About Us
The ARMENIA 2041 Foundation, established by Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan, logically continues the Founders’ efforts to strengthen Armenia and Global Armenian Nation.
ARMENIA 2041, as a platform, is comprised of a number of projects designed to secure Armenia’s future collectively and transform the country into a prosperous and progressive state, able to take its rightful place on the world stage. It strives to create a common framework of understanding around the sustainable development of Armenia as a country and Armenians as a nation. At a time of great uncertainty and urgent challenges, the initiative seeks to foster an international dialogue that can lead to a mutual understanding on a future vision of Armenia’s development.
As part of this collective initiative, a list of 15 goals has been developed, with inputs from more than 300 experts, to serve as pillars for Armenia’s development. The FUTURE ARMENIAN initiative, now as an independent foundation, has been established as a result of this effort.
Dr. Noubar Afeyan
Dr. Noubar Afeyan is founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a company that conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life science platform companies to transform human health and sustainability. An entrepreneur and biochemical engineer, Dr. Afeyan holds more than 100 patents and has co-founded and helped build more than 60 life science and technology startups during his 33-year career. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna, the pioneering messenger RNA vaccine company addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic, and serves on the boards of several private and public companies.
A fervent believer that entrepreneurship involves skills and practices that can be professionalized and taught, Dr. Afeyan has been a Lecturer at Harvard Business School and Senior Lecturer at MIT where he taught technology-entrepreneurship and innovation for more than two decades. He received a Technology Pioneer 2012 award from the World Economic Forum (WEF), was awarded the National Order of Merit from his native Lebanon in 2021, a Great Immigrant honor from the Carnegie Corporation in 2016, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2008.
Dr. Afeyan is a member of the Corporation of MIT (the Institute’s governing body) and a member of the board of trustees for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Together with his partners, Noubar has launched and supported philanthropic projects including the IDeA Foundation, UWC Dilijan School, FAST, and the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity to raise awareness of the world’s most pressing humanitarian problems. Previously, he was a co-founder and board member of the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, a private-public partnership dedicated to promoting economic development in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia.
A passionate advocate of the contributions of immigrants to economic and scientific progress, Dr. Afeyan received the Appeal of Conscience Award in 2020 and the Golden Door Award in 2017 from the International Institute of New England, in honor of his outstanding contributions to American society as a U.S citizen of foreign birth.
Ruben Vardanyan
Ruben Vardanyan is a Russian business leader, social entrepreneur and venture philanthropist of Armenian origin, Co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. He and his wife Veronika invest in large-scale multifaceted projects in the sphere of global education, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and solving humanitarian problems. Ruben and his family, together with partners from various countries, have invested about $1.5 bln in projects all over the world developing a commercial approach that relies on involving blended financing to find solutions to social problems. Among these projects are the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology, SKOLKOVO Business School in Russia and the United World College Dilijan in Armenia, programs for tourism and urban development, as well as the preservation of cultural and historical heritage in Armenia and abroad, commercial, research and educational projects connected with wealthcare and succession planning, socio-entrepreneurial projects aimed at professionalization of philanthropy, the ecological platform and many others.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ruben was part of a group that initiated a public discussion of the future of Russia and Armenia. Together with other professional managers, in 1999 he founded the “Club 2015” in Moscow, and in 2002, together with the American inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist of Armenian origin Noubar Afeyan and other partners, he launched the “Armenia-2020” project. Many of today’s development projects initiated by Ruben and his partners are a direct result of these two initiatives.
Ruben has received many awards, both in Russia and on the international stage, for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic activities. Among them are the AIB Presidential Award for contributions to education and the Common Ground Awards, which is awarded by the international nonprofit organization Search for Common Ground to honor outstanding accomplishments in conflict resolution, negotiation, community building, and peace building. In 2001, Fortune magazine included him in the list of “25 rising stars of the new generation,” and the World Economic Forum named him one of the “100 global leaders of tomorrow.” Ruben is a holder of the orders of St. Gregory the Illuminator (the highest award of the Armenian Apostolic Church) and St. Mesrop Mashtots, awarded to him in recognition of many contributions to defending Armenia’s national interests and extensive and productive work for the country’s benefit.
