[2] In 1975, on a government scholarship, he received his DEA from the Paris Panthéon-Assas University, followed by his PhD in 1977 on Public Law.

[2][4] He served as head of the legal office to President Konstantinos Karamanlis from 1990 to 1995, and political advisor to Miltiadis Evert, then chairman of New Democracy, from September 1995.

[7] On 17 February, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras nominated Pavlopoulos as the ruling Syriza–ANEL coalition's candidate for the post of President of Greece in the presidential election that had begun in December 2014.

[8] On 18 February 2015, backed by Syriza, ANEL and his own New Democracy party, Pavlopoulos was elected by the Hellenic Parliament as the new President of Greece with 233 votes in favour.

[9] Pavlopoulos is married to Vlassia Pavlopoulou-Peltsemi and together they have two daughters, Maria and Zoe, and one son, Vasilis.