The House
of Kassardjian

The House of Kassardjian was not established by men of modest ambition or temporary purpose. It was established upon the Gold Coast — now the sovereign Republic of Ghana — in the year of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Thirty, by a Patriarch of uncommon character and absolute conviction: Aksor Kassardjian. It is with his name that any proper account of this House must begin, and it is to his memory that all who bear the Kassardjian name remain, in honour, indebted.

Aksor Kassardjian — Gold Coast — Anno Domini 1930

Aksor Kassardjian arrived upon the Gold Coast in the nineteen thirties and, in so arriving, changed the character of commerce upon that territory in a manner that has not since been equalled. He became the first contractor in the history of the Gold Coast for the supply of roads and highways materials — and the first, likewise, in the supply of public works, housing, and building works materials and construction. He did not follow where others had gone. There were no others. He went first.

It was under the banner of Kassardjian Construction Ghana Limited — since re-named and re-constituted as SK Kassardjian Construction Company Limited — that Aksor Kassardjian discharged these obligations to the Gold Coast and, in time, to the Republic of Ghana itself. The roads of this Nation bear his mark. The works of its public institutions were raised upon his supply. The houses of its people were built in no small measure upon the materials he provided.

He established the principal offices of the House at Tamale, in the Northern Region — then, as now, the administrative seat from which the Kassardjian enterprise commanded its affairs. It was a deliberate choice, made by a man who understood that a merchant of standing plants himself where the Nation requires him most, not where convenience suggests.

Baron Kassardjian — Gold Coast — Anno Domini 1940s

In the early years of the nineteen forties, there arrived upon the Gold Coast a second man of the House: Baron Kassardjian — first younger brother to Aksor, and a Patriarch in his own right. Where Aksor had laid the foundations of the dynasty in construction and civil supply, Baron Kassardjian extended the reach of the House into the machinery of nations and the raw material markets of the world.

Baron Kassardjian became the principal supplier of JCB and Caterpillar heavy-duty machinery to the Government of Ghana — furnishing the instruments by which the Gold Coast developed its infrastructure and advanced its national works. It is not a matter of record that requires embellishment. He supplied the machines that moved the earth upon which the Republic was built.

He was, further, the foremost exporter of Shea Nut from the Gold Coast to Europe — supplying the raw material from which the finest body cream products of the European continent were manufactured. In so doing, Baron Kassardjian vertically integrated the Kassardjian enterprise across two continents: the Gold Coast furnished the raw material; Europe received it; and the House of Kassardjian stood at the centre of both. Two brothers. One empire. Entire in its reach and sovereign in its standing.

Of Historical Record · Anno Domini 1961

The Royal Visit

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II · His Majesty The King
His Excellency President Kwame Nkrumah · Tamale, Northern Region

In the year of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-One — the year following the independence of the Gold Coast as the sovereign Republic of Ghana — there occurred at Tamale, in the Northern Region, an event which stands without parallel in the commercial history of this Nation, and which no subsequent account of the House of Kassardjian may omit.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second and His Majesty the King paid a standing visit — in person, at the offices of the House — to Baron Kassardjian. The purpose of the visit was to congratulate Baron Kassardjian upon his contribution to the development of the Gold Coast and to engage him upon matters of national development pertaining to the newly constituted Republic of Ghana. His Excellency the late President Kwame Nkrumah was himself present upon the occasion.

Baron Kassardjian Receives Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II  ·  Tamale, Northern Region  ·  Anno Domini 1961

A Merchant received in his own offices by a reigning Monarch and a President of the Republic in the same hour. Let no further argument be made concerning the standing of the House of Kassardjian. The record speaks with a voice that requires no amplification.

These twin pillars are not new constructions. They are the continuation — faithful, disciplined, and undiminished — of what Aksor Kassardjian began in the nineteen thirties. What Aksor founded in the earth of the Gold Coast; what Baron extended to the machines of government and the markets of Europe; what a Royal Visit and the presence of a President confirmed before the eyes of history — that inheritance is carried forward today, without interruption, without diminishment, and without apology.

The House of Kassardjian. Dynasty Merchants. In service to the Republic — as it has been, so shall it remain. Per Honorem Et Imperium.

