Aso O. Tavitian Joins Carnegie Endowment Board of Trustees

WASHINGTON, Oct 28—The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace announced today that Aso O. Tavitian, former chief executive officer of Syncsort and president of the Tavitian Foundation, has joined its Board of Trustees.

Welcoming the announcement, the president of the Endowment, Jessica T. Mathews, said:

“We are honored to welcome Aso Tavitian to the Carnegie Endowment’s Board of Trustees. His broad international perspective and deep understanding of the challenges faced by Eastern Europe and Eurasia will be of great benefit to the Endowment’s leading work—in Moscow, Washington, and Brussels—on the region.

“Aso’s experience and life’s work add further international depth to the Carnegie Endowment Board of Trustees as we implement and build our NEW VISION—pioneering the first truly multinational, and ultimately global, think tank.”

Mr. Tavitian said:

“I am delighted to join the distinguished Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at such a critical time; rarely has there been a greater need for the Endowment’s mission of improving international dialogue and understanding as the world faces so many difficult global issues.”

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NOTES

• Aso (Assadour) O. Tavitian was until April 2008 the CEO of Syncsort, a privately-held technology company he co-founded in 1969 that specializes in the development, marketing, and service of generalized infrastructure software products. Syncsort is headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, with subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
  Mr. Tavitian was born in Bulgaria, studied at Haigazian College in Beirut and Columbia University, and now lives in New York and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He serves as president of the Tavitian Foundation, which primarily supports higher education; through this means, he has offered university scholarships, with a preference given to persons of Armenian and Eastern European descent. He is also a supporter of the Tavitian Library at the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a specialized collection focusing on international relations, diplomacy, world history, and the history of Armenia and the Caucasus, and the Armenian Program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, which trains Armenian diplomats and government officials.
  
  Mr. Tavitian is on the boards of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, the Frick Collection, and Close Encounters with Music. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the New School for Social Research; a member of FACE (French American Cultural Exchange), an organization focused on promoting cultural exchanges between France and the United States; and serves as vice chair of the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

• Click here for a full list of Carnegie's Board of Trustees

• Carnegie's New Vision—The last decade saw rapid internationalization in all kinds of fields—from small business to terrorism to religion and social activism. Oddly, think tanks—even those whose interests are international—remained largely national enterprises, rooted in the views of one country. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was the first to break the pattern.
  
  In 1993, the Endowment launched the Carnegie Moscow Center, pioneering the idea that in today's world a think tank whose mission is to contribute to global security, stability, and prosperity requires a permanent international presence and a multinational outlook at the core of its operations.

  Building on the strength of this success and following its century-long practice of changing as global circumstances change, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is therefore undertaking a fundamental redefinition of its role and mission. Carnegie aims to transform itself from a think tank on international issues to the first truly multinational — ultimately global — think tank.

  The Endowment has added operations in Beijing, Beirut, and Brussels to its existing centers in Washington and Moscow. These five locations include the two centers of world governance and the three places whose political evolution and international policies will most determine the near-term possibilities for international peace and economic advance.

• More information on the Carnegie Endowment’s New Vision

• Press Contact: Trent Perrotto, 202/939-2372, tperrotto@ceip.org