5 questions with...Eleni Theocharous

Eleni Theocharous (CY, ECR) is a member of the European Parliament’s development committee

1. Which person that you have worked with has most inspired you in your career and how?

Dr Hardy Hendren, Paediatric Surgeon at Harvard Medical School, is the person who inspired me the most. Dr Hendren has mentored many surgeons in paediatric surgery and paediatric urology, all of whom are highly-accomplished in the field and now serve in academic positions today. I am one of them and proud of it, as he was the one who taught me almost everything I know about paediatric surgery.

2. How would you describe your political/leadership style in three words?

Devoted, Stubborn, Passionate...

3. Is there anything you have personally achieved or done that would surprise people?

I have flown a small plane without any official licence.

4. What is the most humbling thing you have experienced in your career?

To have presented my identity documents to the occupying forces of my own country!

5. What was the most inspirational and influential book you have read and why?

Strategy of Peace, by John F. Kennedy, written for his 1960 campaign and reflecting on the major events of the time and his proposed policies for all regions of the world. I read it at a very early time in my life - I was only 14 - and it affected my political way of thinking at lot for the years to come. I believe this to be the finest written performance of his presidency.

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