The dynasty of Kassardjian has been sustained not by the accident of inheritance, but by the consistency of character. Each man who has borne the name in a position of authority within this House has done so with the full understanding that what he carries is not a commercial enterprise alone — it is a covenant with the Republic of Ghana, a standard set before the highest institutions of the Nation, and a record that neither time nor adversity has succeeded in diminishing.

Those Upon Whose Foundations the House Was Raised

I

Founding Patriarch · Gold Coast · A.D. 1930

Aksor
Kassardjian

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Aksor Kassardjian · Founding Patriarch · Gold Coast

Aksor Kassardjian arrived upon the Gold Coast in the nineteen thirties and became — without predecessor, without rival, and without hesitation — the first contractor in the history of that territory for roads and highways supply, for public works, for housing, and for building materials. He established the House at Tamale in the Northern Region and set a standard of supply and service to the institutions of the Gold Coast that has not been lowered in the ninety years since.

It was Aksor Kassardjian who raised Kassardjian Construction Ghana Limited — now SK Kassardjian Construction Company Limited — as the sovereign commercial body of the House. All that this dynasty is, traces its lineage, its standing, and its obligation to him.

II

Second Patriarch · Gold Coast · A.D. 1940s

Baron
Kassardjian

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Baron Kassardjian — first younger brother to Aksor — arrived upon the Gold Coast in the early nineteen forties and extended the empire of the House with the same discipline, the same absolute fidelity to the highest standing interests of the Republic, and the same refusal to countenance anything less than the foremost position in every field he entered. He supplied JCB and Caterpillar heavy-duty machinery to the Government of Ghana, and served as the principal exporter of Shea Nut to Europe — vertically integrating the Kassardjian enterprise across two continents.

In Anno Domini 1961, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, His Majesty the King, and His Excellency President Kwame Nkrumah paid a standing visit to Baron Kassardjian at Tamale. The standing of this House requires no further witness than that single fact of record.

Carrying the Dynasty Forward — Without Interruption

III

Heir & Steward of the House

Haroutune
Kassardjian

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Haroutune Kassardjian · Heir of the House

It has always been the manner of Haroutune Kassardjian to befit the highest standing interests of the Republic of Ghana — in all things, at all times, and in all circumstances that the Republic has placed before him. Where other men of commerce perceive calamity, Haroutune Kassardjian perceives commission. Where lesser enterprises recoil from disruption, he advances — supplying the State in an uninterrupted manner, in every season and every circumstance, without exception and without delay.

It is his settled conviction — borne out across the full record of his dealings with the sovereign institutions of this Republic — that opportunity resides within every disaster. When the Nation has been tested and its institutions have faced the pressures of scarcity or crisis, it is precisely in those moments that Haroutune Kassardjian has stepped forward. While weak vessels sink beneath the weight of adversity, the House of Kassardjian, under his hand, propels forward — without hesitation, without faltering, and without the slightest compromise to the standard it has always kept.

IV

Patriarch & Sovereign Elder of the House

Patriarch Sixtus
Kassardjian

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It has always been the manner of Patriarch Sixtus Kassardjian — as it has been the manner of Haroutune Kassardjian, and as it was the manner of Aksor and Baron Kassardjian before them both — to befit the highest standing interests of the Republic of Ghana in all things and at all times. The character of this House was not formed in one generation. It was forged across them — and Patriarch Sixtus Kassardjian carries that forge-mark with the full authority of a sovereign elder who has seen, in his own time, what this House is made of and what it is capable of sustaining.

Where weak vessels have foundered — overtaken by the very conditions that the House of Kassardjian turns to its sovereign advantage — Patriarch Sixtus Kassardjian has endured. To endure, in the manner of the Kassardjians, is not merely to survive. It is to propel forward. To stand before the Republic in every trial and say, without hesitation: the House remains. The supply continues. The standard holds. Per Honorem Et Imperium.

Anno Domini — The 1940s

The following pages are drawn from the National Archives of the House of Kassardjian, covering the decade of the Nineteen Forties — a period of consequence not merely for this House, but for the Nation it served. These records stand as testament to the longevity, the discipline, and the unwavering commercial integrity of the Kassardjian enterprise during one of the most consequential eras in the history of the Republic.