Dr. Noubar Afeyan
Dr. Noubar Afeyan is founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a company that conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life science platform companies to transform human health and sustainability. An entrepreneur and biochemical engineer, Dr. Afeyan holds more than 100 patents and has co-founded and helped build more than 60 life science and technology startups during his 33-year career. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna, the pioneering messenger RNA vaccine company addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic, and serves on the boards of several private and public companies.
A fervent believer that entrepreneurship involves skills and practices that can be professionalized and taught, Dr. Afeyan has been a Lecturer at Harvard Business School and Senior Lecturer at MIT where he taught technology-entrepreneurship and innovation for more than two decades. He received a Technology Pioneer 2012 award from the World Economic Forum (WEF), was awarded the National Order of Merit from his native Lebanon in 2021, a Great Immigrant honor from the Carnegie Corporation in 2016, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2008.
Dr. Afeyan is a member of the Corporation of MIT (the Institute’s governing body) and a member of the board of trustees for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Together with his partners, Noubar has launched and supported philanthropic projects including the IDeA Foundation, UWC Dilijan School, FAST, and the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity to raise awareness of the world’s most pressing humanitarian problems. Previously, he was a co-founder and board member of the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, a private-public partnership dedicated to promoting economic development in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia.
A passionate advocate of the contributions of immigrants to economic and scientific progress, Dr. Afeyan received the Appeal of Conscience Award in 2020 and the Golden Door Award in 2017 from the International Institute of New England, in honor of his outstanding contributions to American society as a U.S citizen of foreign birth.
Armen Mkrtchyan
Armen Mkrtchyan is a Senior Principal at Flagship. He works on a wide range of projects, including health security, institutionalization of AI/ML across the Firm, and supports growth of various Flagship portfolio companies.
Armen joined Flagship from McKinsey & Company where he was a Junior Partner and Co-leader of the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility. He led large corporate transformations, client development efforts, and engagements on strategy and operations with a focus on the impact of artificial intelligence in the automotive, aerospace, and hi-tech/electronics sectors. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Professor at the American University of Armenia. While there, he taught graduate-level software engineering classes and established the Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC), an incubation center to further the knowledge and practice of entrepreneurship in Armenia. As EPIC’s Founding Director, he crafted its vision and goals and developed partnerships.
Armen was awarded a Ph.D. in Aeronautics & Astronautics from MIT and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of North Dakota.
Liana Yordanyan
Liana Yordanyan is Chief Operations Officer of IDeA Foundation and oversees IDeA’s operations striving to achieve organizational excellence. Also, she is the foundation’s Chief Legal Officer. In her practice, Liana advised high profile clients on complex legal issues and multi-million-dollar transactions, negotiated on clients’ behalf, as well as managed numerous cases and trials in a broad range of areas. Throughout her career, she has built and led high performing teams which have provided a comprehensive suite of legal services to major businesses and multinational enterprises.
Liana also advised USAID and the World Bank on lawmaking.
She serves on boards of several organizations with focus on humanitarian causes and professional development.
Liana is admitted to practice law in Armenia (Chamber of Advocates).
Liana holds a Master of Laws degree from Boston University and practised law in the U.S.
Arman Jilavian
Arman Jilavian is the CEO of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative that transforms the Armenian experience into a global movement based on the philosophy of Gratitude in Action. He leads the Armenia 2041 Charitable Foundation as its director. Arman Jilavian has more than 20 years of experience in publishing, communications, and media management, in 2011, he received a Media Manager Award. Being Chair of the IDeA Charitable Foundation Board, Chairman of the Dilijan Development Foundation Board, and Member of the Board of Governors of UWC Dilijan, Arman Jilavian is actively engaged in different development and education projects in Armenia.