Zaven Yegavian was born in Aleppo in 1943.

He is an Armenologist and linguist who graduated from the Sorbonne with a degree in linguistics, simultaneously graduating from the Paris Langues’O Institute (INALCO) in 1963. Yegavian completed his Armenological Studies at Yerevan State University, where he lived from 1964 to 1971. He was the director of the Armenian Students House at the Cité Universitaire de Paris from 1972 to 1984.

He joined the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, where he served as director from 1984 to 2011. An author in the field of Armenological Studies, Yegavian initiated the Madenakirk Hayots publication series of ancient manuscripts, supported Armenian language teachers, and contributed to the construction and renovation of Armenian schools in the Middle East.