2024 APRI Forum: Building Tomorrow

Armen Grigoryan is the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia. He has published several analytical articles on Civilnet, Mediamax and EVN report news sites on democratization of Armenia, civil society development, economic-political, as well as geopolitical topics. He studied at the Faculty of International Relations at Yerevan State University as well as the Department of Political Science and International Affaris at the American University of Armenia. He has previously been a visiting lecturer at the Armenian-Russian (Slavonic) University.

Jimmy Wales is a American-British Internet entrepreneur best known for founding Wikipedia.org, as well as other wiki-related organizations, including the charitable organization Wikimedia Foundation, and the for-profit company Fandom. Wales received his Bachelor’s degree in finance from Auburn University and his Master’s in finance from University of Alabama. He was appointed a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2005 and in 2006, he joined the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization Creative Commons. In January of 2001, Wales started Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit and today Wikipedia and its sister projects are among the top-five most visited sites on the web. In mid-2003, Wales set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida, to support Wikipedia.org. The Foundation, now based in downtown San Francisco, focusses on fundraising, technology, and programming relating to the expansion of Wikipedia. Wales now sits on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, and as founder continues to act as a key spokesperson. In 2004, Wales co-founded Fandom (then called Wikia), which enables groups of people to share information and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Wikia’s community-created wikis range from video games and movies to finance and environmental issues. In 2007, The World Economic Forum recognized Wales as one of the “Young Global Leaders.” This prestigious award acknowledges the top 250 young leaders for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society and their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. In addition, Wales received the “Time 100 Award” in 2006, as he was named one of the world’s most influential people in the “Scientists & Thinkers” category. In 2013, he joined the board of the Forum of Young Global Leaders. In December, 2013, Wales was awarded the UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal in Copenhagen, Denmark at a conference on “”An Open World”” to celebrate to 100th anniversary of Niels Bohr’s atomic theory. In February 2014, Wales was named one of “”25 Web Superstars”” by The Daily Telegraph.

Colonel Zhirayr Amirkhanyan was born on February 9, 1978, in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1995 he enrolled to the “Higher Military Multipurpose Command School” later to be known as “Military University after Vazgen Sargsyan”. Following his commissioning as a lieutenant, Zhirayr Amirkhanyan was assigned to continue his military service in the same establishment, as an instructor in Combat Engineer Chair. In 2002 Zhirayr Amirkhanyan moved to the Military Industrial Department of Armenian MoD to take the position of senior officer at modernization branch. This tour of his military career saw him being promoted to Captain in 2003 and participating in “International Captain Course” in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2005, “Junior Staff Officer Course” in Liptovski Mikulash, Slovakia the same year, and “Instructors Training Course” a year after in Vishkov, Czech Republic. In late 2006, following his promotion to Major, Zhirayr Amirkhanyan transferred to the Defense Policy Department of Armenian MoD, where he was put in charge of Armenia-NATO military cooperation and defense reform. In this capacity he rose through the ranks to become the Chief of Defence Policy Planning Branch. In 2007 Zhirayr Amirkhanyan completed the “CIMIC Course” at SWEDINT, Sweden, and “Arms Control Course” RAF Henlow, UK. In 2008 Zhirayr Amirkhanyan attended “Defense Transformation Course” at CCMR, NPS, Monterey, CA, USA, following which he was included in the process of Armenian Strategic Defense Review. In 2011 Zhirayr Amirkhanyan graduated from “International Defense Recourses Management Course” at DRMI, NPS, Monterey, CA, USA. Over the period of April 2013 – July 2015, Colonel Amirkhanyan completed distance education program at U.S. Army War College (Carlisle Barracks, PA) and was awarded the U.S. Army War College diploma and Masters of Strategic Studies degree, as well as concurrently was promoted to full colonel. He was also the officer of primary responsibility in the conduct of the second iteration of the nation’s Strategic Defense Review (2014–16), and represented Armenia at NATO/Partners Chiefs of Transformation community. Over the period from 2017 to 2019 Zhirayr Amirkhanyan attended Senior Strategic Leader Course at the Defense academy of the United Kingdom (Shrivenham, UK), International Strategic Symposium in Beijing, PRC, “Countering Transnational Threats Senior Executive Seminar” at NESA Center, Washington, DC, as well as Doctrine Development Workshop at Development, Concepts, and Doctrine Centre, Shrivenham (UK). Currently as a Ph.D. candidate, he is studying (distance education) at the Department of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, with the area of research focused on military reform in the former Soviet Union nations. In this capacity, he is writing a dissertation entitled “The Reasons for Faltering of Western-style Defense Reform in Post-Soviet Space: Case Study of Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia.” Upon completion of the resident part of doctoral studies (2020–22) and return to Armenia, on January 2023 he was appointed to the position of Assistant (for military reform) to the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, Republic of Armenia.

