The Melikian Center
The Odjaghian-Ordjanian-Melikian Fund (OOM)
The Odjaghian-Ordjanian-Melikian Fund (OOM)
Learn more about your impact
This fund is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship, transparency and accountability in Armenia and other countries across Eurasia and Eastern Europe as they transition to free and open market economies. By supporting initiatives that empower the next generation of talented, hardworking citizens, this fund champions a world free from corruption and rooted in the rule of law.
The Armenia of 2024 is alive with possibility, a place where young minds are shaping the future rather than waiting for opportunities elsewhere. The transformation I witnessed was not based on diaspora nostalgia but on the hard work, vision and ambition of those within Armenia itself."
Impact of Donor Support
This fund was established in 2024 by Emma Ordjanian Melikian, who, with her husband Greg (1924–2024), endowed the Melikian Center in 2007. This fund celebrates the legacy of three remarkable 20th-century business entrepreneurs whose enterprises provided employment for hundreds and uplifted their communities. These three members of the extended Odjaghian-Ordjanian family — Samson, Mikhail and Armenak — were also philanthropists who contributed to the welfare of the Persian Armenian diaspora.
Efficiently managed through the ASU Foundation and administered effectively by the Melikian Center, this fund advances ASU’s commitments to global engagement through partnership building. By giving to the fund, donors help foster creativity and prosperity in pivotal regions of the world and invest in knowledge, opportunity and the leaders of tomorrow.
Many of these students have gone home where they are successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, venture capitalists, impact investors and senior government officials. The come home with a powerful American business education taught in a culturally sensitive environment, and respectful of the nuances of our cultural differences."