Alexis Ohanian
Alexis OhanianAlexis Ohanian is a startup founder and investor in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating from UVA in 2005, Alexis and his co-founder Steve Huffman started reddit, which has become one of the most popular social news websites online. After leaving his full-time position at reddit, Alexis focused on his social enterprise Breadpig, an uncorporation for creating (and selling) geeky things with the purpose of making the world suck less. In 2010, Alexis helped launch hipmunk, the most agony-free way to search for a flight or hotel.These days, Alexis is an investor with over fifty tech startups in his portfolio, he sits on the board of reddit inc., is Y Combinator’s Ambassador to the East, co-founder of the non-profit IHAS, and he’s writing a book called Without Your Permission, set to launch in 2013. Along the way, Alexis spoke at TED, spent 3 months living in Yerevan, Armenia as a Kiva Fellow, and was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30.


Vahé Berberian
Vahé Berberian, a painter, author, playwright, director and actor, was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1955. He grew up in Beirut amongst intellectuals and his parents’ home was a meeting place open to friends from the worlds of theater, literature and the arts. After traveling through Eastern and Western Europe, he returned to Lebanon confronted with the onset of the Lebanese Civil War in 1976. He later relocated to Los Angeles, where he lives now. Berberian studied art in both Lebanon and the United States and he received a degree in journalism with honors in 1980. His experiences have brought about over 65 solo and group exhibitions, four one man shows, two published novels, and over a dozen plays written and directed by him, worldwide.


Lara Setrakian
Lara is the CEO, co-founder and Executive Editor of News Deeply. She is an award-winning journalist, strategist and entrepreneur. She spent five years in the Middle East reporting via television, radio and digital platforms for ABC News, Bloomberg Television, the International Herald Tribune, Business Insider and Monocle magazine. Her 2009 coverage of Iran’s election protests and the Arab Awakening of 2011 garnered industry praise. Lara is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, with a degree in government. Lara enjoys a strong yoga practice, reading poetry and cooking vegetarian meals.


Serge Kassardjian
Serge Kassardjian is the COO and Co-Founder of NextRev Commerce, an XR (AR and VR) company helping brands and retailers build immersive commerce solutions. He previously was the Global Head of Media Apps for Google Play and Android. He led global business development efforts with Media companies including Entertainment, Video, Sports, News, Virtual Reality and Cable verticals. He was on the launch team for Daydream Virtual Reality, Android TV and various Nexus devices. He also worked on incubation businesses in Google’s GeoCommerce division, focused on Payments and Offers and was a member of the original Google Wallet launch team doing merchant partnerships. He was a Venture Capital Investor at Globespan Capital Partners and Corporate Development Director in Sony Music’s Global Digital Business. He started his career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. He received his MBA from Harvard and Bachelors and Masters in Engineering from Stanford where he was the President of his class.


Yeva Hyusyan
Yeva is the Co-Founder and CEO of SoloLearn, a global community of mobile code learners engaged in the most entertaining way to learn and simply hangout with each other in the coding world.  With about 3M coder profiles, SoloLearn is becoming a popular spot for young people to improve their competitive ranking in today’s world.
A varied background – ranging from startups (a founder of a startup accelerator), to corporate sales (Microsoft GM), to development assistance (US Government) – has made it certain that anyone’s passion can be encouraged by making things fun!
Yeva holds an MBA from Maastricht School of Management (the Netherlands) and is an Executive Program graduate from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. She is married and has two daughters and a son.  She loves travel, sunny weather, and positive people.


Aram Pakhchanian
Aram Pakhchanian is the Director of the Data Capture Products department at ABBYY, a privately held computer software company. After his graduation from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology he played different roles at ABBYY, including serving as the Deputy Chief of Research and Development, before being promoted to lead product line development. His interests lie in different core technologies related to recognition and applied linguistics, as well as enterprise content management.


