AGBU Creates Council of Trustees and Elects Eight New Board of Directors

On December 9, 2006, the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) voted to establish a Council of Trustees in addition to its time-honored Board of Directors at the 84th General Assembly convened at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris, France. The new Council of Trustees will be comprised of five senior members of its Central Board of Directors, including former Central Board of Directors members Louise Manoogian Simone, Nazar Nazarian, Sarkis Demirdjian, and Karnig Yacoubian, Richard Manoogian, as well as the President of the Union, Berge Setrakian.

AGBU is also pleased to announce the addition of eight new, dynamic members to its Central Board of Directors. Newly elected members are Yervant Demirjian of the United States, Nazareth Festekjian of the United States, Vahé Gabrache of Switzerland, Sarkis Jebejian of the United States, Ruben Kechichian of Argentina, Levon Nazarian of the United States, Berge Papazian of Canada and Vasken Yacoubian of Syria.

Berge Setrakian of the United States will continue as President of the Central Board of Directors and the nine sitting members will carry on their tenures on the Central Board. They are M. Michael Ansour of the United States, Carol Bagdasarian Aslanian of the United States, Aris Atamian of France, Joseph Basralian of the United States, Arshavir Gundjian of Canada, Levon Kebabjian of France, Sam Simonian of the United States, Sinan Sinanian of the United States, and Dickran Tevrizian of the United States.

Yervant Demirjian has recently been elected as a Director and a Board Member of Interaudi Bank New York and was also appointed as the Managing Director of the Bank. Prior to Interaudi Bank, Mr. Demirjian was a Director and the Vice Chairman of Cedars Bank in California. Before he started his banking career, Mr. Demirjian was a Real Estate Developer in Los Angeles California dealing in both the commercial and housing sector. Mr. Demirjian has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the AGBU Manoogian Demirdjian School in Los Angeles, California from 1991-2002. Mr. Demirjian holds an M.B.A. from California’s Pepperdine University.

Nazareth A. Festekjian is a Managing Director in Citigroup’s Fixed Income Division and is the head of the Global Capital Markets Products Group. Mr. Festekjian joined Salomon Brothers in 1992 in the Structured Finance group, focusing on new products. Prior to joining Salomon, he was a Managing Director at Moody’s Investors Service responsible for rating asset-backed securities. Mr. Festekjian is a graduate of the AGBU Hovagimian Manoogian School in Lebanon and received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the American University of Beirut, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Living in Geneva (Switzerland), Vahé Gabrache is the CEO of Cofinor SA, as well as the owner with his family of the Société Gabrache SA, a hotel and real estate company. He is also a controller for the Genevese Liberal Party of Pregny-Chambésy. Mr. Gabrache has been President of the Armenian Union of Switzerland for the past 20 years. Mr. Gabrache presides over various Swiss Armenian foundations, including the Diran and Charles Philippossian Foundation, the Armenia Foundation, and the St. Gregory The Illuminator Foundation, and serves on the board of the Topalian Foundation. Mr. Gabrache holds an MBA degree from Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sarkis Jebejian is a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, an international law firm with approximately 450 attorneys. Mr. Jebejian practices corporate law, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, both domestic and cross-border. He is based in New York and has spent substantial time in the firm’s London and Hong Kong offices, and has recently focused on clients in the defense, healthcare and leisure industries. Mr. Jebejian is a Contributing Editor of the International Financial Law Review, and graduated from Columbia University with degrees in Economics and Law. Mr. Jebejian resides in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ruben Kechichian is a businessman and currently Chairman of the AGBU Buenos Aires Chapter. He has been actively engaged in Armenian organizations, and particularly in AGBU, since his youth. Beginning in 1963, for 10 consecutive years, he served as Chairman of the AGBU Armenian Youth Association (AYA) in Buenos Aires. Mr. Kechichian has served on the Chapter’s Executive Committee since 1973 in various capacities. Mr. Kechichian also served as South American Chairman of AYA and member of the AYA World Committee.

Levon Nazarian is a Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Radiology and the Residency Program Director at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a fellow of the American College of Radiology, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, and the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound. He serves on the editorial boards of several medical journals, including Radiology, American Journal of Roentgenology and Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. He helped to establish the Ultrasound Training Center in Armenia and oversees the training program for the doctors from Armenia studying abroad. Dr. Nazarian is a graduate of Harvard College and Cornell University Medical College. He resides in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Berge Papazian is a Barrister and Solicitor, as well as the Managing Partner of Papazian, Heisey and Myers LLP, a law firm based in Toronto, Canada. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel for services rendered to the Province of Ontario and in 1995 was certified as a Specialist in Civil Litigation by the Law Society of Upper Canada. Mr. Papazian has been a member of the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and has acted as Chairperson of the Insurance Advisory Board for the Province of Ontario. Mr. Papazian is also Director and Corporate Secretary of Burger King in Canada. Since 2003, he has served as President of AGBU Armen-Ontario.

Vasken Yacoubian is Managing Director and owner of Leon A. Yacoubian Contracting, as well as the Chief Technical Officer and partner of Puzant & Leon Yacoubian Trading and Contracting based in Syria. Mr. Yacoubian has a long history of involvement within the Armenian community of Syria, particularly AGBU. Serving in various capacities in the past, Mr. Yacoubian is presently Chairman of the AGBU AYA Damascus Executive Committee and is chairing the Executive Body of the Armenian Orthodox Church Diocese of Damascus. Mr. Yacoubian holds a BS in Civil Engineering degree from the University of Illinois.

To view the press release in Armenian, please click on the following link: https://agbu.org/pdfs/84th_GA_elections.pdf