On June 30, the Corporate Governance Center with the support of CLDP and CIPE, held its annual conference on corporate governance issues under the slogan “Collaboration for Sustainable Corporate Governance”.
The choice of the slogan was not accidental, as the Conference hosted speakers from the USA and Europe, as well as participants from Georgia, and Central Asian countries, in order to discuss modern trends in corporate governance and developments in the Armenian reality.
The goal was to make the Conference a platform for open and constructive discussions of corporate governance and sustainable development issues.
The Conference was moderated by FEAS Secretary General Konstantin Saroyan.
RA Deputy Minister of Justice Karen Karapetyan, RA Deputy Minister of Finance Avag Avanesyan, Commissioner at Corruption Prevention Commission Lilit Aleksanyan, Head of Financial Infrastructure Development Department at RA Ministry of Economy Pavel Hovakimyan, Head of Office of CIPE Armenia Branch Luiza Ayvazyan, CLDP representative Michael Cofield and Chairman of the Corporate Governance Center Board of Trustees Tigran Karapetyan made opening remarks at the Conference. Each emphasized the importance of corporate governance in the long-term sustainable growth of both the country and the companies.
During the first session held under the title “Sustainable corporate governance and the purpose of companies” moderated by Aleksandr Shaghikyan, Partner, Head of the Advisory at BDO Armenia, international experts Aradhana Khowala from Great Britain, Ekaterina Lysova from the USA, Ingrid De Poorter from Belgium, Charlotte Gustavsson from Sweden, Kristen Anderson from Italy addressed the current international trends in corporate sustainability, diversity, inclusion, cyber security, artificial intelligence, integrity and anti-corruption compliance, corporate accountability, the imperative to reflect these issues in the agenda of the board of directors and the transformations taking place with the role of the chairperson of the board of directors as a leader.
The second session of the Conference was devoted to significant developments in the corporate reality of Armenia. In this session, the speakers were the Managing Partner of the Concern Dialog company Aram Orbelyan, the Coordinator of the Open Government Partnership Initiative Lilya Afrikyan, head of the Listing Division of the Armenian Stock Exchange Lusine Margaryan, the Head of the Anti-Corruption Policy Development and Monitoring Department at RA Ministry of Justice Hasmik Tigranyan, the Head of Methodological Support Department at Corruption Prevention Commission Tatev Asryan. The latter presented such urgent topics for Armenia as the criminal liability of legal entities, the role of the business sector in the fight against corruption, the identification of real beneficiaries in the context of corporate transparency, the features of corporate governance, and possible developments in listed and state-owned companies in Armenia.
The Conference concluded with an interactive workshop, in which the key roles of the board and the executive team, leadership qualities of their members, approaches to include sustainable development issues in the agenda of companies, and other issues were revealed with the involvement of the Conference participants. The workshop was conducted by Hagen Schweinitz (Germany), Global Practice Leader of Board and Governance Advisory Practice at Eric Salmon & Partners, an international consulting firm.
In her final speech, thanking all the attendees, Narine Melikyan, Director of the Corporate Governance Center, emphasized the role of the Conference in the development of the corporate governance environment in Armenia and noted that sustainable corporate governance enables companies to operate in a wider context of economic, social, environmental protection and thereby contribute to the formation of a reliable favorable business environment and prosperous society.
The Conference was attended by more than 120 participants, including policymakers, representatives of the business sector, academic and civil society institutions, and international experts.
