Participants
The Business Innovation Forum is expecting to host over 200 participants from the leading sectors of
Armenia and abroad, such as local and international high-tech companies and other industries, state
agencies, educational institutions, diplomatic missions, financial institutions, business agencies,
consulting firms, international organizations, entrepreneurs, media, and etc. For more detailed,
informative and comprehensive discussions the representatives of the Government of the Republic of
Armenia, as well as IT sector, are supposed to participate.
Speakers Day 1
Nov 13
Innovative Eco-Systems
ELENA
DONETS
Elena Donets is a leading figure in the Israeli Entrepreneurship Scene and entrepreneur at heart!
As StarTAU’s CEO She travels internationally to mentor, advise and lecture at Universities on how to build their Entrepreneurial Eco- System, cultivating and motivating student communities to take their first steps into the entrepreneurial world.
Elena holds great experience in working and advising large corporates in how to create Innovation centers and acceleration programs in order to develop connections with the local business community. Such connections help improve branding and marketing strategies and assists them to create new circles of followers.
In addition, as Co -Founder & COO at StartIsrael, Israel’s Entrepreneurship Portal, Elena manages all the operations including: design and development, content management, business development and marketing strategies.
Alexandr
Yesayan
The President of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises
A highly experienced Operations Executive who has demonstrated the ability to lead diverse teams of professionals to new levels of success in a variety of highly competitive market. Strong financial and business qualifications with an impressive track record of more than 10 years of hands-on experience in strategic planning, business unit development, project and product management.Specialties: general management, corporate development, product development, business operations, strategy, product marketing.CoFounder and shareholder of two largest Telecom and IT companies.
Karen Chshmarityan
Karen Chshmarityan is a Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia.
From 1993-1996, he was the material resource deputy of the Republic of Armenia. From 1996-1997, he was a supervising the Division of External Trade of the Ministry of Trade, Services, and Tourism in the Republic of Armenia.
During 2002-2007, he was the Minister of Trade and Economy of Armenia. In May 2007, he became a member of parliament. In 2005, he was awarded the title of “Honorary Citizen”. Holds a PhD from the Institute of National Economy in Yerevan
Karen
Vardanyan
More than 20 years of professional experience in business development, strategy design and implementation, initiative conceptualization, decision-making and implementation • R&D; direct involvement in multi-stake projects with scientific, educational and design institutions, National Assembly, Government of Armenia, local and international NGO’s, bi- and multilateral donors
• Extensive experience in economic development, private investment and export management, information technology industry, hydro energy industry
• Proven capacity of implementing in-depth analysis and development of policies, strategies, and programs in economic and industry fields
• Demonstrated skills in selecting, leading, managing, supervising, and administering large multi - disciplinary and multi-cultural teams of experts
• Proven record in drafting legislation, lobbying, consulting on projects design and implementation
Hayk
Chobanyan
Deputy CEO at the Union of Information Technology Enterprises since January 2014 is a CEO at UITExpo,
Director at Solar PV and termal solutions,is a member of the Board of Directors at the World Information Technology & Services Alliance (WITSA)
and Director at Tavush Spiritual Revival Foundation.
Had been working for more than 8 years as a Director at "Nork" Information Analytical Center" CJSC, Director at "Bavigh Publishing house and as a Sales and Marketing Specialist.
Tigran
Jrbashyan
Mr. Tigran Jrbashyan is а member of Management Board of Ameria bank and Development Director. He has more than 20 years of experience in management, coordination and implementation of large to small scale projects for state, donor and private clients. He is one of the leading experts in Armenia in the fields of strategy development, elaboration of sectorial reform packages, elaboration of legal normative acts and implementation of institutional building activities. He has designed and implemented solutions that have significantly improved performance of the companies by appropriately exploiting enterprise resources, skills and capabilities of human resources as well as increasing efficiency/designing business processes. He has proven skills in management of large project implementation teams and problem solving skills.
Armen
Ashotyan
Minister, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia
In 2005 he graduated from Moscow School of Political studies adjunct to Council of Europe. In 2007 he graduated training courses in Moscow State International University, department of “Management of Global Process”.
