Sarkissian has been one of the longest serving ambassadors of any country to the United Kingdom, a role to which he was first appointed in , before returning in and Sarkissian served as the first chairman of the Global Council on Energy Security at the World Economic Forum , with which he has had a long association. He authored numerous scientific articles and was a speaker and commentator on international affairs.
From to , he was assistant and later associate professor of Physics at Yerevan State University. In , he became a visiting research fellow and visiting professor at the University of Cambridge. Sarkissian was one of the co-creators of the Tetris spinoff game Wordtris. In an article in the Hollywood Reporter in March , Sarkissian detailed the tense and dramatic events surrounding the creation of Wordtris and its sale to Spectrum Holobyte.
In April, he appeared on a podcast alongside Henk Rogers, the co-founder of Tetris, and Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of the game whom he had last seen in the Soviet Union. In , Sarkissian was elected Prime Minister of Armenia. In his short tenure, he initiated significant economic and political changes, including the abolition of the Ministry of Information, which paved the way for press freedom for the first time since Armenia's independence in He also presided over a restructuring of Armenia's energy sector, which had suffered serious setbacks during the war with Azerbaijan, and oversaw reforms in the government and civil service.
Sarkissian resigned in after being diagnosed with cancer [2] and was succeeded by Robert Kocharyan. Sarkissian also built a lucrative private career as a consultant and business adviser to some of the world's biggest multinationals.
Sarkissian's focus in these roles has often involved supporting democratic leadership, preventing and resolving conflict through mediation, and prompting good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law.
