Yervand Shirinyan is a managing director at Araminta, a Berlin-based organization dedicated to human rights and democratic resilience. Previously, he held multiple roles at the Open Society Foundations. Most recently, Shirinyan served as the division director for Europe and Central Asia program, where he led the strategic planning and implementation for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Between 2021 and 2024, he was the acting director of the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, helping it successfully spinoff into an independent organization. Earlier, Shirinyan helped establish and serve as the deputy director of the Open Society Human Rights Initiative, a global program designed to support human rights movements through a set of innovative initiatives.

Between 2001 and 2007, Shirinyan worked on human rights and accountability issues in Europe and Eurasia and played a leading role in initiatives across the region. Shirinyan received his MBA in international management from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, Ohio, in association with the Central European University in Budapest. He also holds an MST in international human rights law from the University of Oxford.