From 1999 to 2000 he was a senior laboratory assistant in the department of Forensic Medicine at the Yerevan State Medical University. In 2002-2005 he was an assistant to the rector of the Yerevan State Medical University. After that he was adviser to the rector of YSMU for the society affair.
From 2005 to 2007 he was Deputy of National Assembly of RA (proportional electoral system from the Republican Party of Armenia)
As deputy of National Assembly of RA, he is member of NA RA Standing Committee on Social, Healthcare, Nature protection affairs and NA RA Standing Committee on European Integration. In 2008 he became a chairman of NA RA Standing Committee on standing committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.
VAHAGN POGHOSYAN
Vahagn started his career in high-tech in 1999 Silicon Valley-based EDA startup. In 2003 he received his PhD degree in the field of applied mathematics. Since 2004 together with Enno Wein he founded Instigate – a high-tech incubator and research center based in Yerevan, Armenia. During past 10 years Instigate has spun off multiple SW and HW startups in more than 10 cities of Armenia, Georgia, Germany, Silicon Valley. Since 2007 Vahagn co-founded multiple initiatives targeting improvement of education, with primary focus on IT and Robotics, but also including Arts & Crafts, as well as Sports and Culture. The primary topics of interest for Instigate currently are: Web 3.0 (GGG) technologies and semantical networks; the 3d-printers, CNC machines, UAV and robotics in general; video coding, image processing, AI-augmented applications for security, surveillance and media streaming.
MATT
BARTELSIAN
For almost 20 years Matt has helped build local, regional, and global strategies for some of the world’s most powerful brands. While based in New York, Sydney, Singapore, Shanghai, Warsaw, and Yerevan, Matt has worked with clients such as PicsArt, Monitis, eBay, Monster, Travelocity, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Mercedes Benz, HSBC, The Four Seasons Hotels, Westin Hotels, among others.
Matt is currently based in Yerevan, Armenia where he lives with his wife and four children. He is also the Director of Business Development & Partnerships for Volo and VoloMobile, one of Armenia’s leading innovation outsourcing companies.
Armine Mkrtchyan
Armine Mkrtchyan is an Organizational Development professional with 10+ years’ experience in industries, such as IT, banking, education, etc. working in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. Currently she is the VP Organizational Development in BetConstruct. Being specialized in Organizational Development she has been working with companies to improve their productivity, enhance performance and organizational culture. Mkrtchyan has an MSc in Management and she is pursuing her PhD in Organizational Development. She is backed up with PM and Agile certifications, and also with Yellow Belt for Disciplined Agile Delivery.
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MARINA MKHITARYANN
Marina Mkhitaryan is a development professional with more than 15 years experience managing development programs, media outlets and NGOs.
Marina has a dual degree in Philology and Law from the Yerevan State University. She has also completed a mid-career course on International Law and Legal Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University, US). Since 2011 Marina is the Country Coordinator of Armenian and International Social Innovation Camps. She has designed and managed the InfoVillage national network of community-based telecommunication centers and injected innovation and new tools in the traditionally low-tech development interventions.
Currently she leads the Innovations Lab at UNDP Armenia, managing research and innovation at the newly created social venture incubator.
Speakers Day 2
Nov 14
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
RAFFI
KASSARJIAN
Raffi M. Kassarjian, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Repat Armenia Foundation.
Raffi Kassarjian is Chair, Committee Adjoined to the Board of Converse Bank, serving as part of Mr. Eduardo Eurnekian’s Corporacion America management team in Armenia.
Mr. Kassarjian moved to Armenia in 2008 and held the positions of Chief Commercial Officer and then Chief Executive Officer of iCON Communications, one of the pioneer wireless internet service providers in the country.
Before moving to Armenia, Mr. Kassarjian was Vice President and General Manager at Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), one of the leading solution providers in predictive analytics for financial services, telecommunications and retail.
Mr. Kassarjian holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Business Administration degrees from Stanford University. Mr. Kassarjian was a member of the Board of the Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) in Armenia, and served on the Prime Minister’s Information Technology Development Council.
