Saturday, March 20, 2021
NGO CSW65 Parallel Panel: Women in Leadership: Are Institutions Ready for Women’s Success?
Historically, Armenian women have done groundbreaking work as trailblazers in various fields, however, their voices and presence have been sidelined in social and public service spheres. Armenian language and even the shape of Armenia’s modern day map symbolizes that. However, today, Armenia, is struggling to overcome a persistent gender imbalance. During this panel discussion three young Armenian women leaders will discuss the critical importance, prerequisites, challenges and advantages of equal and fair participation of women in the decision-making processes. Additionally, the panel will discuss what innate skills women bring to the negotiation table, the critical importance of women’s role in conflict resolution and what further improvements are needed for a more equal and socially advantageous leadership to improve decision-making processes.
Join this exclusive AIWA at the UN CSW event to learn how women in positions of power can influence strategies enhancing women’s participation in domestic and international decision-making institutions.
Panelists:
Dr. Irina Ghaplanyan: Professor and former Deputy Minister of Environment for the RA, she holds a doctorate degree in political science from the University of Cambridge and currently teaches at the American University of Armenia. Her main areas of expertise are political leadership, states in transition, climate politics, environmental management, gender and gender in conflict as well as security studies. She holds a Master in Diplomatic Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of London and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations from the University of Malta.
Dr. Ghaplanyan has worked in a number of international organizations and think tanks around the world to include UNDP, Georgetown University, Eurasia Foundation, and Chatham House. Irina has been a catalyst for change in the field of sustainable business and social entrepreneurship in Armenia.
Irina was noted for her work in this field and in 2015 was awarded as one of the top social venture entrepreneurs by the Global Good Fund Leadership program in Washington DC.
Dr. Ghaplanyan has a number of academic and media publications, among which the most recent is a Routledge published book titled “Post-Soviet Armenia: The New National Elite and the New National Narrative”.
Arevik Hambardzumyan, CEO & Founding member of ‘’The LOFT’’ centers, is the co-founder/ Executive Director of the project "My Mentor" in Armenia, and served as Director’s Assistant of Russian companies ‘’Citymobile’’ and ‘’Market’’ coordinating the work of human resources and staff management in the Armenian branches.
Journalist and public administration specialist Arevik Hambardzumyan is a Professor at the faculty of Journalism at Yerevan State University, a member of Board of Trustees of Vanadzor State University, Lecturer at Armenian PR association, and member of Armenian Young Women's Association among other consulting and training roles in various cultural and educational projects both in Armenia and elsewhere.
As a result of cooperation with various organizations, she has implemented a number of local and international programs directly related to the self-development of youth, alternative methods of education and cultural influences.
Arevik is a professional handball player, and a member of the Armenian National Handball team from 2008 to 2015. Arevik has one daughter.
Tatevik Revazyan: Director General of Civil Aviation Authority in RA, she is the youngest and the first woman to reach such a position in Armenia. Born in Yerevan, Tatevik’s family moved to Denmark during the dark days of 1990’s when she was a child of 5. At 19 she was hired as one of the youngest staff members at Copenhagen Airport. And since then, she has visited nearly 60 countries through short- and long-term study visits, internships, work abroad, business trips while exploring the world weeks and months at a time with a backpack on her back.
In 2017, Tatevik made the decision to return to Armenia to contribute to the development of the country.She convinced a Silicon Valley based company in aviation-tech to establish a team of developers in Armenia. While busy leading the tech team in Armenia and traveling the world negotiating with airlines, she found herself witnessing the Velvet Revolution which renewed her motivation to do even more.
Before joining the Civil Aviation Authority her main experience was in commercial aviation having served as President at the Permanent Commission in Belgium when the Republic of Armenia held the Presidency at Eurocontrol between 2018-2019. Tatevik was also Director of Global Partnerships for FLYR Labs, San Francisco, and Global Sales and Partnership Manager for Momondo Group, Denmark, among others. These experiences helped her change the Departure Tax Law in Armenia leading to nearly tripling flights to Europe had the Covid-19 not happened. She is leading the country through historic times with a pandemic paralyzing the aviation sector globally, and a war that has placed Armenia under appalling conditions. Now she is busy implementing a major reform inside the authority to ensure that international safety and security measures are met. The Aviation Law is being amended, unwritten processes are being written, the team is being empowered to take action, root-causes of issues are being identified and solved, decisions are now being based on a risk-based approach and much more.
Tatevik has a Double Master’s Degree in Management of Innovation and Business Development and International Management (CEMS) from Stockholm School of Economics and Copenhagen Business School. She was selected by US Embassy in Copenhagen and funded by the US State Department to represent Denmark at the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship program.Tatevik is fluent in Armenian, English, Danish, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish.Tatevik is a proud mother to a baby girl.
Moderators:
Emma Arakelyan is a world-class management consulting executive, angel investor, author, speaker, entrepreneur, philanthropist, coach and professor. She is the CEO and Founder for Orion Worldwide Innovations, LLC. Emma brings more than 20 years of experience in leadership across business and technology, M&A, credentialed by global companies as a Partner at EY (Ernst & Young) and Managing Director at Accenture. Emma is the Co-founding Partner of New York based BAJ Accelerator and Global Partner at INSTILL Venture Capital. Emma operates her multimedia company Open Mind Productions, LLC. She was an adjunct professor at New York University, and is teaching at the Columbia Business School and at the Singularity University. She published her book in 2018 on leadership: “The Business Caring Formula. Building Your New Leadership Lifestyle.” Emma earned a Master’s Degree in Political Economy from Academy of Sciences, Armenia.
Ruzanna Tantushyan is an award-winning communications and public relations professional, with leadership experience in marketing and PR roles across multiple industries including technology, financial and professional services. She has held communications roles in top tier companies including Vonage, NewVoiceMedia and Campbell & Company.
With a background in journalism, Ruzanna’s stories were published in national and international publications and received recognition by the United Nations for Cross Cultural Cooperation.
Ruzanna holds an M.A. in Journalism from DePaul University and M.A. in English and Political Science from Yerevan State Linguistic University. She has served as a board member at AIWA’s Chicago inaugural chapter and now as AIWA’s UN representative in NYC.
