Armenian economic and environmental expert on a global assignment
Dagmar Möbius
Dr. Erik Grigoryan studied at the Armenian State University of Economics. His professional career since graduating in 2000 has been impressive. He has held many positions simultaneously – and on an international level. After participating in TU Dresden’s 30th CIPSEM course, he was appointed to a government position in his home country. From 2018 to 2020, he was the Minister of Environment of Armenia. Now, he is an entrepreneur.
Dr. Grigoryan does not list all 47 of the professional stations he has held. Instead, he explains his career in just one short paragraph: “I have over 20 years of extensive experience in the public sector and in international organizations, combined with an advanced education in environmental management, policy and economics.” He wrote his Diplom thesis on the economic aspects of sustainable development and implementation in Armenia.
After this, he worked as a financial analyst at the Armenian Development Agency, a reporter for economics and sports, a national advisor for forestry in Sweden, and a project expert for economic mechanisms of environmental management with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He completed a one-year research stay in Greece at the University of the Aegean where he worked on economic and financial mechanisms of environmental management in the EU until 2005. This was followed by assignments as a national specialist for sustainability.
In 2007, he came to Dresden and participated in the 30th CIPSEM course. “I enjoyed the combination of practical and theoretical lessons during my training and gained valuable insights,” he says, recalling: “Class started early and went on until later afternoon. If was difficult, but extremely useful.” In his final thesis, he focused on the “Development of economic mechanisms for environmental management in Armenia and experiences and practices from Germany.”
After completing his dissertation on environmental economics at the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2009, Dr. Erik Grigoryan worked for over eight years at the Armenian Ministry of Environment. He founded a company “on the side” that imported bicycles, spare parts and accessories, repaired bicycles and organized bicycle tours. He managed the company in Yerevan for almost five years.
From 2017 to 2018, Dr. Grigoryan was the First Deputy Minister for the Environment and worked primarily on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Armenia. Between 2018 and 2020, he was the Minister of Environment of Armenia and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Ecological Council of the CIS. Moreover, he formed the designated national authority for the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, the political and operational focal point of the Global Environment Facility and the UNFCCC.
In 2020, Dr. Erik Grigoryan founded the Environment Group, of which he is also the CEO. The company works on innovative and technological solutions for environmental management and the effects of climate change. It collaborates with experts from all over the world. These services and consultations are offered primarily in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the region. No wonder the “Environmental Group” operates from a large hotel in Yerevan.
The economic and sustainability expert is also the Armenian government's special representative for debts resulting from climate negotiations. One concrete example was a United Nations ESCAP project that focused on "Financing sustainable development and managing debt risks after COVID-19" in Thailand.
Erik Grigoryan has also been a regional ambassador for TUD for many years.
Contact:
Dr. Erik Grigoryan
Founder and CEO
Environment Group
https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-grigoryan-9653a011/
Photo: private