Emil
Tarasyan
Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia
Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia, Civil Service Council of RA, Ministry of Privatization of RA
2002-2008, Civil Service Council of RA, head of Personnel Roster and Registry Maintenance Department February-June 2008, Chief of Staff, RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development 2008-2014, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Economy of RA From July 9, 2014, Deputy Minister of Economy of the RA Other Information Under the RA Presidential decree awarded with the State Counselor of the 2nd class of the Civil Service of RA. Participated in a number of international specialized courses. Author of 10 scientific publications Served in the RA National Army Good command of Russian and English
Enno
Wein
Instiigate co-founder and president.
ProximusDA GmbH, Instigate CJSC
Arteris, Element CXI, Monterey Design Systems
He has been in the Electronics industry since 1991 with several companies, among others LSI Logic and Infineon in roles from Application Engineer to CTO both in Germany as well as in Silicon Valley.
Mr. Wein holds a Dipl.-Ing (MS) degree in Electrical Engineering, Microelectronics from Technical University Braunschweig, Germany.
Innovation & Education
Mariam
Davtyan
Director at Nokia "mLab ECA"
Public Private Partnership programs design and development.
Management of mLab ECA- regional mobile Application Laboratory for ECA region(NOKIA) project;
Organization of Regional Mobile App competition for the region- Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan.
Development of Operational manuals and mechanisms for Ideas Generation Small grant and Innovation Matching Grant components of World Bank E-society and Innovation for Competitiveness project;
Prepared necessary documents and forms supporting the successful implementation of grant competitions;
Developed approaches/proposals for cooperation with international IT companies (HP, Cisco, Intel, etc.) and donor organizations.
Araksia Martirossian
Founder of IAB International Academy of Business. Araksia is a serial entrepreneur, trainer, master mentor, motivational speaker and entrepreneurial community builder. In 2001 she gave up a career in one of the big auditing firms to start and manage a training company in Armenia.Her company (IAB International Academy of Business) proved to be one of the most successful of its kind in Armenia. She has always been passionate about teaching and mentoring, whether these were MBA students at AUA (American University of Armenia) or aspiring entrepreneurs in different countries. Her special interest is women economic empowerment and confidence building. As the Vice President of Entrepreneurial Community Development she advises and supervises StartUp Cup organizers in many different countries. She has experience of working in diverse countries implementing successful entrepreneurial ecosystem development projects. As the County Manager of the WECREATE project in the LMI region (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos) her responsibilities include: Women Mentor and Master Mentor training and certification,Training and Implementation of Extreme Build-A-Business Weekends, StartUp Academy and other similar programs.
Armen
Mkrtchyan
Assistant Professor, Director of Innovation & Technology Incubation Center at American University of Armenia
During his studies in North Dakota, he received several awards, including, but not limited to, “The Most Innovative Engineering Design” award in 2009 and “Outstanding Student “ award in 2008 and 2009.
He earned his Master's Degree from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research was focused on modeling human interaction with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). He obtained his PhD from the same department.
ARTASHES VARDANYAN
Artashes has joined Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia team in 2014 to design and manage the MIC startup acceleration program. Coming from the dynamic startup world Artashes brought fresh thinking and his hands-on experience in transforming innovative ideas into products. Being startup acceleration manager his aim is to connect startups with mentors and investors and share his experience and knowledge with others. He has already worked with more than 20 startups from US, UK, India, Canada and supported 4 of those startups to raise funds for their startups.
Armen Kocharyan
General manager and co-founder at "VOLO" LLCInternational Center for Agribusiness Research and Education, NATK,, Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory, University Hospital of North Norway
Design, development and implementation of medium and large size software systems, business process automation solution.
• Involved in full cycle of business development which includes, but not limited to, contacts, relations and negotiations management.
Vahram Martirosyan
CEO and Founder of Zangi, Vahram has worked for Armenian and international IT companies like EPAM and Be2. For the last 6 years he specializes in streaming technologies and real time communications. He is the main software architect of Zangi's current technology.
He has over 15 years of the IT industry experience.
Rouben Meschian
Founder of "Cambridge Semantics." corporation
* Lead developer of client-side libraries and infrastructure at Cambridge Semantics.
