Basil Gavalas has advised Heads of State, Deputy Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and captains of industry across three continents, working at the intersection of government, capital and technology. His work has included missions in conflict-affected and fragile environments, including Iraq, Ukraine and Somaliland.
A Forbes 30 Under 30 geopolitical entrepreneur, he is Co-Founder of the Athens Defence Summit—the first hard-power convening of its kind to receive the formal backing of the government of a NATO member state. He is also the Founding Strategic Adviser of the Slemani Strategic Forum and serves as Secretary of its International Advisory Committee, which brings together former Heads of State and Government, senior American and British military commanders, and members of the House of Lords.
Basil is a member of the Leadership Council of the New York Times–affiliated Democracy & Culture Foundation, whose twenty-five members include CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson and Her Excellency Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Platform for African Democrats, alongside figures including Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former Botswana President Ian Khama, and on the Strategic Council of DIKTIO–Network for Reform, one of Greece’s leading public-policy institutes. He is also an elected member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
As founding Vice-President of the Hellenic-Iraqi Business Council, Basil has placed particular emphasis on strengthening Greece’s engagement with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, whose senior leadership he has worked with closely over several years. As part of his bridge-building work in the region, he was instrumental in securing governmental support and private financing for Delphi Forum Slemani, a major platform for business diplomacy held under the High Patronage of Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani.
He is the founder of several ventures, including Milhous Associates, a geopolitical advisory firm active in high-level business diplomacy across the Middle East and Africa.
Previously, Basil served as a senior political adviser within the Government of the Hellenic Republic and worked with leading policy institutions, including the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Konstantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy.
He has published commentary with institutions and publications including The National Interest & the Royal United Services Institute. As a speaker, he has shared the stage with Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, General Sir Nick Carter, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, the Finance Ministers of Zambia and Somaliland, serving and former European ministers, the Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, and leading international industrialists.
In 2018, he co-authored the first Greek-language study on artificial intelligence and national security with Yannis Mastrogeorgiou, now Special Secretary for Strategic Foresight to the Prime Minister of Greece. Basil is the author of two books and holds an LL.M. from the University of Paris.
