President receives 2017 Global IT Award winner

Today, RA President Serzh Sargsyan received Tony Fadell, the founder of Nest Labs, who is the 2017 laureate of the Presidential Award for global contribution in the field of information technology.

Welcoming the world-renowned scientist, Serzh Sargsyan noted that the Presidential Award reflects the Armenian nation’s admiration and gratitude for those individuals who promote humanity and civilization and, thereby, become the symbol of their time.

“We are thereby trying to draw our youth’s attention to success stories and successful people by demonstrating that mankind’s greatest asset is the human being with his/her shortcomings, problems, and also with his/her talent. I feel that the focus on this area is already yielding results. Our youths are very interested in this sphere, and it is a great pleasure to see that the schoolchildren are fond of it, too” the President of Armenia said.

Tony Fadell thanked the President for hospitality, noting that he had already met with the Armenian Prime Minister and was well aware of IT innovations in Armenia, especially in the system of e-governance.

“You need to open your country for the outside world, tell us what positive developments are happening over here. We are living in a very exciting time. Your education system is very well poised to teach physics, math, and other subjects, which gives you the opportunity to work with data and achieve great success in data engineering.

If what I heard about your country over the last 12 hours is true, I will come to think that the startups that I have already set up can lead to new opportunities here through cooperation with the local workforce,” Tony Fadell said, emphasizing that he would like to be back to our country again and asked the President which way he could come of service to Armenia.

After the meeting, the Presidency hosted a ceremonious function referred to as Special Envelope, dedicated to the laureates of the Presidential Award for global IT contribution. The envelope features American inventor of Lebanese descent Tony Fadell - the Eighth Laureate of the Presidential IT Award - who is the founder of Nest Labs and the author of the iPod brand, as well as the seven winners of the previous editions.

The special envelope is a unique philatelic product - a thematic envelope with 2 stamps released in 2013 and devoted to RA President’s Global IT Award. It is to be extinguished with a special seal.

Later today, a reception will be held at the Presidential Palace in honor of Tony Fadell, the 2017 Laureate of the Presidential Award.

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Additional information on RA President’s Global IT Award

Tony Fadell is the eighth recipient of the Presidential Award for global contribution in the field of information technologies. The first award was bestowed on the former President of the Board of Directors of Intel Corporation Craig R. Barrett in 2010; the second edition in 2011 was given to Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of the Apple Computers corporation, the third one in 2012 went to Federico Faggin, the Honorary President of Synaptics Company; the fourth award went to Tsugio Makimoto, the President of Semiconductor Industry Association; President of the Techno Vision company, former CEO of Hitachi; the fifth was bestowed on Chief Development Officer of Sysco Systems, Inc., Mario Mazzola; the sixth – to Director General of Kaspersky Lab Eugene Kaspersky. Director General of the Open Root organization Louis Pouzin was the seventh laureate of the Global IT Award.

The RA Presidential Award for global contribution to the IT sphere was established by the July 6, 2009 Presidential decree. The award is annual and is bestowed on the individuals who have made outstanding contribution to the IT sphere and whose input – technological, educational, organizational, financial or other - has resulted in significant achievements in the field of information technologies.

The nomination program is carried out by the Award Committee designated by the President of Armenia and an international selection panel. The award consists of a medal, a certificate and a trophy.