Ara Chalabyan has over 20 years of experience in internal auditing, corporate finance, and operations, spanning central banking, financial services, mining, trading, education, and the NGO sector. He currently serves as President of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Armenia, an affiliate of the Global IIA.

In addition, he is a short-term consultant for the IMF, World Bank, and AFD/ADB, and serves as an Independent Board Member and Audit Committee Chair at AraratBank OJSC. Ara is also an active writer and podcast host, producing educational content on finance, internal audit, and leadership through his YouTube channel.

After serving 10 years as Chief Audit Executive at the Central Bank of Armenia from 2010 to 2020, Ara and his team successfully transformed former audit clients by consolidating all support functions into a single Corporate Services and Development Directorate with over 200 staff. This directorate encompassed HR (rebranded as People and Culture), Finance, IT, Information Security, Facility Management, Physical Security, Project Management, Procurement, Business Continuity Management, and Quality Assurance.

Throughout his career, Ara has been deeply committed to knowledge sharing—internally and as a faculty member at the American University of Armenia’s College of Business and Economics for over 12 years.

He is a graduate of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, American University of Armenia, and Yerevan State University. Ara is a member of ACCA, IIA, and ISACA, holding professional certifications ACCA, CIA, CRMA, and CRISC. His contributions to the profession have been recognized with teaching excellence, exam excellence, and publication awards.