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Shant Mardirossian '89
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Shant Mardirossian’89 is a partner and chief operating officer at Kohlberg & Company. He also serves on the board of directors at the Near East Foundation. Mr. Mardirossian recently produced the documentary “They Shall Not Perish: The Story of Near East Relief,” which tells the story of the Armenian Genocide as well as the international response to it. The documentary has been broadcast on public television and began streaming on Netflix in January 2018.
As Shant Mardirossian ’89 emerged from high school with dreams of becoming a CPA, he knew that Pace University was the right choice for him to further his professional ambitions. “Pace had a good reputation as a business school, especially for those looking to enter the accounting profession,” he recalled.
After obtaining his bachelor’s and working full-time, Shant decided to return to Pace to pursue an MBA in investment and strategic management. “I was able to apply my professional experience towards school, and vice versa,” Shant recalled. “I completed many case studies, team assignments, and other things that my classmates and I dealt with at our jobs. My Pace education allowed me to broaden my skill set. As a result, I was promoted to chief financial officer, and eventually chief operating officer.”
Having achieved this remarkable professional success, Shant was able to direct his passions and energy to other pursuits—namely, international humanitarianism through the Near East Foundation. “The organization works in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, which deeply interested me,” Shant recounted. “My parents and I emigrated from the Middle East to the U.S. when I was two,” he recounted. “There’s a lot of history in that part of the world that has always intrigued me.”
Indeed, the history of the Near East Foundation itself was particularly meaningful for Shant. “The Near East Relief, which was the Near East Foundation’s predecessor, was one of the first international humanitarian efforts undertaken by American citizens. During and after World War One, it responded in helping victims of the Armenian Genocide.” This hit very close to home for Shant, whose grandparents were among the survivors and refugees of this cataclysmic event in the early twentieth century. “All four of my grandparents were children during the Armenian Genocide, and some were orphaned,” he explained. “They fled to Aleppo to rebuild their lives. During their migration, my paternal grandmother sought refuge in an American Protestant orphanage, which I later learned was part of the Near East umbrella. They provided support, education, protection, and opportunities for 142,000 orphaned children, including my grandmother and six of her siblings. But what amazed me was that few people knew about this remarkable history. I knew I had to tell this story.”
Shant’s drive to tell that story led him to produce the documentary They Shall Not Perish: The Story of the Near East Relief. “This was a story of the Armenian Genocide and how American philanthropy began on a massive and international scale,” he detailed. “It is a beautiful story of American altruism—a value that I see as being under critical threat today.”
Shant hopes the film will have an impact at the highest levels of American policymaking. “Our current refugee problem dwarfs what we faced 100 years ago, but our reaction has been the complete opposite of what it was then,” he elaborated. “While the story of the film is rooted in tragedy, it also shows how humanity can came together to respond in the face of evil. I hope to someday show it at a congressional screening in Washington D.C., where our leaders will be reminded of what our country was like 100 years ago and where we are today. Perhaps it may cause them to rethink some policies.”