Founders of Futures Studio Project

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  Noubar Afeyan

  Founding partner

  Co-Founder, Aurora Forum; Founder and CEO, Flagship Pioneering; Scientific Innovator; Co-author of the vision, Discussion Paper “At the Crossroads: A Time for Solutions”; Professional Entrepreneur; Philanthropist. Dr. Noubar Afeyan is Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a unique enterprise that systematically makes breakthrough, ... Learn More

  Co-Founder, Aurora Forum; Founder and CEO, Flagship Pioneering; Scientific Innovator; Co-author of the vision, Discussion Paper "At the Crossroads: A Time for Solutions"; Professional Entrepreneur; Philanthropist.
  
  Dr. Noubar Afeyan is Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a unique enterprise that systematically makes breakthrough, life-science innovations, which improve human health and sustainability. During his 30-year career as inventor, entrepreneur and CEO, Dr. Afeyan co-founded and helped build over 40 successful start-ups. He currently lectures at Harvard Business School. Afeyan was a Senior Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he taught courses on technology-entrepreneurship and innovation. In 2012, Afeyan received Technology Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
  
  Dr. Afeyan is Member of the Corporation (Board of Trustees) of MIT and Member of the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also serves on the boards of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the IDeA Foundation and the UWC Dilijan International School.
  
  In 2008, Afeyan was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an award granted to outstanding Americans who have distinguished themselves as United States citizens and who have enabled their ancestry groups to maintain their identities while becoming integral parts of American life. He was a Great Immigrant honoree of the Carnegie Corporation in 2016.
  
  Dr. Afeyan is engaged in a number of philanthropic initiatives. In 2015, he co-founded the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.

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  Nuné Alekyan

  Founding partner

  Nuné Alekyan has had a successful career in corporate marketing and strategy in Russia and the United Kingdom in Healthcare and Insurance. After completing her corporate career, she became the co-founder of the Centre for Heritage Capitalization, a not-for-profit platform for dialogue between the government, private investors and experts in the ... Learn More

  Nuné Alekyan has had a successful career in corporate marketing and strategy in Russia and the United Kingdom in Healthcare and Insurance. After completing her corporate career, she became the co-founder of the Centre for Heritage Capitalization, a not-for-profit platform for dialogue between the government, private investors and experts in the field revival and reuse of the abandoned architectural heritage of Russia.
  
  Nuné has been involved in developing a strategy for the United World College Dilijan in Armenia at its early stage and contributed to the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.
  
  Since 2017 Ruben Vardanyan, Nuné Alekyan and Noubar Afeyan collaborated extencively in writing the discussion paper “At the Crossroads: A Time for Solutions” to engage people around the world in discussing and shaping our future.
  

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  Pierre Gurdjian

  Founding partner

  Pierre Gurdjian is IDeA Europe Foundation Director. The Foundation develops and implements highly innovative models for country development with significant pilot applications in Armenia. In addition, he is an expert in executive leadership and change management. He is also the President of the Board of Directors of the Université Libre de ... Learn More

  Pierre Gurdjian is IDeA Europe Foundation Director. The Foundation develops and implements highly innovative models for country development with significant pilot applications in Armenia. In addition, he is an expert in executive leadership and change management.
  
  He is also the President of the Board of Directors of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), one of Belgium’s largest universities, Vice President of the Board of Directors at UCB (a listed Belgian biopharmaceutical company), member of the Board of Directors at Lhoist (a Belgian industrial company, world leader in limestone production) and member of the Board of Directors at Ameria Bank (the largest bank in Armenia).
  
  Pierre was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company for 27 years, including 7 years as Managing Partner of the Belgian-Luxemburg office and international responsibility for McKinsey’s Human Capital practice in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
  
  Pierre is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), and past President of YouthStart Belgium and Harvard Club of Belgium. He has also been involved in numerous leadership forums, with an emphasize on building leadership with wisdom. Pierre teaches a graduate course on ‘The CEO Perspective’ at the Solvay Business School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
  
  Moreover, Pierre helped develop the ‘Armenia 2020’ Think Tank and is involved in numerous humanitarian and entrepreneurial initiatives in Europe and Armenia.
  
