“24 hours a day in my head are Armenia and the Armenian people. I believe that each of us is simply obliged to do everything so that our homeland flourishes, so that our people have a wonderful future in their native land. I am sure that there is no higher calling than to serve our country and our people.”
Kenneth Vazgen Hachikian is an Armenian American economist and the former chairman of the most influential Armenian organization in the world – the Armenian National Committee of America.
Kenneth Hachikian was born on September 11, 1949, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, into an Armenian family. After graduation, Hachikian entered the Harvard Business School.
He began his career as a chief consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. From 1973 to 1982, Ken Hachikian advised more than 100 large companies throughout the country. As a chairman of the corporate strategy apparatus, Ken Hachikian worked out a program that brought in an extra $2 million a year. For his exceptional services to the company, Ken Hachikian was appointed the chairman of the entire personnel department. It was he who initiated the launch of a new office in Chicago (1979).
Ken Hachikian is one of the key figures of the Armenian diaspora of the United States, in particular, in the matter of lobbying the interests of Armenia and Karabakh. Moreover, as we mentioned, he is the former chairman of one of the largest US lobbying organizations – the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Ken Hachikian is one of those leaders of the Armenian community of the United States who sharply and publicly speak out against double standards in the foreign policy of the United States. His open and bold statements regarding Turkey’s aggressive policy and calls for recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the US administration continue to stimulate the process of consolidation of numerous Armenian organizations around pan-Armenian ideas and programs.
It was the Armenian National Committee of America that reminded the then US President Barack Obama of his unrealized promise. In a message to Barack Obama, Ken Hachikian again urged the country’s leader to “make the right move” and recognize the Armenian Genocide and to continue his once active contacts with representatives of the Armenian community by organizing a meeting with the leaders of national structures at the first opportunity.
