Yiannis Exarchos

Yiannis (Ioannis) Exarchos - Γιάννης (Ιωάννης) Έξαρχος (1 June 1964) is a Greek television executive and sports broadcasting professional, serving since 2012, as the CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), an organisation created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to serve as the permanent host broadcaster for all Olympic, Youth Olympic Games and other events organized by the IOC. He was appointed to this position following the Olympic Games London 2012, after having served as a top executive for all Olympic host broadcasting organisations since Athens 2004. In 2015, he was also named Executive Director of Olympic Channel Services (OCS).

Early life and education
Exarchos was born in Athens, Greece. After graduating from the Greek school Athens College in 1983, he enrolled at the University of Athens where he studied law. Concurrently (1984-1987), he also studied Film Directing at the Stavrakos Film School.

Career
Exarchos served as a presenter on programmes related to music and film, starting in 1983, where he worked at Greek public service and private radio networks, ERA-4, ERA-2, ERA-5, Kanali 15, TOP FM, FLASH 961, RADIO, and RODON. At ERA-4, he served as the Head of Programming, while at FLASH 961, he was the Head of the music department.

In 1992, he was appointed special counsellor to the General Manager of ET-2, a network of Hellenic Radio and Television ERT, the Greek public service broadcaster. During the same period, from 1986 to 1989, he produced and presented the cultural talk show Vathos Pediou (Depth of Field) on the same network, conducting long-form interviews with a series of major figures of Greek arts and culture. Additionally, in 1986, he served as presenter and producer of the weekly cultural television programme Chromata (Colours) on the main channel of ERT. Later in 1994, he became Special Counsellor to the ERT President before assuming the role of General Manager of ET-2 - NET in 1996.

He became the Executive Director of ERT in 1997 and held the position until 2001. Between 1994-2001, he also served as a member of the Administrative Council of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the union of European public service broadcasters.

He was appointed Director General of Athens Olympic Broadcasting (AOB), working under the leadership of Olympic broadcaster Manolo Romero. He later moved to Beijing, where he served as Senior Executive Officer for Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), the Host Broadcaster for the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Before the end of 2008 he moved to Madrid, assuming the role of deputy CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), and following the Olympic Games London 2012 he was appointed CEO.