Samvel Karapetyan: Person of the Year-2011

On December 14th the Person of the Year 2011 award ceremony took place in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. The ceremony was organised by the Russian Biographical Institute,  Institute of Economic Strategy and the Orthodox Businessmen Club. Samvel Karapetyan, president and founder of Tashir group of companies, was awarded the prize in the Regional Development category for his contribution to economic and cultural development in Russian regions.

Tashir Group was founded by Mr. Karapetyan in 1999. It is one of the leading companies in Russia that is proactively investing its own assets in socially significant projects and charity programmes, together with commercial projects that encourage sustainable economic growth in these regions and in the country as a whole. Tashir is actively present in 60 cities in Russia and the CIS, where it carries out its business operations and charity projects. Over $20 million were donated to charity in 2011, of which $5 million were donated to restore the Naval Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kronstadt.

The national Person of the Year award was founded in 1993 by the Russian Biographical Institute that studies contemporary Russian society. The award is given for strong contribution to development of Russia in the following categories: religion, politics, economy, science and education, culture and medicine, small and innovative manufacturing etc.

The list of the winners in 2011 features such outstanding personalities as Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia; the Chairman of the Russian Government Vladimir Putin; Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin; Leo Bokeria, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Bakulev Research Centre for Cardiovascular Surgery, and other people.