Eleni Kounalakis

Eleni Kounalakis (née Tsakopoulos; born March 3, 1966) is an American politician, businesswoman, and diplomat serving as the 50th lieutenant governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman and the first Greek American elected to the office. She previously served as the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2010 to 2013 under President Barack Obama.

On April 24, 2023, Kounalakis announced her candidacy for governor of California in the 2026 California gubernatorial election.

Early life
Eleni Kounalakis is the daughter of Angelo Tsakopoulos, a Sacramento developer. Kounalakis is of Greek descent and grew up a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Kounalakis received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Private career
Before 2009, Kounalakis was President of AKT Development Corporation, a family-owned real estate, farming, ranching, water, minerals, building, land development and property investment company, based in Sacramento, California, founded by Angelo K Tsakopoulos, her father, in 1964.

Kounalakis and her husband, print and broadcast journalist Markos Kounalakis, founded two university chairs in Hellenic studies, the Markos and Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis chair at Georgetown University, held by the scholar of late Classical and early Hellenistic Greek literature, Alexander Sens, and the Tsakopoulos Kounalakis chair in honor of Constantine Mitsotakis at Stanford University, held by Josiah Ober. Both chairs focus on the understanding of the origins of Athenian democracy. They also established the Tsakopoulos Kounalakis lecture series at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to focus on democracy and international relations.

Kounalakis served for nearly ten years as a Trustee of the World Council of Religions for Peace. In recognition for her work with the WCRP, she was awarded the medal of St. Paul, the Greek Orthodox Church of America's highest honor. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed her to serve as a Trustee of the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee appointed her to serve on the Port Commission Board.

Political career
Kounalakis served four times as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and as an at-large member of the California State Democratic Central Committee. She also served as a member of the First 5 California Commission, and the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism. She served as a Trustee of Robert Redford's Sundance Preserve and on the Conservation Fund's National Forum on Children and Nature. She is also a senior advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group.

In 2009, Kounalakis accepted President Barack Obama's nomination to an ambassadorship.

On April 24, 2017, Kounalakis announced her bid for the office of Lieutenant Governor of California in the 2018 election. After her candidacy announcement, she visited all 58 counties in California during her campaign. Her grassroots campaign earned the recognition of Time magazine for engaging hundreds of volunteers to text over 1 million voters before Election Day. She came in first place on June 5, 2018, in the top-two statewide primary; Democratic State Senator Ed Hernandez placed second. On November 6, Kounalakis was elected by a 56.6% to 43.3% margin against her opponent, becoming the first female elected Lieutenant Governor of California in history; Mona Pasquil was appointed in an acting capacity in 2009 following the resignation of John Garamendi but was not elected to the post. Kounalakis and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom took office on January 7, 2019.

Kounalakis was re-elected lieutenant governor in 2022. She announced her candidacy for governor in the 2026 election on April 24, 2023.

Kounalakis serves on the Regents of the University of California (the lieutenant governor of California holds one seat). In September 2023, she voted to delay approval of an eight-story, 545-bed dorm for UCLA students in Los Angeles's affluent Westwood neighborhood due to concerns of undersized dorms. The board approved the project in November 2023. Following her efforts to disqualify Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential election, she was doxxed and swatted, part of a series of similar events nationwide.

Personal life
Eleni Tsakopoulos married Markos Kounalakis in 2000. They have two sons.

In 2011, she received an Honorary Doctor of Law from the American College of Greece.