Knightsbridge Group Offers Broadband Communication Solutions to Turkmenistan

Ashgabat, 22 January 2008 (nCa) --- Knightsbridge Group, a UK based company led by a former prime minister of Armenia, has offered to cooperate with Turkmenistan in key areas of business and industry.

The offer includes establishment of broadband telecommunications system in the country.

In a meeting Tuesday with President Berdymuhamedov, Armen Sarkissian, chairman of the Knightsbridge Group, said that his company was ready to act as operator and investor for the broadband telecommunications project in Turkmenistan.

Knightsbridge has also offered to modernize the Turkmenbashy port and develop hydrocarbon resources of Turkmenistan.

President Berdymuhamedov thanked the Knightsbridge chairman for his offer and said that all ideas that are compatible with the programme of reforms and transformation in Turkmenistan would be considered seriously.

He invited Knightsbridge to participate in tenders for construction of a cement factory in Turkmenistan.

Bio of Armen Sarkissian

Former Prime Minister of Armenia, Founder & Director, Eurasia Centre/Programme, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Founder & President Eurasia House International

Professional

Armen Sarkissian is the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia (1996-1997), and former Ambassador of Armenia (1991-1999) to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and The Vatican, as well as Head of Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the EU and NATO (1995-96).

Since 1999, he has been Director of the Eurasia Programme at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, with expertise in state-building structures and free market transition processes in CIS countries, Eastern Europe, and China. He is Co-founder of Eurasia House International in London.

Professor Sarkissian is Senior Executive Advisor to the Board of Directors and Chairman of Alcatel and Telefonica (world leaders in the telecommunications market); Senior Advisor to the Chairman of BP and to the CEO of Finmeccanica, Italy’s principal technology organization. He is the Chairman of Knightsbridge Associates, Knightsbridge group of companies and Cambridge Pharmaceuticals.

His business activities in the computer software industry include authorship of game software. He is one of the original authors of the TETRIS-WORDTRIS group of computer games. In recent years he has been involved and is a significant investor in major business projects, especially in the energy, high technology ,and telecom sectors.

Education

From 1976 to 1984 he was a professor of Physics at Yerevan State University and subsequently Head of the Department of Computer Modeling of Complex Systems at the University’s Department of Theoretical Physics. In 1984 he became a Visiting Research Fellow and later professor at the University of Cambridge. He received his Ph.D. from the Physics Department of Yerevan State University.

Memberships & Affiliations

    * Advisory Member, Board of Directors, East West Institute

    * Advisory Member, Board of Directors, J.F.K. School of Government, Harvard University

    * Member, Dean’s International Council, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago

    * Advisory Member, Board of Directors, IREX

    * Advisory Member, Board of Directors, International Economic Alliance

    * Advisory Member, Board of Directors, Global Leadership Foundation

    * Advisory Member, Board of Directors, EU-Ukraine Business Council

    * Advisory Member, Board of Directors, John Smith Memorial Trust

    * Honorary Senior Research Fellow, School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary & Westfield College, and London University

    * Faculty member, World Economic Forum

    * Awarded the St. Gregory the Great Medal by His Holiness Pope John Paul II

Personal

He is married to Nouneh Sarkissian and has two sons.