Hrag Manuel Hamalian currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Bright Star Schools (BSS), having served as the Head of Schools and Chief Cultural Officer of BSS from 2013 to 2015. Hrag has strategically grown BSS from four to nine schools, creating community based clusters that provide TK-12 education for nearly 4000 students in three unique neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Prior to joining Bright Star, Hrag founded Valor Academy Middle School, a high performing 5-8 grade charter school in Los Angeles. Hrag helped lead the strategic merger of Valor and Bright Star in 2013, the first merger between two successful charter organizations in Los Angeles. Hrag is also cofounder of Liveguide, an online marketing tool for colleges, non-profits, and businesses to recruit for diversity, as well as HIVE, a non-profit online accelerator dedicated to increasing technology start-ups in Armenia. In 2011, Hrag was the recipient of Boston College's prestigious Gold Award, honoring him as alumnus of the decade. Hrag holds a double-major degree from Boston College in Biology and Honors English, a Masters in Secondary Education from Loyola Marymount University, and a Masters in Business Administration from UCLA. Hrag is a Broad Academy Fellow, Aspen Institute Fellow, an Achievement First Accelerator Fellow, a Building Excellent Schools Fellow (BES), and a Teach for America Corps Member (TFA). He currently serves on the Board of Directors for ExEd and Building Excellent Schools (BES).