Zara Sahakyan is a grants and financial management professional with more than 15 years of experience in financial oversight, project management, grant administration, and donor compliance.

She currently serves as Finance Manager at the Public Journalism Club (PJC) on a part-time basis, where she is responsible for the financial management of the organisation and its projects. Her responsibilities include budgeting and financial planning, cash-flow management, financial reporting, procurement, contract administration, donor compliance, and coordination of audit and expenditure verification processes.

Throughout her career, Zara has managed the financial and administrative aspects of more than 50 projects funded by the European Union, U.S.-based donors, UN agencies, and other international organisations. Her professional experience includes cooperation with the EU, BST, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDEF, CDC, the World Bank, NHC, NED, SIDA, the UN Trust Fund, CFLI, EED, and other international partners and donors.

She has supported more than 30 audits and expenditure verifications and has managed the finances of projects ranging from small-scale initiatives to complex programmes with budgets of up to USD 1.5 million.

Her areas of expertise include strategic financial planning, preparation and analysis of financial statements, budgeting and variance analysis, cash-flow management, forecasting, tax compliance, donor financial reporting, and the development and strengthening of internal financial procedures, control systems, and compliance mechanisms.