  Pierre holds a degree in Commercial Engineering from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
  

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  Arman Jilavian

  Founding partner

  Arman Jilavian leads the Armenia 2041 Charitable Foundation as its director. He is also publisher, managing partner and co-founder of MEDIACRAT, one of the most dynamic and fast-growing publishing and advertising groups in Russia. In 2011, he received the Media Manager of Russia Award. A graduate of the Lomonosov Moscow State University with a PhD ... Learn More

  Arman Jilavian leads the Armenia 2041 Charitable Foundation as its director. He is also publisher, managing partner and co-founder of MEDIACRAT, one of the most dynamic and fast-growing publishing and advertising groups in Russia. In 2011, he received the Media Manager of Russia Award. A graduate of the Lomonosov Moscow State University with a PhD in philology, Arman Jilavian has more than 20 years of experience in publishing, communications and media management. In 2015–2020, Arman Jilavian was CEO of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative that transforms the Armenian experience into a global movement based on the philosophy of Gratitude in Action. Today, he supports the Initiative as a member of the Aurora Foundation Board and Founders’ Circle. Being Board Member of the IDeA Charitable Foundation, Co-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.

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  David Tavadian

  Founding partner

  David has spent more than fifteen years in the financial industry, from BCA Research Group to Credit Agricole, Citi and Commerzbank. David graduated from L’École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) de Montréal with a B.A. and an M.Sc. and is a CFA Charter holder. David has lived and worked in Canada, UK, Russia and in the UAE. David fluently ... Learn More

  David has spent more than fifteen years in the financial industry, from BCA Research Group to Credit Agricole, Citi and Commerzbank. David graduated from L’École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) de Montréal with a B.A. and an M.Sc. and is a CFA Charter holder. David has lived and worked in Canada, UK, Russia and in the UAE. David fluently writes and speaks English, French, Russian and Armenian.
  
  davidt@futures-studio.org

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  Ruben Vardanyan

  Founding partner

  Ruben Vardanyan is an Armenian-Russian business leader, social entrepreneur, and venture philanthropist. Together with his spouse, Veronika Zonabend, and partners in various countries, he invests in large-scale, multifaceted projects in the sphere of global education, the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, and solving humanitarian ... Learn More

  Ruben Vardanyan is an Armenian-Russian business leader, social entrepreneur, and venture philanthropist. Together with his spouse, Veronika Zonabend, and partners in various countries, he invests in large-scale, multifaceted projects in the sphere of global education, the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, and solving humanitarian problems. A prominent financier, Ruben is known for both his commercial as well as his deep-reaching philanthropic projects that produce a chain of interconnected changes and create an ‘inclusive ecosystem’ which offers each individual the opportunity to develop and to create, nurturing new talent in the process. 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 outlined his views on the world’s most pressing challenges and the ways to address them, as well as on the future of Armenia and Armenians in the manuscript “At the Crossroads” co-authored in partnership with Nuné Alekyan and with the participation of Noubar Afeyan. This paper gave a kick-start to the project “Armenia-2041” which aims to continue a large-scale public debate about the future of the country and the nation which was triggered back in 2002 within the framework of the “Armenia-2020” project. The targeted outcome of this debate is the design of a long-term development strategy until 2041. To conduct research and host discussions, Ruben and his partners co-founded Futures Studio, an independent non-profit organization, which includes an analytical unit and a discussion platform.
  
  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.

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  Veronika Zonabend

  Founding partner

  Veronika Zonabend is the founding partner and the Chair of the Board of Governors of UWC Dilijan College in Armenia, the first academic institution in Eastern Europe and the CIS to join the United World Colleges network. She sits on the Boards of Trustees at UWC International (UK) and the American University of Armenia and chairs the Board of ... Learn More

  Veronika Zonabend is the founding partner and the Chair of the Board of Governors of UWC Dilijan College in Armenia, the first academic institution in Eastern Europe and the CIS to join the United World Colleges network. She sits on the Boards of Trustees at UWC International (UK) and the American University of Armenia and chairs the Board of Directors at Teach For Armenia Educational Foundation. Veronika is actively involved in philanthropy, focusing primarily on the promotion of global education. Together with her husband, Ruben Vardanyan, she is the founder of the RVVZ Family Foundation and the IDeA Charitable Foundation which implement philanthropic sustainable development projects in Russia and Armenia. They also co-founded Noôdome Membership Club & Space, a platform for establishing a dialogue of people from different fields – business, culture, education, science, and technology.
  
  In the 2000s, she was an entrepreneur and undertook projects within such diverse sectors as Hospitality, Film Distribution and Production. Notable amongst these was the co-production of “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky”, a film that closed the Cannes Festival in 2009. Prior to that, she worked for several years in the banking sector, becoming the Deputy Head of the Foreign Exchange Department of Tveruniversal Bank in 1993. After training as an aeronautical engineer at the Moscow Aviation Institute, she began her career at the Research Institute of Avionics in Russia.
  
  In 2014, the President of the Republic of Armenia awarded Veronika Zonabend the Order of Friendship in recognition of her many contributions to fostering educational development and international collaboration in science and education, as well as for her substantial efforts in building the international school in Dilijan and implementing academic programs.