2024 APRI Forum: Building Tomorrow

Born and raised in Artsakh, Yana embarked on a journey in law, specializing in international law and nonprofit work. Yana’s experience in international law has instilled in her a profound appreciation for grassroots initiatives and community-driven solutions. In recent years, her focus has shifted towards project coordination and management, driven by a desire to affect tangible change in communities facing adversity. Currently, Yana serves as the community manager for the AGBU LEAP (Learn to Earn Artsakh Program), a transformative initiative aimed at enhancing employment and business skills for refugees and displaced persons from Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ronit Avni is an entrepreneur and Peabody award-winning producer operating at the intersection of tech, media, workforce development, green jobs and social impact. She is founder and CEO of Localized, a career tech platform that connects university students and fresh graduates in emerging markets with industry experts to guide them and employers to hire them. The platform is focused on careers of the future from AI to carbon analysis. The strongest global companies including Google, PayPal, Amazon, Unilever and Cisco and the world’s leading educational institutions across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America use Localized. Localized also hosts the largest Green Talent Forum for young job seekers globally. Previously, Ronit founded and led the media organization, Just Vision, which creates documentary films, news analysis and public education campaigns. She has won dozens of media prizes including the Puma Creative Impact Award, and her team’s work was featured in nearly every major news outlet and viewed by tens of millions of people on TV, online and in influential settings from TED to the United Nations. Named a Young Global Leader through the World Economic Forum in 2009, Ronit sits on the jury of the Global Teacher Prize. She recently published a chapter in both the Routledge International Handbook of Diaspora Diplomacy and the IOM’s The Future of Diasporas entitled Using Technology to Channel Diaspora Knowledge Remittances at Scale. Ronit is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s current Global Future Council (GFC) on the Future of Job Creation Born and raised in Montreal, Ronit began her career at WITNESS.org, which advises activists and technology companies on the ethical and strategic uses of video and digital technology for human rights. She co-edited the book, “Video for Change – A Guide for Advocacy and Activism” with WITNESS and now sits on the WITNESS Advisory Council.

Mustafa Aydın is a Professor of International Relations at Kadir Has University (Istanbul), and the President of the International Relations Council of Turkey. Previously, he worked at Ankara University (1994-2005), Economy and Technology University (2005-2009) and Kadir Has University (since 2010), where he served as the Rector of the University (2010-2018). He was a visiting researcher at Michigan (1998), Harvard (2002, Fulbright fellow), and Athens (2003, Onassis Fellow) universities, as well as at the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies (1999, UNESCO Fellow), the EU Institute for Security Studies (2003), and the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (2018). He is a member of the International Studies Association, Turkish Atlantic Council, European Leadership Network, Greek-Turkish Forum, and European Academy of Art and Sciences. Prof. Aydın’s areas of interest include international politics, foreign policy analysis, security issues related to the Caucasus, the Black Sea, the Middle East, and Turkish foreign and security policies.

Tigran Bakaryan received his bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Yerevan State University (YSU). He did his Ph.D. in Fourier Analysis at the Institute of Mathematics of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. Later, he worked as a junior researcher at the Institute of Mathematics and concurrently as a teaching associate at the American University of Armenia (AUA) and Yerevan State University (YSU). In 2018, he joined King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as a postdoctoral fellow and worked in the direction of partial differential equations with the stress on Mean-Field Game theory. In 2023, he joined the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as a postdoctoral research associate. At UIUC, Tigran Bakaryan focused on applied problems related to multi-agent autonomous systems. Currently, he is a research scientist at the Center for Scientific Innovation Education (CSIE) and at the Institute of Mathematics of NAS RA. His research interests are in game theory, control theory, multi-agent autonomous systems, and related areas.

Nvard Chalikyan is a Research Fellow at Applied Policy Research Institute (APRI Armenia). Her areas of interest are the geopolitics of South Caucasus, Armenia-India relations as well as the US-Russia relations. Nvard is an international relations specialist, with over 10 years of professional experience, working in think tanks in Armenia and internationally. She has published articles in Armenian and international outlets. Ms. Chalikyan holds MPhil in politics and international studies from the University of Cambridge, and MA in political science from the American University of Armenia.

