Standardization for the Joint General Staff, National Representative for the working groups and committees in the framework of European Union Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the Committees for the Review of National Contribution to NATO Defense Planning.
His recent positions as a two-star Admiral were Commandant of the Supreme Joint War College (2020 – 2021) and director of the Branch for Policy, Strategy, Defense Planning, International Relations, Interoperability, and Transformation of the General Staff for National Defense (2019 -2020).
He served in Command positions at sea as Commanding Officer of Patrol Corvette KARTERIA, Commanding Officer of the Frigate SPETSAI, and Commander of the 1st Frigate Squadron (6 Frigates – 1 Supply Ship).
He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School of the US Navy, in Monterey, California.
Additionally, he graduated from all career schools within the Hellenic Navy, as well as schools related to Antisubmarine Warfare in Greece and the United States.
He is a graduate of the Staff Officer School of the Hellenic Navy War School, the Supreme Joint War College, and the School for National Defense.
He is fluent in English and has elementary knowledge of French.
He is married and has one son.
Projects and Actions in which he participated as a member or Head.
- Consultant to NATO Partners for their participation in Naval or Joint exercises.
- Member and Head of committees for plans and studies on the Strategy, Planning, and Materialization of assets and resources.
- Member and Head of Delegation for negotiations and signing of Military Cooperation.
- Head of Delegation and Head of the Working Group, for the promotion of Hellenic Projects within the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) European Union, from 2017 to 2019. The EU adopted all Hellenic Proposals and 5 out of 42 endorsed projects are led by Greece.
- Head of Delegation and Head of the Working Group, for the signing of a mutual cooperation agreement between Greece and Poland on Standardization and Interoperability within NATO and the organization and conduct of Schools related to Interoperability and Standardization within NATO, in Greece and Poland.
- Head of the Military Working Group for the preparation, negotiations, and signing for the update of the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement between Greece and the United States which was signed in October 2019 and ratified by the Hellenic Parliament in January 2020.
- Member of Confidence Building Measures working groups, with Turkey.
- Head of the Hellenic Delegation during the Military Dialogue with Turkey in June 2019 and February 2020.
- Head of the working group for the signing of Memoranda of Understanding between the Supreme Joint War College and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Jan 2021) and the University of Macedonia (Feb 2021).