Sofi Armenakian joined the Hawks and State Farm Arena in 2020 and currently is the Head of Sustainable Strategy. As she oversees the sustainability department for the award-winning venue, she was the first employee in the organization to be tasked with leading sustainability efforts with a focus on zero-waste operations for the franchise and the first person to hold a title in sustainability across the NBA. Under her leadership, the arena has hosted over 600 zero waste events. Her focus in her role is in three key areas including environment social and governance (ESG), guest and employee engagement as well as future of sustainable operations, which lie in automation.

Prior to joining the Hawks, she worked as the Conversion and Sustainability Manager for Mercedes-Benz Stadium as part of AMB Sports & Entertainment. During her time with AMB Sports & Entertainment she created the sustainability department to help start the venue’s journey to becoming zero waste. To grow awareness and encourage fans to participate in zero waste efforts, Armenakian created “Recycle & Win” (RaW), a surprise-and-delight engagement with fans who were seen in the act of recycling while attending the venue. ‘Recycle and Win’ was implemented into all events hosted at Mercedes-Benz Stadium from 2018-2020.

Before transitioning into sports and entertainment, she worked for ESSEX Consulting Group Inc. as a business development and marketing director, focusing on data-driven sustainability solutions. Prior to energy consulting, she worked in retail as a general manager, district trainer and recruiter. Sofi served as a board member at CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) until June 2024 and regularly volunteers with CHaRM, Trees Atlanta and Chastain Horse Park. Born in Armenia, Sofi is trilingual and speaks English, German and Armenian. She graduated from Georgia State University and resides in Atlanta.