Al Eisaian
Al Eisaian is a multiple-exit serial entrepreneur; passionate technologist & technology investor; frequent speaker; avid reader & futurist; and a committed servant-leader. As co-founder and CEO of IntelinAir, a Crop Health & Intelligence company with its innovative product, AGMRI, Al is currently 100% focused on transforming global agriculture through bringing full-season crop performance measurability, intelligence and actionability to growers to significantly reduce waste and increase yields & grower profitability. IntelinAir has been recognized for their industry-leading innovation in 2017 and 2018 by AgFunder, Computer Vision Magazine, and others.
Al’s entire career has had a global nature from his very first job working as an application engineer for Tandon,a hardware startup, to working as a Product & Business Unit Manager for NMB, a global Japanese company, to working as a strategy consultant at USWeb/CKS, a digital strategy consulting company, and then on to a string of acquired startups, from LowerMyBills (acquired by Experian, 2005), Integrien (acquired by VMWare, 2010), IconApps (acquired by Science Inc., 2014) and now IntelinAir. Al earned his BSEE from Oklahoma State and his MBA from Pepperdine University. Al’s diverse and global network is a source of constant innovative ideas and opportunities to serve. Al is also a hiker, yoga practitioner and arts enthusiast.


Marie-Lou Papazian
Marie Lou Papazian is CEO of the Simonian Educational Foundation and the Managing Director of the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan, Armenia. Tumo is a unique not-for-profit facility where thousands of teenagers learn animation, game development, web development and digital media free of charge. In addition to her responsibilities in developing and managing the educational program of the center, she led the design and construction management of the center’s interior architecture and outdoor plaza. Prior to Tumo, Marie Lou cofounded the Education for Development Foundation in 2001, where she led the Three Pomegranates project linking Armenian students to their global peers through web-based educational activities. Previously, Marie Lou was a construction manager for a number of high-rise residential and commercial buildings in New York City, including the Marriott Financial Center Hotel. Marie Lou holds a Master’s Degree in Computing in Education from the Teachers College – Columbia University in New York, a Master’s Degree in Construction Management from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering form the Université St. Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon. She is a member of the Information Technology Council of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.


Sergey Sargsyan
Segey Sargsyan is a political satirist and stand-up comedian, co-founder of ArmComedy political satire news website (2009) which later was evolved into TV show “ArmComedy”. Sergey was born in 1982, in Tbilisi, Georgia and received education at Yerevan State Linguistic University getting a Ph.D. in 2006 in philology. Prior to comedian career, Sergey worked for 7 years in various USAID-projects with IFES, NDI and DynCorp as project coordinator for civil society and political projects.


Sara Anjargolian
Sara Anjargolian is a documentary photographer and lawyer focused on visual storytelling projects that seek to inspire social change. She is a recipient of the Fulbright scholarship and a United Nations award for her photography. Anjargolian has partnered with numerous non-profit organizations to raise awareness on humanitarian causes around the world. Her body of work has been exhibited widely and most recently includes: the story of AIDS and drug-resistant tuberculosis among the Zulu people in South Africa; “How We Live” a photography installation, book and film documenting poverty in Armenia; “Not Here” a project focusing on labor migration from Armenia to Los Angeles; and, “Zenne Dancer” a feature film in Turkey about the honor killing of a gay man by his father (for which she served as the still photographer). Anjargolian graduated summa cum laude from the University of California Los Angeles with a degree in Political Science/Public Policy, and then went on to law school, receiving her law degree from the University of California Berkeley. Anjargolian’s legal career has included serving as a trial lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at the American University of Armenia Law Department, and policy adviser to the Los Angeles City Attorney.


Nairy Ghazourian
Nairy GhazourianNairy Ghazourian is the founder and an active member of The Avanti Woman and President of Avanti Insurance Solutions, that provide a platform to help connect, empower and build women in the areas of Healthcare, Finance, Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy.
As a healthcare professional and an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience she worked in industries ranging from academic research to non-profit, managed care, medicare, policy and pharmaceuticals. In 2006, feeding her entrepreneurial spirit, Nairy left the corporate world and co-founded her own business in medical devices and health education which she sold in 2011 to pursue her current ventures and her passion for humanitarian work.
She holds an active Life & Health license with California Department of Insurance and is a certified and licensed life coach. She is an active member of the National Association of Healthcare Underwriters (NAHU), Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), an associate at the Milken Institute and a past active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American Public Health Association.
Nairy received her undergraduate degrees in French Literature and Biological Sciences from UC Irvine, a master’s degree in Public Health from USC’s Keck School of Medicine and completed her graduate studies (MS) in physiological sciences at UCLA.
She finds inspiration in helping and building people up and lives her life by Stephan Grellet’s quote: "I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."