The Founders

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is the philanthropic vision of Vartan Gregorian (1934–2021), Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan. In 2024, Dr. Eric Esrailian joined the Initiative as Co-Founder to help steward the organization toward its 10th anniversary year and beyond. Together they seek to build a global humanitarian movement.

The Initiative creates and supports projects designed to raise public awareness and address some of the world’s most pressing humanitarian issues. These projects include the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, the Aurora for Artsakh, the #AraratChallenge movement, the Aurora Dialogues, the Aurora Community, the Aurora Grants, the Aurora Index and the 100 LIVES Initiative.