Aram Sahakian

LOS ANGELES—Aram Sahakian was appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti as the interim general manager of the city’s Emergency Management Department, the Mayor’s office announced Thursday.

“I am proud to appoint Aram Sahakian to the position of interim general manager for our City’s Emergency Management Department. For two decades, he led L.A. Department of Transportation emergency response, preparedness, and homeland security programs. His training and credentials are second to none. From the 1994 Northridge earthquake to the 2015 Special Olympics, Aram was integral to our efforts to keep Angelenos safe and help our communities recover from disaster. Leadership of EMD is a natural next step for him and for the City of Los Angeles,” said Garcetti in a statement.

Sahakian’s interim appointment takes effect May 16.

Prior to this appointment, Sahakian led the Special Traffic Operations Division responsible for the management of major special events in the City of Los Angeles and for all traffic management strategies for emergency response and homeland security programs.

As the Transportation Engineer in charge of the Special Traffic Operations Division since 2001, Sahakian has worked in close coordination with other City, State and Federal agencies to direct and supervise the planning and execution of complex traffic management and security plans for presidential motorcades, political debates and gatherings, first amendment marches, events at venues requiring infrastructure protection, the transportation of the space shuttle Endeavour, as well as such large-scale productions as CicLavia, the LA Marathon, LA Triathlon, the Grammys, the Academy Awards and last year’s Armenian Genocide march, which drew 166,000 people.