Armenian Entrepreneurial Leadership Summit
The Opportunity
You've built a business that works.
There is momentum.
The foundation is solid.
Now the challenge changes: it can start to feel like all progress depends on you. The top constraint is rarely product or ambition. It’s building a team that carries more of the load, trust that speeds up decisions, and influence that opens more doors.
We Seek Founders
Ready to Grow
This Summit is for leaders who are seeing success, building something enduring, and ready to invest in their own growth to grow their business.
Capability is assumed.
Engagement is essential.
You'll leave the Summit ready to:
STRENGTHEN TRUST WHERE IT MATTERS MOST
- with key investors, team members, and customers.
BUILD TEAMS THAT OWN DECISIONS AND OUTCOMES
- paving the way for your people to lead.
EXPAND REACH BEYOND YOUR CURRENT MARKET
- and lead the shifts required to do it.
LEARN FASTER FROM FAILURE AND SUCCESS
- and make learning central to your culture.
What Makes This Summit Different
This is not a conference.
It’s not a pitch event.
It’s not a tactics workshop.
It’s an expertly designed immersive experience: a small group of founders working on real situations together — testing decisions, sharpening judgment, and learning with peers who understand the stakes.
Armenian Entrepreneurial Leadership Summit
The Right Environment
Changes What's Possible
Join us in northern Armenia's Debet Canyon at Concept Hotel — stunning views, great food, and an unhurried pace allow for honest conversation, bold thinking, and real connection.
Make room for the commitments that matter most — to your vision, your team, and the people betting on you.
Summit Details
LOCATION
Debet, Lori Province
Concept Hotel by COAF
SCHEDULE
Program Launch
Thursday 22 October - 17:00
Program Close
Saturday 24 October - 17:00
Group Dinners
Thursday and Friday Evening
COSTS
- Conference fees and meals are covered by the J. Barkev M. Kassarjian Charitable Trust.
- Participants are responsible for travel and lodging. Optional round-trip group transportation between Yerevan and the hotel will be provided.
Hosts
The J. Barkev M. Kassarjian Charitable Trust
Our mission is to strengthen the Armenian entrepreneurial ecosystem by investing in founders and educators who shape enduring economic and human impact.
What We Believe
Armenia's greatest entrepreneurial advantage isn't found in solo genius — it's cultivated through ensemble leadership. By supporting case method teaching (based on Armenian entrepreneurs and companies), human-centered leadership development, and holistic learning experiences in Armenia's academic and entrepreneurial communities, we're building a generation of founders who lead as voracious learners, develop high-performing teams, and create companies with lasting impact.
Established in honor of J. Barkev M. Kassarjian - educator, business advisor, and champion of original thinking.
“BUILD SOMETHING THAT WOULD NOT EXIST IF YOU DIDN'T BUILD IT."
- J.B. Kassarjian
In life, J.B. Kassarjian developed entrepreneurs and business leaders from Boston to Shanghai. He saw the role of the entrepreneur as the leader of an ensemble, all improvising together to create something beautiful.
Performance of a Lifetime
We bring to the Armenian entrepreneurial ecosystem a 25-year track record of growing leaders inside Google, Pfizer, Infosys, American Express, and hundreds of other demanding organizations.
We don't lecture. We don't do theory. We engage accomplished entrepreneurs in working through their real challenges — together — and building the leadership needed to drive what’s next.
The capabilities at the heart of this Summit emerged directly from conversations with Armenian VCs and founders who told us what separates the entrepreneurs who break through from those who plateau. We listened. This Summit is our response.
A letter from the CEO
I've spent the better part of this past year sitting across from founders from Yerevan to Silicon Valley. Listening to what it actually takes to build something from nothing — and what gets in the way of sustainable growth.
Armenian entrepreneurs have something more than most.
There's a drive that goes beyond the business. Building an Armenian company is connected to building the country's global impact. That's purpose.
And it's pressure: The moment what you built actually has to scale, the game changes completely. Most founders (and Fortune 50 execs) aren't ready for what comes next. Not because they lack intelligence or drive. But because what got them to this moment will not take them much further.
This is what J.B. challenged thousands of leaders to do: grow your business by growing yourself and those you lead.
That's the work of this Summit. I hope you'll join us.
Maureen Kelly