Mayor Karen Bass announced the appointment of outgoing Los Angeles City Council Speaker Emeritus Paul Krekorian to serve as the new executive director of the city’s Office of Major Events, which will oversee the city’s handling of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as the 2026 FIFA World Cup and other large-scale events.
Krekorian will assume his new position once he leaves office on Sunday, when his term as City Councilmember concludes.
Krekorian will serve as the lead liaison between the mayor’s office and LA28, the private group organizing and paying for the Games. He will coordinate city departments, work with the business community and oversee an effort to beef up the city’s transportation networks.
Bass cited Krekorian’s “institutional memory” and “sound judgment” while announcing his appointment Thursday.
Following the election of a new City Council president in September, Bass praised Krekorian, calling him “one of the most consequential leaders and public servants that the City of Los Angeles has seen.”
He told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that he planned to stay in this position through the Olympic Games, which will kick off in August, 2028. Krekorian also told The Times that he wants to increase transparency around the financing of the Games, “because the city has a very strong vested interest” in the outcome.
Elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2009, Krekorian headed the powerful budget office, seeing the city through key turning points, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Krekorian was elected as Council President, a role he completed in September, when he stepped down to ensure a smooth transition of power, as his term concludes later this year.
Krekorian became L.A. City Council President at a tumultuous time. His predecessor, Nury Martinez, was forced to resign from her seat in the Council following a leak of a recording of her and other city officials making racist and disparaging remarks about their colleagues on the council and other ethnic communities, including Armenian-Americans.
In an interview with Asbarez in September, Krekorian reflected on the multi-pronged approach he took to not only bring order to the City Council, but, more importantly, to win the confidence of the constituents and L.A. residents, whose trust in the establishment was marred by not only the tape scandal, but also seeing three city council members being indicted on corruption charges.
Krekorian sounded an optimistic note about the 2028 Olympic Games being hosted in Los Angeles, saying that city will become the focus of the world.
During the interview with Asbarez, Krekorian also reflected back on some of the key milestones that not only addressed issues related to the Armenian Cause, but rather engaged and spurred fellow officials in the City of Los Angeles and State of California to take action on Armenian Genocide recognition and the protection of the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh.
Krekorian’s shepherding and eventual passage of a measure recognizing Artsakh’s Independence by the Los Angeles City Council paved the way for the State of California to take similar action, becoming one of the first states to recognize Artsakh’s right to self-determination. This was followed by establishing “Friendship City” ties between Los Angeles and Shushi, leading to the inauguration of the Friendship Square in Shushi. While Azerbaijan continued its blockade of Artsakh last year, Krekorian spearheaded the effort to create and inaugurate the Republic of Artsakh Square at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Granville Avenue in Brentwood, in front of the building that houses the Consulate General of Azerbaijan to Los Angeles.
A focal point of Krekorian’s service in the city council became the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the historic March for Justice—the six and a half mile march through the streets of Los Angeles by an unprecedented 160,000 people—to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In the interview, Krekorian reflected on the need to engage all facets of city government to ensure the smooth flow of the march. More important, however, was the effort to mobilize his colleagues in City Council and other key stakeholders in the city, county and the state to become active advocates for justice and advance the international recognition efforts for the Armenian Genocide.
