LOS ANGELES, CA - Hratch Karakachian was promoted to tax manager by Andrew Kane, managing partner of Arthur Andersen's Los Angeles office.

Karakachian has over five years of experience serving clients in owner-managed and emerging public and private companies in a broad range of industries including health care, financial services, entertainment and real estate. His recent client projects included providing tax planning services to a high net worth individual and assisting in the merger of two publicly traded real estate investment trusts.

Since graduating from USC, Karakachian has been heavily involved in numerous community organizations. Recently he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Armenian Film Foundation. For the last twenty years, the Armenian Film Foundation, an educational and cultural non-profit organization, has produced award-winning documentary films and videos on all aspects of Armenian heritage and life. The Armenian Film Foundation's current project is an epic three-part documentary series called "The Witnesses." Karakachian was co-chair of the committee that organized the very successful world premiere of Witnesses Part 1, "Voices from the Lake," chronicling the last days of Kharpert.

As a result of his volunteer efforts, Karakachian was awarded the Volunteer of the Year award, which was presented to him by Laurel and Walter Karabian at the annual Karabian Armenian Christmas celebration.

A Certified Public Accountant, Karakachian received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accounting, and a Master of Business in Taxation, from the University of Southern California, where he was an Accounting Scholar. At USC, he was actively involved and held leadership positions in several student organizations. Most notably, he was a founding member and Chairman of the USC School of Accounting Honor Council. Karakachian lead the student-run Council in investigating, conducting hearings and rendering decisions on reported ethical infractions by students of the Accounting School. Upon graduation, he was admitted to membership in the Golden Key Honor Society and Beta Gamma Sigma, the business honors fraternity.

Founded in 1913 in Chicago, Arthur Andersen is one of the world's largest global professional service organizations. With revenues in excess of $8.4 billion, Arthur Andersen's more than 77,000 professionals deliver a broad range of services from Assurance, Tax and Business Consulting to eBusiness, Human Capital and Risk Consulting in 84 countries.