executive board

Meet the 2008-2009 Executive Board:

Elina Mnatsakanyan, Executive Officer

Elina graduated from UCLA in 2007 with a B.A. in Political Science and Phi Beta Kappa honors. She was a recipient of the UCLA Chancellor's Service Award, UCLA Alumni Association Distinguished Senior Award, Bruinlife Senior of the Year Award and President's Gold Volunteer Service Award. Elina is a proud alumna of Alpha Gamma Alpha Armenian Sorority, and while at UCLA she served as the sorority's Vice President (06-07) and Director of Community Service and Cultural Affairs (05-06). During her time at UCLA, Elina founded Project Fairy Godmother, a program designed to fund prom for students from low-income families. Elina also re-established the Epsilon Chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, Political Science Honor Society on the UCLA Campus and served as the society's President. Elina was a UCLA Law Fellow and active in the Order of Omega Greek Honor Society and Mortar Board Senior Honor Society. She also served as Executive Vice President for the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Vice President of the Political Science Student Organization, and President of the UCLA Russian Club for two consecutive terms. Elina has interned with City Attorney's Office Criminal and Civil Branches, the Armenian National Committee - Western Region, and the Law Offices of Nachshin and Weston, a boutique family law firm in West Los Angeles. Elina is currently a Juris Doctor Candidate at the UCLA School of Law for the Class of 2010. She is active in the Landlord-Tenant Clinic, a mentor for the UCLA Law Fellows program, Senior Advisor for Pi Sigma Alpha, SIB Delegate for the Graduate Students Association, and working independently on her Tenant Class Action Project. Elina enjoys spending her free time (what free time!?!?!?!) with her family and close friends.

Armen Karakashian, Project Coordinating Officer

Armen is a full time MBA student in the class of 2009 at UCLA Anderson School of Management and a CFA Level II candidate. His MBA studies are focused on finance and entrepreneurship. Prior to attending Anderson, Armen worked at Farmers Insurance Group first as an Actuarial Analyst and later as an Assistant Product Manager for the personal lines auto insurance division. Armen was a summer intern at Knightsbridge Asset Management where he researched and tested various equity investment strategies. He holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA, both in Electrical Engineering.

Shant Hovsepian, Membership Development Officer

Shant is a second year graduate student of Computer Science in the Henry Sameuli School of Engineering. He received his B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA. As an undergraduate he was involved in the Student Chapter of the Association for Computing and Machinery and served at the President of the UCLA Linux Users Group. Shant currently spends all of his time in TERTL working as a part of the Readable Software Systems Group. His interests include modular software designs for distributed and storage systems, he is also extremely interested in education in Computer Science and Open Source software and ideology. Shant lovingly helps take care of two turtles and a puppy.