Colonel Bruno Cunat is an air force officer who has served for 30 years. He is a fighter pilot by trade. He has an operational background on Mirage 2000 and has been deployed in the Balkans and in the Baltic states. He has also commanded two different air force squadrons and a joint base (2500 personnels). He has graduated from the « Ecole de Guerre » (2008) and the UK Higher Command and Staff Course (HCSC 2018). Overall he has spent five years in the UK, has a pilot in the RAF (19 Sqn) ,and as the liaison officier for the French Air Force Chief of staff in the Ministry of Defence. As a staff officer, he has also an interagency experience in SGDSN (Prime Minister’s administration), and he is now deeply involved in the development of defense cooperation with partners in the euro-atlantic area. He is married and has three children. He enjoys running, crossfit as an amateur, and to watch rugby in a pub with good friends and a beer.

Tatiana is a communications and sustainability expert and advisor. She is head of business development for Economist Impact’s World Ocean Initiative and serves on the board of several non-profit organisations including The Armenia Project, Alkionides UK, the Armenian Institute and Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Alumni Network.

Georgi Derluguian was born in Krasnodar (1961), educated in Moscow (MGU, African Studies) and served in Mozambique (1980s). He defended his Ph.D. sociology in New York (1994) and worked in Chicago (1997-2010). Since 2011, he teaches sociology at New York University in Abu Dhabi and otherwise lives in Yerevan. His scholarly works have been translated in seventeen languages including German, Korean, Turkish, Arabic, and Polish.

Patrick Armen Elliott is an entrepreneur and consultant from Canada. He has been living in Armenia for three years, working as an interviewer on Civilnet. He is also the CEO and founder of PA Consulting.

Vache Gabrielyan specializes in public administration and economics. He studied at the Yerevan State University and received his Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration from Rutgers University. He has served as Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia (2008-2010), Minister of Finance (2010-2012), Minister-Chief of Government Staff (2013-2014), Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister (May – November 2014), as well as the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, and the Minister of International Economic Integration and Reforms (2014-2018). Effective January, 2019 Dr. Vache Gabrielyan has been appointed as Dean of the Manoogian Simone College of Business and Economics (CBE). Dr. Vache Gabrielyan is the author of a number of scientific papers published in Armenia and abroad.

Alen Amirkhanian is the Director of the American University of Armenia’s (AUA) Acopian Center for the Environment, a position he has held since 2013. In 2023, he became the inaugural Chair of the Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences (ESS) at the AUA Akian College of Science and Engineering. He teaches graduate and undergraduate environmental courses at AUA. Before AUA, he was Senior Vice President of Research at Michael Porter’s Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. He has consulted with the World Bank, UNDP, and the Brookings Institution on energy efficiency as well as economic and urban growth issues. His current academic interests include urban environmental sustainability, “greening” the built environment, and circular economy esp. as it relates to “greening” cities. Alen holds a Masters in City Planning (’97) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Artyom Geghamyan is a legal and policy expert with over 20 years of experience advising governments, companies, and international institutions on regulatory, transactional, and strategic matters related to critical minerals and resource-based industries. He is the Managing Partner of TABIA Legal Solutions, a Yerevan-based legal and advisory firm specializing in energy, infrastructure, and strategic resource transactions. Artyom also serves as the Executive Chairman of the International Chamber of Mines of Armenia (ICMA), where he leads efforts to align Armenia’s resource potential with global sustainability, supply chain resilience, and geopolitical priorities. An attorney admitted to practice in New York and the Republic of Armenia, Artyom brings extensive legal and institutional expertise to structuring investment frameworks, sovereign resource strategies, and regulatory reforms. He previously served as Deputy Minister of Justice of Armenia and was a member of the Constitutional Reform Commission. He holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School and an LL.M. from Indiana University McKinney School of Law, with a focus on international and comparative law.