Photographs and written records from the National Archives of the House of Kassardjian. All records held in the permanent custody of the House. Per Honorem Et Imperium.

Office & Address

The House of Kassardjian maintains its offices at the addresses set forth below. Those who seek the counsel, the provisions, or the standing orders of this House are received at these addresses — and nowhere else. The House of Kassardjian does not conduct its affairs by any lesser means than direct and proper engagement.

The House of Kassardjian does not convene a Privy Council by recent arrangement or passing convenience. Those admitted to the private knowledge and innermost deliberations of this House have arrived there by the only path this House has ever recognised — the path of demonstrated standing, of decades of mutual trust, and of a character that the House has found, across the full measure of time, to be equal to its own. The Kassardjian Privy Council has been what it is since long before it was given any name at all.

Richard Mourad Anooshian — Admitted Since the 1990s

Member of the Privy Council

Richard Mourad
Anooshian

JP Morgan Chase · 30 Years
Middle East & Africa
Global Petroleum
International Capital Markets
Wealth Management
·
HSBC · Barclays
Private Banking
·
Georgetown University
BSc · Arabic
Harvard University
AM · Middle East Studies

The relationship between Richard Mourad Anooshian and the House of Kassardjian did not begin in this decade, nor in the last. It began in the nineteen nineties — in the time of Baron Kassardjian, whose standing in the Republic of Ghana and whose reach across the international markets of the world were without equal. It was Baron Kassardjian who first received Mr. Anooshian within the confidence of the House, and it was in that period that the foundations of a relationship of the highest standing were laid — foundations that have not shifted in the thirty years since.

The trust of the House was thereafter extended — as it can only be extended within a dynasty, by blood and by proven standing — through Margrete Kassardjian, daughter of Baron Kassardjian, who carried the relationship forward with the same discretion and the same fidelity to the House that her father had established. It is now entrusted to Haroutune Kassardjian, Heir of the Kassardjian Dynasty — in whose hands the full weight of this relationship, as all the affairs of the House, now rests.

Mr. Anooshian served for nearly three decades as a senior officer of JP Morgan Chase, covering the Middle East and Africa across the divisions of Global Petroleum, International Capital Markets, and Wealth Management — the precise geography and the precise disciplines that have defined the commercial reach of this House across the generations. He thereafter held positions in Private Banking at HSBC and Barclays. His formation at Georgetown University and Harvard University is that of a man who has always moved at the intersection of sovereign commerce, international finance, and the affairs of Nations.

It is further a matter of the highest standing that the House of Kassardjian has maintained, across these same decades, a relationship of the most distinguished character with His Excellency former President John Agyekum Kufuor of the Republic of Ghana — a relationship that places the House and its Privy Council alike within the most elevated circles of sovereign and commercial affairs in this Nation and beyond its borders.

Three decades. Three generations of the House. One man, received first by Baron Kassardjian, held in trust by Margrete Kassardjian, and now entrusted to Haroutune Kassardjian. That is not counsel newly acquired. That is a Privy Council in the fullest and most unimpeachable sense of that word. Per Honorem Et Imperium.

Haroutune Kassardjian · Richard Mourad Anooshian · London

Haroutune Kassardjian & Richard Mourad Anooshian  ·  London  ·  The Kassardjian Privy Council

It has always been the manner of the House of Kassardjian to regard its relationship with the Republic of Ghana not as a commercial arrangement of convenience, but as a covenant of the most solemn and binding character — one that places upon this House an obligation that extends beyond the supply of goods, beyond the execution of contracts, and beyond the accumulation of standing. That obligation is the obligation of a Dynasty Merchant to the Nation that received it, trusted it, and permitted it to become what it is. The Kassardjian Foundation is the formal expression of that obligation — set forth not as an act of philanthropy, but as an act of honour.

A House that has furnished the roads upon which the Republic travels, the works by which it has risen, the petroleum by which it endures, and the machinery by which it builds — such a House does not merely trade with a Nation. It is woven into it. The Kassardjian Foundation acknowledges that truth and acts upon it — directing a portion of every facility originated by the House, every levy of standing collected, and every margin earned across every cycle, into the permanent development of the Republic of Ghana and its people.