Employee Spotlight: Raffi Handian

  

Raffi Handian, Website Specialist   

 

When employees have a question regarding the MLGW website, chances are Raffi Handian has the answer. He’s been with the Division since before websites were a big deal. He says, "We had over 17 million page views since the start of 2018. That's a little over two and a half years. That's a lot of page views." 

Despite the serious nature of his work, Raffi started working at MLGW in 2000 in Corporate Communications and definitely has a reputation as the department's jokester. With some prying, we got him to open up a little.

The best part of his job:
Being able to interact with literally every department and every employee at MLGW on various projects.
 
How COVID has affected his work:
I still come into the office every day to work on some items that I cannot work on from home. Once those tasks are completed, I work from home the rest of the day. Since almost everyone else in my department works from home, it is interesting in the mornings. It’s so quiet in a department that was previously full of people all around.
 
Something most of his coworkers don't know about him:
I'm a filmmaker on the side and have made a few indie films. I also love to eat! My favorite has been sushi for over 20 years now but I love trying new things all the time. My favorite restaurant that I've dined in is Iron Chef Morimoto's. I've eaten at three of his restaurants around the country. I love shows and concerts also and have seen everyone from Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Frankie Valli, Prince, Duran Duran (three times), Foo Fighters (eight times) and hundreds more.
 
What can we find you doing on a Saturday afternoon?
These days, just chillin' at home - watching sports, playing PlayStation, listening to music and snacking.

I love all the big sports, basketball, baseball, football, soccer. Most of my favorite teams I've stuck with since childhood. Although, in basketball it changed from the 76ers to the Grizzlies for obvious reasons. For baseball, I follow the LA Angels; Football, the 49ers; Soccer, Germany -  has my favorite national team and my favorite club team - Bayern Munich.
 
I usually just play sports games on PlayStation - NBA 2K, Fifa, MLB. I play Nintendo Switch with my fiancé and we play all the Mario series games together, but she always beats me in those -- especially in Mario Kart!

Music, really anything of a mix from the 60s till around 2010. I have a few smart home speakers so that makes it easier to play anything I want at any time. I'll probably play a lot of Christmas music soon!
 
Snacking: Swiss cheese, Pistachios. Chips. Caviar. And I love ice cream and frozen yogurt. Usually coffee flavored but now I've been on a Dole Whip flavor kick since our Disneyworld vacation last year.

And finally, his hidden/secret talents:
I don't really have any secret talents. Any of my limited number of talents are out in the open.