UWC Dilijan College, Armenia

Veronika Zonabend spoke to Tatler about Armenia, the homeland of her husband, impact investor Ruben Vardanyan.

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is a very ambitious project, which requires a lot of constant work to address global problems and challenges

The impact investor and social entrepreneur spoke to TASS about what type of threat the coming demographic crisis poses to Russia, how the future will be about social capitalism and why social and educational projects are so important.

I got one hour with Mr. Vardayan, and wrote as much as I could. He quickly ran me through some of his most proud professional achievements. 

Projects about Armenian history and culture have a remarkable place in 14th Istanbul Biennale that is titled “Salt Water”. Dilijan Art Initiative, which is founded by Ruben Vardanyan and Veronika Zonaben in order to support the cultural development of Dilijan city and Armenia, supports these important projects about the Armenians in Biennial.

One of the prominent figures of Armenian Diaspora, Russian investment banker Ruben Vardanyan is an important entrepreneur and philanthropist. IDeA Foundation (Initiatives for Development of Armenia) that he founded with his wife Veronika Zonabend has the purpose of creating a bright future and a comfortable life style in Armenia with long-term projects. The international school established in Dilijan which has students from 64 countries and “Tatel Revival” which has the purpose of facilitating the cultural and economic development in and around Tatev are the most important projects that were realized by this foundation.

On January 23, businessman and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan gave an interview to the “Public Agenda” program of the Public TV Company of Armenia. Mediamax picked out some ideas expressed during the interview.

With his various initiatives in Armenia, ambitious and requiring large investments, it seems that the entrepreneur, philanthropist, and co-founder of IDeA Foundation Ruben Vardanyan is trying to return to local Armenians the charm and advantages of living with wide prospects and long-term plans.

IDeA Foundation's various projects – UWC Dilijan College, the Tatev Revival program, which began with the construction of the Wings of Tatev cableway, and the large-scale 100 LIVES project, which also includes a multilingual multimedia website and other small and large projects – began from a dream, Vardanyan says.

After the May 24 event at UWC Dilijan College, Co-Founder at IDeA (Initiatives for Development of Armenia) Charitable Foundation Ruben Vardanyan talked to journalists.

Why Russian entrepreneurs are good at creating one-off financial projects but not at producing consistent, global businesses. Ruben Vardanyan headed Troika Dialog for twenty years. Last year the brand ceased to exist. In less than a year, Mr. Vardanyan will say goodbye to the investment business. In this interview with Vedomosti, he talks about what partnership with Sberbank has brought to the former Troika, his personal investments and plans to change the approach to philanthropy in Russia.

The former CEO of Troika Dialog, founder of Skolkovo Business School and partner of investment company Vardanyan, Broitman and Partners speaks about new projects, the logic of current events and prospects.

Ruben Vardanyan scheduled the interview for eight in the morning. He says that he usually works from eight in the morning until eleven at night. Apparently, following the sale of Troika Dialog (in October 2011) and departure from the business of Sberbank CIB (in August 2013), Vardanyan’s work has scarcely slowed down.

An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ruben Vardanyan dislikes speaking about politics and the economy, which is today inseparably tied to politics. This is not only because he is generally very cautious in his statements: he is truly much more interested by what he directly engages in and is able to impact himself.

For a man once called the poster boy of Russian capitalism, Ruben Vardanyan is remarkably relaxed about the crisis erupting around him. Sitting in his office in one of Moscow’s premier office complexes, which he also owns, surrounded by deal trophies and other symbols of his success, Mr Vardanian’s response to the rouble’s collapse and the slide towards recession is typically Russian: it has been worse.

“It’s all relative,” he says, before counting off a list of Russian economic crises of the past quarter century since the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Looking back for 25 years being in this country I can tell you, there are always challenges.”

YEREVAN – One Russian philanthropist has just completed the trial run of a unique investment vehicle: a bus filled with clowns. Ruben Vardanyan, founder of investment bank Troika Dialog, sponsored a visit to Armenia by clown doctor Patch Adams and 20 clowns from around the world this past week. They were joined by Maria Yeliseyeva, founder of Russian children's charity Maria's Children, who added 10 clown participants to the colorful delegation. Yeliseyeva introduced Patch, with whom she has been working on clown trips in Russia for the last 30 years, to Vardanyan at a charity event in November.

Along with husband Ruben Vardanyan, Veronika Zonabend is the founder of Dilijan Art Initiative, which is a new project for the IDeA (Initiatives for Development of Armenia) Charitable Foundation, also set up by Vardanyan and Zonabend.

UWC Dilijan College welcomed 94 new students this year. As of now, 190 students from 63 countries study at the college. In May 2016, UWC Dilijan will have its first graduates, and the college founders are ready to help them continue their education. Mediamax talked to Chair of the Board of Governors of UWC Dilijan College, co-founder of IDeA and Scholae Mundi Charitable Foundations Veronika Zonabend.