Our friends

Sharmagh works as a fundraiser in the nonprofit sector and lead a team of charity runners. In all projects she strive for a systematic approach and sustainability. 

She likes it when people are responsible for society, country, nature. 

During the war, with a group of fundraisers from Armenia and Russia, Sharmagh joined our Foundation to use her knowledge and experience in fundraising to help raise funds for compensations.

Elena Khachvankyan has more than 15 years of experience in finance, business planning, strategic management, public policy development and consulting.

Elena received her diploma in economics in Yerevan in 2005, passed all the qualification exams of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA, UK), received a diploma in Management and Leadership from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI, UK). Currently Elena is conducting trainings in ACCA Qualification and other professional financial management educational programs.

Having solid knowledge in the field of risk management, since the establishment of the foundation, Еlena has valued the great public importance of the foundation's mission. Unfortunately, insurance has not yet embedded in the culture of Armenia enough to embody the importance of it as a mean of protection and security. It would be highly desirable if the need for such protection never arose, but in our reality, the lack of such a mechanism makes us more vulnerable, less protected.

During the days of the war imposed on us, like many of our compatriots, she took part in many spontaneous initiatives. Through and as a result, she has realized even more the importance of systemic and sustainable solutions to the problems we face. Thus, she became a friend of the Foundation, willingly devoting a significant part of her time and knowledge to the responsible work of the Foundation.

Elen was born and raised in Yerevan. Following her university degree at the University College London, she started her career in fast moving consumer goods industry joining Mars Inc. multinational. After 6 years of working on various household petcare brand names under the Mars umbrella, Elen moved to a start-up yoghurt company based in London leading the brand portfolio and delivering double digit growth within a year. Since June 2020, Elen has joined Danone working on world famous water brands like Volvic and Evian, as well as the sustainability agenda across UK and Ireland. Along with her passion for brand building, Elen is also an avid student of personal development and psychology.
During the Artsakh war of 2020 Elen was actively involved in fundraising efforts across multiple platforms and this is when she came contact Varoujan Avedikian hearing him speak about the values and the efforts 1000Plus had. Inspired by Varoujan and his team’s dedication, Elen put together a small team of volunteers to work on various projects, supporting the core team of the foundation in time of crises. She is proud to be a friend of the foundation and will continue to aid in ongoing and future projects.