I was born in Tehran, Iran, and as a young boy, I attended Elbis and Alishan Armenian schools and Alborz Iranian High School for my 9 th grade. In 1976, I migrated to the United States, where I lived with my grandparents until 1978 when my mother emigrated to the US. In 1984, I graduated from the New York Institute of Technology with a BS in Architecture while working for an interior design company in Manhattan.
In 1986, I started my own construction company, Horizon Contractors of L.I., Inc. Although I moved to Frisco, Texas, with my family in 2015, my New York-based company continues to operate. From 2015 to 2020, I commuted to New York weekly while my family settled in Frisco. However, due to the impact of COVID-19, I began looking for employment in Dallas.
In September 2020, I joined Milan Custom Build as their VP of Operations, and on September 1, 2021, my partner and I purchased the company. Today, we are proud to establish ourselves as one of the top luxury home builders and renovators in Dallas and the surrounding areas. I am also pleased to announce that Horizon Contractors has resumed operations in NY as of 2022.
Throughout my life, I have been involved with several Armenian organizations and have participated in various committees, including the Armenian Society of NY and the AGBU. From 1980 to 1986, I danced with the Antranig Dance Group and DJ’d for many Armenian events. I take great pride in my Armenian heritage, religion, and community, and I have strived to stay involved with Armenian Organizations in various capacities.
While running my business and traveling between Texas and New York limited my involvement with St. Sarkis Armenian Church, owning my business in Dallas has allowed me to dedicate more time to the church. I am proud to have been elected to the Parish Council and look forward to serving alongside our dedicated volunteers and members.
I was born in Yerevan, Armenia, to a family of journalists. Being third in the family and the youngest in the dynasty, I quickly learned to fit in with multiple grown up cousins, brothers and sisters. As the youngest, I was also given more freedoms and more lessons learned from the older ones’ mistakes. The era of transition that I lived through was turbulent: everything we knew as permanent crumbled. Once Soviets broke down, foundations were challenged, codes of conducts were pegged unethical, and whatever we had learned up until that point was obsolete. I ended up going to three Universities to reevaluate all that we had learned - Yerevan State, with an unsurprising Journalism degree; American University, with Political Science and International Relations; and University of Essex, with International Human Rights. Formational years were tough for my generation. Although my birth home will always be Armenia, like many of my era, I lived in Russia (Moscow), UK (Colchester, London) and frequented France (Paris). When I relocated to Dallas in 2000, I was sure this was going to be a work-gig. Here we are, some 23 years later, married to Andy Meeks, with two children, Arin (17) and Alex (15).
Ever since I moved to the United States, I’ve worked as a Human Resources Consultant in a variety of large corporations. Since 2012, I founded Global HR Advisors, a holdings company that helps companies build their HR operations from the ground up or expand during growth. A portion of my operation is in Armenia. My clients range from financial services to municipalities to non-profits and the legal industry.
As Armenians with diverse backgrounds, the one thing that unites us is our faith, history, culture, and love for one another. My vision for our community is unity and improved communication. In times of distress we lend each other a helping hand, and no other nation can unite like Armenians do. My wish is to also execute this amazing character during regular times. Help one another, raise each other up, bring the best in each one of us. I’ve served on the Parish Council for 4 years, helped start and taught the Eastern Armenian classes at the St. Sarkis School, and love to think of myself as the bartender of our extended family. I respect who we are as a community, with all that we offer and all that we do not.
My story in short is called my “American dream.”
31 years ago, my immediate family moved to the United States as refugees from Baku, Azerbaijan, when Soviet Union collapsed. Like many Armenians, we were no longer welcomed in our homes, and ethnic killing of the Armenian people began in 1988. Within a few hours our family left our home, with no luggage or belongings. Life changed overnight.
Growing up in Baku, the capital that was built by many nationalities, I was a busy child involved in many activities and blessed by many fun memories.
When my family moved to the United States, we did not know English. Everything was different. Although an opportunity to restart, I was already 19 and had just graduated from the Musical College with a piano teaching degree...
In Oklahoma City, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church and a few parishioner families took the sponsorship of our family. Margaret Keaton will forever stay as our guardian angel: she and her family spent enormous amount of time welcoming us to the United States and bringing hope and light to our future.
