David Davtian is a cigar entrepreneur, international industry figure, and the founder of DAVTIAN Premium Cigars — a boutique cigar house based in Santiago, Dominican Republic, producing handcrafted premium cigars from select tobacco grown in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, the United States, and other premier tobacco regions. With more than two decades of professional experience spanning manufacturing, distribution, retail, consulting, event production, and brand development across four continents, Davtian has established himself as one of the most versatile and internationally connected figures in the modern premium cigar industry.

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His connection to cigars began in childhood, through his grandfather and his father — a well-known cigar aficionado whose home humidors introduced him early to the world’s finest brands. In the early 1990s, that personal passion became a professional calling when Davtian gained firsthand exposure to the international cigar trade through Switzerland, Austria, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the United Kingdom. During this formative period, he had the rare privilege of meeting legendary figures who shaped the modern cigar world: Zino Davidoff, the visionary founder of the Davidoff brand; Henke Kelner, master blender behind Davidoff’s Dominican production; Cano Ozgener, founder of CAO International; José Orlando Padrón, patriarch of the Padrón cigar dynasty; and Carlos Fuente, the legendary head of Arturo Fuente. Beyond these encounters, Davtian cultivated deep, lasting friendships with several of the most iconic Armenian figures in the global cigar world — including Avo Uvezian, the celebrated jazz musician and creator of AVO Cigars, whose brand became one of the pillars of the Davidoff portfolio; Edward Sahakian, the revered founder of Davidoff of London on St James’s Street and Habanos Man of the Year honoree, whose family has set the global standard for luxury cigar retail for over four decades; and Dr. Paul Garmirian, the scholar, author of The Gourmet Guide to Cigars, and creator of PG Cigars, whose clientele has included American presidents. These relationships, united by shared Armenian heritage and a devotion to the art of the cigar, placed Davtian within a remarkable circle of industry titans.

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Davtian launched his professional career in the early 2000s through distribution and retail operations that expanded across Armenia — including duty-free operations at Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport — as well as Georgia, Russia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. He spent seven years studying tobacco cultivation, curing, and production in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Honduras, building the deep technical knowledge that would later inform his own manufacturing. In 2006, he was elected President of the Armenian Cigar Association, a position he has held with distinction ever since, organizing cigar business and etiquette training programs with official certification and authoring more than 30 published articles on cigar etiquette, history, and industry culture.

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Since 2007, Davtian has been an active member of the Premium Cigar Association (PCA) in the United States. Throughout his career, he has organized major international cigar events in partnership with leading luxury and hospitality brands including Marriott International, Pernod Ricard, Bentley, and Aston Martin — among them the internationally recognized High Smoke Festivals and regional Big Smoke events that have brought together aficionados, manufacturers, and luxury partners from around the world.

In 2011, Davtian made the pivotal decision to relocate permanently to Santiago, Dominican Republic — the historic capital of Dominican cigar production — where he founded DAVTIAN Premium Cigars. The brand employs third- and fourth-generation Dominican blend masters and rollers, and its commitment to natural fermentation, curing, and aging has earned it recognition across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and North America. DAVTIAN cigars are carried by prominent retailers, featured on the InterTabac business platform in Dortmund, Germany — the world’s leading tobacco trade fair — and have attracted international press coverage, including in Cigar Journal, one of the industry’s most respected publications. The DAVTIAN Mestizo was nominated for the Cigar Journal Cigar Trophy Awards 2020 in the “Best Value Dominican Republic” category, placing the brand alongside globally established names such as La Aurora, VegaFina, and Kristoff.

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Beyond his own brand, Davtian’s expertise extends to international consulting. He has participated in an expert group advising on cigar business development in the Middle East and Gulf countries, and currently serves as President of Cigar Prof, an international professional cigar consulting group headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, providing strategic guidance on private label creation, lounge design and operations, brand positioning, events, and market development. He is an honorable member of numerous prestigious cigar clubs and societies and has been among the sponsors of the Cigar Smoking World Championship (CSWC) in Split, Croatia — a prestigious international competition that draws competitors and aficionados from around the globe.

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In 2026, Davtian is preparing the launch of ORITOS Mini — a new line of handmade premium mini cigars whose name, Spanish for “little golds,” draws on a Dominican tradition of farmers setting aside the finest, most precious portions of an exceptional harvest. ORITOS represents both the continuation of the DAVTIAN commitment to quality and an invitation to a new generation of cigar enthusiasts seeking an accessible entry into the premium experience.