Ilias Chantzos is in charge of Government Relations and Public Affairs in the regions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as Asia, the Pacific and Japan. Ηe also represents Symantec in government agencies, official authorities, international organizations, and informs about public policy issues related to IT security, data risk management and availability.

He graduated from the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, took Masters in Law from Queen Mary, MBA from the Solvay Brussels School, and received further executive education through Harvard and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where, among others, leadership and public policy issues, strategy, risk management, international development, governance and social and racial integration were covered.

In 1997, he began his professional career with ERT as a trainee lawyer and then worked as a lawyer in the Commission’s Directorate General Information Society with a focus on information security policy. He also participated in the Pan-European Internet Crime Convention and the Framework Decision on Information Systems Threats.

In addition, Ilias Chantzos managed a series of European Union initiatives on the Information Society and Security, including the Directive on Privacy in Electronic Communications, the Data Retention Directive and the European Network and Information Security Bureau. He also represents the European Commission in various international public debates and conferences.

In 2004, he joined Symantec Corporation, where he worked both as Senior Manager of Government Relations EMEA, as first-line manager, providing some direction and management in addition to regular issue management and advocacy, as well as the Government Relations Manager EMEA, where he created and established a government affairs program in EMEA.

Over the past ten years, he has been working with Symantec, starting with EMEA & APJ Government Affairs, managing EMEA and APJ Government Affairs activities of Symantec and leading his the team and execute on the different Symantec programs and policy priorities. He continued as a Senior Director of Government Affairs EMEA & APJ, when, in addition to his responsibilities being in charge of Government Affairs for EMEA, he was asked to temporarily lead the legal department function responsible for privacy compliance within the EMEA region.

Then, Ilias Chantzos became Senior Director of Government Affairs EMEA, Global CIP and Privacy Advisor, being responsible for providing strategic guidance, management, stakeholder engagement and leadership in Government Affairs for EMEA, and from 2016 to today, Senior Director Government EMEA and APJ, Global CIP and Privacy Advisor, where he manages the global government affairs budget and leads the combined government affairs team outside the US.

He lives in Brussels, he is a member of the Board of Directors of AeA Europe and an appointed ENISA member, and he has held two consecutive periods on the Board of Business Software Alliance in Europe.