To learn English, I was directed back to the Putnam High School and then soon after I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with Bachelor's and Master’s in Accounting. Piano Teaching was forever left in another life. We moved to Dallas, TX in 1999 where my husband Ara and I started our careers at Arthur Andersen, LLP. I joined the Real Estate Tax group and started my career by learning about partnerships working on large real estate clients preparing federal and state tax returns. Currently, I work at The Rosewood Corporation as Vice President of Tax. Prior to joining Rosewood, 6 years ago, I worked at KPMG for 15 years serving many clients and running tax outsourced engagements including Rosewood. I am a CPA, member of the AICPA, and TXCPA (my accounting buddies will know).
I grew up surrounded by lots of family and friends and was not ready to sacrifice family for work. I have been blessed to work with people and firms that allowed me to have a successful career and family. My husband Ara, who most of you know, and I are proud parents to three wonderful boys Serj, Sam, and Haik.
I am an active member of St. Sarkis Armenian Church community. Ever since I began my journey in the US, I always prayed and hoped for God to guide me. I tried to hear the messages that he was sending my way. I am a very optimistic person and want to see only good in people. I believe in giving back to the community. I want to share my time and talents with my community.
I have served on the Audit Committee, the Parish Council, where I currently serve as the Treasurer, and when time permits also serve on the Women’s Guild. We have a lot of new challenges in our new St. Sarkis home, but even more opportunities. Our Parish has a great future, and I am here to help to achieve the goals that we set.
I was born in Baghdad, Iraq and moved to Los Angeles, California when I was less than a year old. I attended Rose Camp; Alex Pilibos Armenian School in Hollywood, California for 13 years. I attended California State University Northridge and received a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. I immediately started teaching 2nd grade at my alma mater until moving to Dallas in 1997.
I am married to Ara Dayian from Toronto, Canada and we are blessed with 3 children, Noah (21) Leeza (17) and Amassia (15).
I have worked in the insurance industry as a claims manager; worked in personal injury law firms as a firm administrator and, for the past 10 years, I have been involved in managing my husband’s medical practice.
After getting acquainted with St. Sarkis Church in 1998, I jumped right into teaching Armenian at St. Sarkis Saturday school. I taught for about 14 years. While teaching Armenian, I joined the Women’s Guild. I have held various positions in the Women’s Guild over the past 20 years (chairwoman, vice-chair, and secretary). I have served on the Parish Council for 6 years, took a few years off and am happy to have been elected again in 2023. I am involved in various events at St. Sarkis, such as ArmeniaFest, fundraising banquets, 2020 Consecration Banquet, 2023 Clergy Conference and Diocesan Assembly. I take pride in all things St. Sarkis and will always do what it takes to make our community shine!
I am proud and grateful to call St. Sarkis Armenian church my home.
I've grown up my entire life in the St. Sarkis community. From the child that used to be picked up waving the Armenian flag at ArmeniaFest to learning Armenian in Saturday school growing up to joining the ACYOA and hosting events for the entire community, I felt like joining the Parish Council was the next step I could take in order to do my part. My hope is that we can focus on the youth within the community in order to ensure that they can build life-long Armenian friendships like I did, as well as make sure that the future of the church is in good hands. I believe that we have the resources and the people to accomplish these goals, and that it’s just a matter of working toward them.
I was born and raised in Paramus, NJ, I grew up at Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic church and worked with many organizations. I was part of the AYF and served on the executive board in many positions, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and President. I served the Sunday School as Assistant Teacher, Lead Teacher and Substitute. And also served the church as a choir member until I moved to our Parish in 2010.
Since coming to St. Sarkis, I have served with the choir, volunteered with the Women's Guild and our St Sarkis School. I have been on our School Board since 2015. Then I began serving as Treasurer and continue to serve as Chairwoman.
I am willing to volunteer whenever needed. On days of school I am always there in the mornings setting up and then to close the church. I have been helped through the pandemic not only getting the school virtual without much interruption, but have also supported other church functions and activities to be done through Zoom and continue to do so.
I am an IT Manager. I have been working at Commercial Metals Company since 2000. In my spare time, I enjoy music and dancing. I have been dancing Armenian Shourch Bar since I was 5 years old. My Husband Chris has learned as well through the years of being brought to dances and just dancing at home. I hope my children Edward Manoog and Katherine Sirvart will love it, as well as the church, as much as I do.