* Lead developer of a pluggable application framework called Anzo Web Toolkit (AnzoWT), which was partially modeled after the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. All Anzo web-applications run on top of this framework. - Javascript, HTML5, CSS3, RDF, RDFa, SPARQL, OWL
* Lead developer of CViT, a web-based tool used to manage and facilitate the development of models to simulate multiscale cancer growth dynamics. - Java, Javascript, Dojo, SPARQL, OWL, RDF
* Lead developer of Anzo on the Web, a fully customizable web application that allows end users to create dashboards to view and edit linked data. - Javascript, Dojo, jQuery, HighCharts, SPARQL, OWL, RDF
Vahan
Kerobyan
Vahan Kerobyan is a Director at Menu Group UK LTD and has been CEO of Internet Projects Ltd.
He held the position of the CEO of Star trade chain over 2004-2012 and resigned in August, 2012.
Over the past years, he has been developing Menu.am project, about which he stated in his interview to Banks.am in May, 2013.
Manuk
Hergnyan
Manuk Hergnyan has over 15 years experience in consulting, management and entrepreneurship. He is a co-founder and managing partner of the first venture capital firm in Armenia – Granatus Ventures that provides funding, expertise and networks to high tech start ups with core value added activities in Armenia. He is the founding chairman of the Economy and Values (EV) Research Center and the founding managing partner of EV Consulting, a management advisory company serving companies and organizations in CIS countries with offices in Moscow and Yerevan. EV is a partner institute of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness and Performance Centre.
Mr. Hergnyan holds an Executive MBA degree from Oxford University, Ph.D. from Moscow State University and MA in Economics from Yerevan State University. He has been trained in management at Cambridge (UK), Harvard (USA) and Central European Universities (Hungary). He is certified in Balanced Scorecard by The Palladium Group.
Startups & Innovations
Sergey
Avetisyan
Deputy Minister at Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia
Responsible for policy planing and development in tourism, civil aviation, investments and business environment of the Republic of Armenia
Karen
Arabyan
Karen Arabyan is the CEO of Amber Capital CJSC. He has progressive hands on experience in renewable energy and energy efficiency project management and consulting. Specialized in more than 20 international projects, in energy sector such IFC, WB, EBRD, EIB etc
Karen holds impressive experience in management, currently he is managing activities of Amber Capital in Armenia, the investment fund with head quarters in Armenia. Amber Capital is involved in the development of hydro projects (greenfield and refurbishment) in Armenia and Georgia.
Sergey
Tantushyan
Sergey is the Deputy CEO at IDeA Foundation, and is a Strategy professor at the American University of Armenia. He has a management consulting background with 10 years of experience in strategic planning, project implementation and strategy advice, working in New York City, Yerevan and Moscow.Sergey has worked at the Central Bank of Armenia and acted as an expert at the OSCE office in Yerevan. His private sector experience includes management positions in investment and consulting companies in Russia from 2005 to 2007. Back in Armenia Sergey headed the Strategy Development Division of AmeriaBank in Yerevan from 2007 to 2009, and thereafter pursued his MBA in Boston. Before returning to Armenia for the second time in 2012, he worked as an Economist at The Conference Board in New York City.
Hovhannes Toroyan
Head of Research and Strategy at Armenia Group of companies
Global Shapers Community, Ameria Management Advisory
Founding Curator at
Global Shapers Community
Frunzik Voskanyan
National Project Coordinator at the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for Startups in Armenia, UNIDO
The Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for Startups in Armenia, UNIDO,, American University of Armenia, College of Business and Economics,
Sibley International, USAID Enterprise Development and Market Competitiveness (EDMC) Armenia project, American University of Armenia, Extension Department, Japonica Partners
Seda
Muradyan
In 2011 launched Public Journalism Club PJC NGO in Armenia www.pjc.am.
In 2013 launched Media Center (www.media-center.am) project at PJC.
In January 2012, launched first citizen reporting platform for Armenia
In 2013 launched and co-founded Fortune Cup Mobile App for fortune telling.
I have a degree in television journalism from Yerevan State Pedagogical University and MA in journalism from the Caucasus Institute. In addition, I have completed courses at the Radio Nederland Training Center (TV program production) and the University of Florida (New Freedoms in the U.S. Media).
In 2008 I produced a documentary “From Home to Home” that tells the story of Azerbaijanis and Armenians who decided to exchange their villages, right before the start of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (1989), promising to look after the graves left behind.