Theodoros Karounos was born in Barsiniko, a village near Mistra, in 1953. He graduated from the Sivitanidio Secondary Technical School in 1970 and received his high school diploma from the SUNY High School Equivalency Program in 1975. He then completed the Social Studies Program at the School of Contemporary Studies at the City University of New York in 1979 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the New York Institute of Technology in 1983 and a Master of Science in Information Systems from Polytechnic University, New York in 1985.

From 1984 to 1987 he worked as a Systems Analyst at IBM’s Network Management & New Product Testing Center, Poughipsie, New York, USA, testing, adapting and testing new network management tools on the company’s international internal network.

From 1987 to 1990 he was responsible for the development and support of IT systems for the IT Development Agency (IDA) of the Ministry of the Presidency, and was IT Advisor to the Minister of the Interior.

From 1990 to 2002 he was a Research Engineer at the National Technical University of Athens, technical manager of the Network Management & Optimal Design Laboratory (NETMODE) of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science.

During the period 1995-2000 he participated in the establishment of GU-NET (Greek Universities Network), represented NTUA in the steering committee and was a member of the technical committee.

From 1995 to 2001 he was the Director of the Network Centre (KED) of NTUA, with main responsibility for the organisation and operation of the NRC, consisting of the Data Network Services Support Department, the Telephone Network Services Support Department, the Quality Control & Support Department and the Research & Development Department.

Since 1995, he was Technical Manager of the National Research and Technology Network (GRNET), with main responsibility for the design, development and monitoring of the services provided, in collaboration with the technical staff of the institutions (18 HEIs, 14 TEIs, 15 Research Centres), and from September 2001 to December 2002 he was General Manager of CRNET.

From 2000 to 2002 he was an Expert of the Ministries of Development and Education on the planning and implementation of the Information Society Programme

From December 2002 to December 2004 he was Head of the Managing Authority of the Information Society.

In December 2004, he was appointed to the position of special faculty member at the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering in the Network Management & Optimal Design Laboratory (NETMODE).

Since 2014 he has been a member of the Open Government Team of the Open Government Group of the EPISY and from January 2016 to July 2017 he was the coordinator of the Project Management Team for Digital Policy and Open Government as Special Unpaid Advisor to the Minister of Education.

From January 2019 to December 2022 he was Director of the eGovernment Directorate of the E-Government Department of the GRNET.

He is currently a member of the interdisciplinary research group for the Technological, Economic and Strategic Analysis of the Information Society at NTUA, a member of the Board of Directors of EELLAK and national representative of the Greek CreativeCommons licenses.