Armen Kouyoumdjian graduated in 1970 from the Sorbonne in Paris where he read Applied Statistics. In 1971, he joined the European Research Department of Vickers da Costa & Co. Ltd, a London brokerage firm (subsequently absorbed into Citicorp), and was promoted to European Research manager in 1974.
In November 1976 he moved to the International Mexican Bank, a London-established institution owned at that time by a number of Mexican and international banks (now totally absorbed into the Banamex-Accival /Citicorp Group), carrying out merchant banking operations in Central and South America. His responsibilities as Resident Economist and Assistant Managing Director included advising the bank on Country Risk and developing new business opportunities.
In February 1991, he moved to Chile. Since that time he has advised financial institutions, business corporations, and diplomatic missions on Chilean &
Latin American Country Risk, the Business Environment and Financial Markets. He also writes for specialist business publications in several countries, and his first book, Perspectives Chili, in French, was published in Paris by Le Monde in June 2002.
From 1982 onwards, Armen Kouyoumdjian was European Chairman of the Washington-based Association of Political Risk Analysts (APRA), and subsequently set-up its European successor in London (the Association for Political Risk Management), which was merged into the Society of Business Economists in 1991.
Mr. Kouyoumdjian, who is fluent in English, French and Spanish, also has a good working knowledge of spoken and written Arabic, and spoken Armenian. He is a member of London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, Britain's Institute of Directors,
the International Consulting Economists' Association, and the Society of Latin American Studies. He is Economic Adviser to the Chilean-Mexican Integration Chamber in Santiago and has lectured on Latin America at Chile's Catholic University and the Navy's Maritime University.
E-mail address: akouyoumdjian@hallgartenco.com
