PIONEER CHOSEN FOR HER TALENTS
By Zain Shauk
Glendale News Press
09/02/23/business/gnp-chamber23.txt
Feb 23 2009
LA
New president of the Armenian American chamber talks strategies
and pressures.
Ani Bedrosian Adaimy was feeling the pressure Thursday as she talked
about her role as the new president of an organization previously
run by males: the Armenian American Chamber of Commerce Greater Los
Angeles chapter.
She stood up and sat down. She shifted from side to side. She
double-checked her facts. She fanned herself.
The responsibility of being the organization’s first woman president,
she said, was not easy to handle.
"It’s a responsibility to make the right choices, to make it easier
for future incoming women as leaders," she said.
Adaimy was elected in December as president of the chapter, which
has more than 400 members, said Armond Aghakhanian, chairman of the
group’s public information and government affairs committee.
Her election was a bold step for an organization that is only in
its 10th year, but it was the right one considering Adaimy’s unique
personality, Aghakhanian said.
"Given our current economic situation, I think she’s kind of a ray
of light that everyone’s looking to see," said Aghakhanian, who was
president of the chapter in 2005.
Adaimy, a Pasadena-based sales representative for LandSafe Title, is
more than just a business leader. She is also known as an energetic
and friendly face in the community, Aghakhanian said.
The 52-year-old was born in Baghdad and moved to Glendale as a
teenager, attending Glendale High School and Glendale Community
College before pursuing a career in business.
She speaks Arabic, Armenian and English, and has been able to connect
with community members of various backgrounds, she said.
Adaimy hadn’t thought of being one of the chapter’s board members
until Aghakhanian approached her in 2005 during a charity event she
was working at for New Horizons Family Center, she said.
"I did not even know what I was getting into at the time," she said.
Since then she has emerged as a leader who the group hopes can help to
inspire more women, as well as men, to succeed in the business world,
Aghakhanian said.
The election of a female president also comes at a time of national
transition, after the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first
biracial president, Aghakhanian said, adding that just as Obama was
the right person to give hope to Americans, Adaimy has the energy to
excite businesspeople in the area.
"We work at a grass-roots level, and we bring hope to businesses,
Armenian and non-Armenian," he said, explaining that close to half
of the chamber’s members are not Armenian. "That energy and that
message of hope together, I think are going to be great, especially
in today’s economy."
One of Adaimy’s goals as president is to continue inspiring women to
participate in business, by recognizing their achievements during
special events, like the group’s third annual luncheon planned for
October.
Previous female honorees have included Lisa Kalustian, chief deputy
director of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Los Angeles office, as well
as Frida Jordan, co-founder of the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
More acknowledgment for successful women, Armenian or non-Armenian,
could help boost business confidence during a time when some women,
and men, might feel discouraged by the business climate, she said.
"If they see them being recognized, I think they’ll want to do a
lot more."
Photo: Ani Bedrosian Adaimy is the new president of the Armenian
American Chamber of Commerce of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter. (Alex
Collins/News-Press)