Mrs. Maria Andreadaki Vlazaki was born in Chania, Crete, in 1952. She studied History and Archaeology in the National Kapodestrian University of Athens and completed her thesis “The city of Khania (Kydonia) in the Minoan and Geometric Periods (3000 – 700 B. C.)” in the University of Clermont – Ferrand II, France. Prehistoric Crete remains the field of her scientific interest as she is conducting an excavation of a Minoan Palatial Center locating on top of the Kastelli hill of Chania.
Dr. Maria Andreadaki – Vlazaki has served as an archaeologist since 1975 to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and in 1990 she became the Director of the KE Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Western Crete. During 2000 – 2003 she was the Director of ΚΓ Ephorate and of the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion, Crete. Since February 2009 until October 2014 she served as the General Director of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage (Alternate: 2009 – 2010).
In March 2015 she was appointed Alternate Secretary General of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs, while in the autumn of the same year, she was appointed Secretary General of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
During the last few years she has developed a remarkable international activity as she is coordinating the efforts and actions of Greece for the successful repatriation of antiquities, while she is actively supporting the application of the Greek policy on combating illicit trafficking of antiquities and the prevention of looting and vandalizing of monuments. In September 2015 she was elected Chairperson of the Subsidiary Committee of the 1970 International UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.
In the context of cultural diplomacy she coordinates the organization of various exhibitions of Greek antiquities abroad and from her current position she is promoting the management of Greek cultural heritage as well as contemporary culture.