President Sargsyan Received 2017 Global IT Award Winner

• 11.17.2017, 10:35
•  Armenia

On November 16, the 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, a reception will be held at the Presidential Palace in honor of Tony Fadell, the 2017 Laureate of the Presidential Award.