Armen Sarkissian served as the fourth President of Armenia from 2018 to 2022, capping a career of more than four decades spanning theoretical physics, diplomacy, government and international business. Since leaving office he has remained active as an author, speaker and commentator on international affairs, with essays published in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek. He is the founding president of Eurasia House International in London and the founder of the Knightsbridge Group of investment companies.

His public service began with the establishment of the Armenian Embassy in London in 1991, the country's first diplomatic mission in the West. He went on to serve several terms as Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1992 and 2018, with further accreditations to the European Union, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Vatican. As Prime Minister of Armenia from 1996 to 1997, he oversaw a restructuring of the country's energy sector and abolished the Ministry of Information, opening the way for greater press freedom.

A theoretical physicist by training, he taught at Yerevan State University from 1976 to 1984, later establishing its department for computer modelling of complex systems, and worked at the University of Cambridge as a visiting research fellow and professor. He was founding director of the Eurasia Centre at Cambridge's Judge Business School from 2001 to 2011 and co-created the video game Wordtris. In business, he served as special adviser to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and as senior adviser to international companies including BP, Alcatel and Telefónica.

Dr Sarkissian completed his doctorate in physics at Yerevan State University in 1978. His honours include the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the Grand Collar of the Papal Order of Pius IX and the EastWest Institute's John Edwin Mroz Global Statesman Award. He has served on the dean's advisory boards of the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, and is the author of The Small States Club: How Small Smart States Can Save the World, published in 2023.