Vassilis Maragos is the Ambassador of the EU to Armenia. He was the Head of Unit for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Eastern Partnership in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. Vassilis Maragos served in the EU Delegations in Sofia and Skopje between 1996 and 2005. Since 2005 he held various posts related to enlargement policy and regional cooperation in South-East Europe. Vassilis Maragos was born in Athens in 1963. He studied law and political science and holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Athens and a MA in International Politics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Narek Mkrtchyan has been the minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia since 2021. From 2018 to 2021, he was a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. Narek Mkrtchyan has a Candidate of Historical Sciences. He has previously been a professor at Yerevan State University, Faculty of History, and participated in a number of research projects, conferences at prestigious universities and research centers in the USA, Germany, France, Norway, Iceland, Estonia, Georgia. He is also the author of one collective monograph and 18 scientific articles published in Armenian and international prestigious journals.

Faisal J. Abbas is the Editor-in-Chief of the Riyadh-based leading Middle East English language daily, Arab News. Under his leadership, Arab News (established 1975) relaunched with a more global, more digital direction. It has expanded its international presence through a large network of correspondents and a number of regional bureaus across the world. Prior to joining the newspaper in 2016, Abbas has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Dubai-based English language service of Al Arabiya News Channel. Abbas is a renowned columnist on Arab-international affairs and has also conducted interviews with a number of world leaders. He appears regularly on international media to comment on regional affairs. Abbas has previously written for The Huffington Post and worked with both Asharq Al Awsat and Al Hayat pan-Arab dailies, Future Television of Lebanon and the International Resource Journal in London. He has been the recipient of many media awards, including the Next Century Foundation’s Cutting-Edge Award (2009) for efforts in bridging the communication gap between the West and the Arab World and British Council’s UK alumni “Social Impact” award in Saudi Arabia (2017). He holds a master’s degree from the University of Westminster and a bachelor degree from the Lebanese American University. He is also a graduate of the Executive Education Program of the Harvard Kennedy School, where he studied Global Leadership and Public Policy. Abbas is a member of the editorial board of Al Arabiya News Channel, an associate fellow of the Cambridge Union Society and a member of the British Society of Authors. In 2017, he published his first Arabic book called ‘Arabi/Englizi’ which describes London through Arab eyes.

Hakob Abrahamyan is the Assistant to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia. He is overseeing the development of the Armenia Transformation Strategy, which is a long-term, apolitical, high-level umbrella strategy led by the state and serving as the main strategic agenda for Armenia. ATS aims to become an all-Armenian agenda which ensures the leapfrog development of Armenia.

Despoina-Ino Afentouli is the Executive Director of the Institute of International Relations, Greece’s leading research institute affiliated to the Department of International and European Studies at Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences. During 2002-2022, she served as Program Manager at NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. In this capacity she was responsible for the implementation of the communication strategy of the organisation towards the member states of the Southern Flank as well as towards the partner countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Prior to joining NATO she was a journalist specialised in foreign affairs and she worked for Greek media outlets. She studied Law at the University of Athens and Political Science and Communication at the University of Paris-1 Sorbonne. She is the author of three books and numerous articles.

Gagik Aghajanyan is the CEO of APAVEN. APAVEN is a big Freight Forwarding company, having its network of offices abroad, complete and advanced technical equipment, and a huge client and partner base.

Bernise Ang is Chief Alchemist at Zeroth Labs, which works to deepen our understanding of complex systems so as to inform interventions to wicked problems confronting our world today. She leads research at Zeroth Labs, using methods from complexity science such as network theory and agent-based modelling to better understand problems such as climate change, inequality, and others. Her past lives include corporate finance in private equity, and youth activist nonprofit work in Singapore. Bernise is a Fellow at the National University of Singapore, an Obama Scholar, and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Karen joined Amber Capital in 2012 in the Yerevan team as Chief Operating Officer. Since 2022 Karen is an energy leaf of EU-Armenia SME Fund (Fund) – private equity fund managed by Amber Capital and CEO of Solis LLC – solar holding company established by the Fund with the total capacity of 33 MW. Prior to joining Amber Capital, Karen worked as a consultant for IFIs, including EBRD, IFC, ADB and KFW. Karen finished the Diploma Program in Financial Strategy from the University of Oxford (Said Business School), and has an MSc in Energy Finance from the State Engineering University of Armenia.

Ashot Arzumanyan is co-founder and partner at SmartGateVC, a pre-seed/seed venture capital firm based in California and Armenia that invests in artificial intelligence. He works daily with entrepreneurs, helping them to drive their innovative companies to the next level. Notable portfolio companies include SuperAnnotate (the world fastest platform and services for training AI) and Deep Origin (computational drug discovery at quantum accuracy). Ashot has extensive experience in mentorship, investment advisory and deal structuring for companies across many sectors, as well as consulting on finance, strategy, performance management and business valuation. He holds a PhD in economics from Yerevan State University.