Katcho Achadjian

Katcho Achadjian graduated in 1976 with a degree in business administration. Achadjian immigrated to the U.S. in 1971 at the age of 19 and attended Cuesta College before transferring to Cal Poly. While earning his degree, Achadjian worked at a Shell station in Arroyo Grande. In 1978, Achadjian bought that Shell station, following in his father’s footsteps as a small-business owner. Achadjian owns three petrol stations on the Central Coast. He also served 17 years as director of Santa Lucia Bank and co-founder of Central Coast National Bank. Achadjian served three terms as the 4th District County Supervisor for San Luis Obispo County. While serving on the Board of Supervisors he also served four years on the California Coastal Commission. He was elected to the California State Assembly in 2010, representing San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties through 2016. His voting record, with an emphasis on supporting small businesses, earned him praise from the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Small Business Association. As the descendent of genocide survivors, Achadjian was the principal co-author of the Armenian Genocide Education Act, which requires every school district in California to include the Armenian Genocide in its curriculum for grades seven through 12. Achadjian and his wife Araxie (Business Administration, ‘90) have stayed connected to their alma mater. Throughout his career Achadjian has mentored students, spoken to classes, and supported the university. Recently he expressed a new idea to President Jeffrey D. Armstrong, to teach students how to author a bill and go through the process to make it a law. Armstrong connected Achadjian with political science Professor Chris Den Hartog and in 2018 the California Bill Project class began, taking 15 students through the Learn by Doing process of developing a bill, from its first inception to drafting the legislation and bringing it to a vote. On Aug. 27, 2018, then Gov. Jerry Brown approved the law created by the class, AB 2385, urging textbook companies to increase transparency between textbook editions.