Executive Team
DR. ARMEN DER KIUREGHIAN, INTERIM PRESIDENT
Dr. Armen Der Kiureghian is a co-founder of the American University of Armenia (AUA) and has served in many capacities for the University, including as Founding Dean of Engineering from 1991 to 2007, as Interim Provost during the academic year 2011-2012, and as President from 2014 to 2019. He is a Founding Member of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Armenia Corporation. From 1978 until 2015, he served as a faculty member in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, the last 16 years as Taisei Chair Professor of Civil Engineering. His service as Dean of Engineering and Interim Provost of AUA were conducted concurrently with his Berkeley position.
Dr. Der Kiureghian is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and an elected foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of his alma mater, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 1975. Among many other awards, Der Kiureghian is the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Walter L. Huber Research Prize, Freudenthal Medal, Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, and George Winter Medal, and the CERRA Award of the Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association. He is also the recipient of the Movses Khorenatsi Medal from the President of Armenia, the St. Sahak – St. Mesrop Medal from His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch of All Armenians, and the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia for his contributions to advancing education in Armenia.
ASHOT GHAZARYAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS
Ashot Ghazaryan comes to AUA after leading the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) in Armenia for nearly two decades. Ghazaryan spent the last twenty years as Director of the AGBU Armenia. During that time he also served as a member of the Republic of Armenia’s Committee on Humanitarian Projects, the Academic Council of the Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts; the Board of Trustees of the World Bank-funded Social Investment Fund of Armenia; and Friends of the Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra. Prior to leading the AGBU, Ghazaryan headed the Medical Cybernetics Laboratory of the Yerevan Surgical Institute, headed a Department in the Experimental Factory of the Yerevan Physics Institute, and worked as Head of the Supply Department of the Bridge Construction Company of the Armenian Highway Construction Ministry. Ghazaryan holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the State Engineering University of Armenia.
GEVORG GOYUNYAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE
Gevorg Goyunyan is the Vice President of Finance/ Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at AUA. He provides leadership and oversight in the areas of budgeting, financial accounting and reporting of the university with total assets of close to $125M and annual budget of over $12M. Goyunyan is also the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Armenia Corporation – the founder and the US non-profit fund-raising arm of the University. He serves as the key staff person of the University Board of Trustees and its Finance Committee on all finance related matters of the institution. Goyunyan’s responsibilities include oversight of the University investments and endowments of over $100M, management of the external audit processes of the entities in Armenia and in the US, financial management and internal reporting for the academic programs, sponsored research, auxiliary enterprises and administrative functions of the University. He serves as the Chair of the University Tuition Assistance committee and sits on many other committees. He has been with the University for over 20 years in various growing capacities, initially joining the US office as Financial Analyst.
Before joining AUA, he has worked in consulting and financial sectors. He has taught as visiting lecturer at the the Yerevan State University and the Agribusiness Teaching Center.
Goyunyan holds Ph.D. in Economics from Yerevan State University, an MBA from the State University of New York, Binghamton, an MA in Economics from Yerevan State University, and a BA in Business Administration from Haigazian University, Beirut, Lebanon.
GAIANE KHACHATRIAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT
Gaiane Khachatrian has been with the University for over 20 years, operating from the U.S. Office AUA in California.
Prior to joining the Development team, Khachatrian served as the Recruitment and Personnel Manager at AUA. In that capacity, she developed recruitment strategies that enabled the institution to build, support, and retain the culture and talent needed to meet the needs of the growing institution.
Ms. Khachatrian earned her MA degree in Educational Administration (Educational Leadership Program – ELP) from St. Mary’s College of California, and her BA in English Language and Literature in the Department of Romance-Germanic Philology at Yerevan State University (YSU), Yerevan, Armenia. Prior to her move to the United States, she taught English Language and Phonetics to undergraduate students at YSU and served as an advisor on student research papers.
In 2014, she joined the development team as Associate Director of Development, and was promoted to Director of Development in 2017, responsible for developing and executing AUA’s fundraising strategies to meet the financial objectives of AUA to further its mission.