Press Release: New Members Appointed to AUA Board of Trustees

For Immediate Release

YEREVAN, Armenia —  The American University of Armenia (AUA) has announced the addition of new members to its Board of Trustees: Paul Agbabian, Craig Avedisian, and Paul Boghossian. 

The AUA Board of Trustees is committed to supporting the University and crafting new initiatives that bolster its institutional capacity in higher education. Integral to their mission accomplishment is the Board’s sustained efforts to engage new members and add relevant expertise to further strengthen AUA’s impact in Armenia. 

The new members joining the board bring with them unique approaches that reflect their vast experiences and distinct successes in their respective fields. Below are their brief biographies along with their individual perceptions of their new roles. 

I spend much of my professional life in the Silicon Valley world and it is quite apparent to me that the resources that power the California economy are not what is on the ground but rather what is in the minds of young intellectuals: those people using their education combined with their curiosity to advance our way of life. I hope to help ensure that the education students receive at AUA will be a similar catalyst for the economic and societal advancement of Armenia, and I feel privileged to be able to take some small part in that future.

Paul Agbabian is currently vice president and distinguished engineer at Splunk Corporation in San Francisco. From 2000 to 2020, he held various positions at Symantec Corporation as global chief technology officer and chief architect for its various business units. He holds 15 patents in security and systems management.

His various industry and board affiliations include: board observer, Mocana Corporation; board member, Open Identity Foundation; member, Advisory Board of Standard Bank; and member, Development Committee of the Board of the American University of Armenia. Agbabian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology. 

I am a long-term thinker and hope to help lay the foundation for AUA to grow into a full-fledged, world-class university that will be integral to, and a pillar of, the social and economic fabric of Yerevan and Armenia, all with a view toward supporting Armenia’s most valuable asset, its people. I am looking forward the most to helping expand AUA’s programs and its campus, and doing so in a way that maintains the highest academic standards with respect to its programs and in a responsible and sustainable manner with respect to the campus and its built environment.

Craig Avedisian, J.D., is an experienced litigator specialized in securities and investment fraud. He is the principal at Law Offices of Craig Avedisian, P.C.

Dubbed a litigator with a life-long passion for mass transit and deemed a situational genius by The New Yorker, he is the winner of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s “genius challenge,” a competition for rendering the subway service more efficient. Avedisian, with no ties to the transit industry, emerged as an awardee for his proposition to ease congestion and delays by deploying longer trains and increasing passenger capacity. 

Avedisian holds a Bachelor of Science with honors from Florida Institute of Technology and a Juris Doctor from Boston University.

At my home institution, New York University, I’ve had the good fortune to have built an academic program of exceptional scholarly quality. I hope to be able to use my experience to contribute toward making AUA a world-class research university.

Dr. Boghossian is a Julius Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University and has served as chair of the Philosophy department in 1994-2004. He is also the director of the New York Institute of Philosophy and distinguished research professor of philosophy at the University of Birmingham. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. 

He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; Magdalen College, University of Oxford; the School of Advanced Study of the University of London; and the Australian National University (Canberra). He has served on the Strategic Advisory Board of University of London’s School of Advanced Study and serves on the Educational Policy Committee of the Board of the American University of Armenia.

Boghossian holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Trent University in Ontario, Canada, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton University. 

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values. 

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