Noubar Afeyan: commitment

Transcript context

…What is your Armenia-related philanthropic project that right now you are most excited about? There’s a bunch of them, but I’ll say that we created a humanitarian project which was both a prize and a movement called Aurora Humanitarian Initiative that was actually not Armenia-related but founded upon Armenians’ experience with genocide. The notion was that at the centennial of the Armenian genocide, which was in 2015 — the commemoration — that we needed to look forward by looking back and expressing gratitude to the people who saved my grandparents, for example, back in 1915. Instead of thanking them — because they were long gone — to step into the shoes of the people who are doing that today and give them the financial needs, the recognition, and all the rest. Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is a project that I’m quite proud of and involved with. Now, what’s happened is that, unexpectedly, Armenia itself in the last few months has been thrust into a humanitarian disaster by virtue of a war that’s been going on with its neighbor. Fortunately, recently, they entered into a peace accord, but the resultant damage done to thousands and thousands of families, and tens of thousands of lives, is immense. Now, what’s happened is that this Aurora Initiative that was a gift — from Armenians to the world to thank people in Africa, in Myanmar, and different places doing humanitarian work — has now focused some of its attention in providing help to the very same Armenians that a hundred years later are afflicted with this again. The irony is painful, but I’m proud of our ability to contribute to a pretty dire situation. You think about company building in a pretty different way. Do you also think about philanthropy in a different way? What would you describe as the unity across your approach to companies and your approach to philanthropy?…

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