Me

I have spent past decade leading teams and projects; most importantly in consulting and advisory services to foreign investors and large companies in Iran in terms of marketing plan, local partners, political analysis, strategic planning, etc for companies like Shell, JTI, Nestle, OMV, Tetra Pak, Caterpillar, World Bank and BAT but my passions, however, go beyond this industry. I am looking for IMPACT everywhere and this is the reason I am co-founding member of two non for profit associations in Iran to improve the business environment in Iran in a responsible way and enable the ecosystem for entrepreneurs and tech Start-ups to promote or foster these concepts in public policy arena. I’m also keen on exploring how we can solve complex social issues through hybrid approaches including business, politics and technology.

So I started many initiatives locally and regionally to full fill these objectives such as CSR Campaign, Employee Volunteering Day campaign, Advocacy Campaign, Start-up weekend events, Tehran Hub for Social Innovation, Defining regional project with Turkey and Pakistan in partnership with US Chamber of Commerce, publishing more than 20 books and toolkits , cooperation with regulatory organizations to enter such best practices to public policy arena such as Tehran chamber of Commerce , Tehran Stock exchange ,Iran Parliament research center , Tehran City Council , Ministries, etc. Through this work, I have gained valuable insights in these areas and attempted to make the opportunities for others to get involved in responsible business paradigm and tech start-up community. I played a critical role in taking these organizations from inception of idea to initial execution to scaling into the national brand and reference it is today.

I joined Samsung Electronics to build their CSR strategy and action plan also their roadmap to be involve in innovation and start-up community in Iran. At Samsung I implemented diverse activities to increase Samsung engagement in the community from establishing Engineering academy. Smart school to building innovation center and holding technician Olympiad. I leads the sustainability process for Samsung and collaborates with local businesses, political bodies, and civil society. So these activities and the impact of the two non for profit associations which I was the cofounder intrigue the government and I was highlighted in the Media and dailies, so I have been accused by the ultra-radical editor of Iran’s Kayhan newspaper, of being as promoter of American liberalism, spying for the West and preparing a “velvet revolution” in Iran through working on innovative concepts such as Corporate governance and startup ecosystem and alleged that I am a main element of United State efforts to transmute revolution in Iran. Normally, I simply ignore silly accusations such as this. They are nothing new. I regard these insinuations as badges of honor, since they merely confirm that I do not subscribe to the ideological extremes of either of these groups. I have always felt that my reputation could speak for itself and required no public defense. Long story short, I was arrested on February 2015 and they closed forcefully the associations but my colleagues continue my way till now. Finally I was sentenced to 10 years in prison and I spent two years in prison and I was released based on the appeal court decision on Feb2018

Prior to working for the Samsung, I was an adviser for Tehran City Council and Iran Chamber of commerce. From 2008 to 2013, I served as the youngest member of the Iran chamber of commerce, representing youth interests and focusing on issues such as sustainability, Social responsibility, community development, Corporate Governance and business ethics.

I holds MA in Public Policy and executive MBA from Tehran University and studied at Nottingham University and Harvard University. As a fellow of American Young Political leader, I was a delegate to the United State and DePaul University in Chicago and selected for an internship in an Social innovation center in Chicago and in 2009 I was selected to participate in the Strategic Leadership Program for not for profit leaders at Harvard University . Also I was nominated as young philanthropic activist and prominent figure to promote volunteer activities in Iran by University of Tehran and biannual philanthropy national convention.

I grew up in a family where despite my family experiencing a constant struggle with the government system, my brothers and I were encouraged to be independent and open-minded. Since a young age and being the elder brother, I had to take responsibility as the so called surrogate head of the family to compensate for life’s general shortfalls.

I grew up in a country that due to 1979 revolution and the 8 year war with Iraq, every little problem was transformed into a major challenge. The most important issue faced by my friends and I was the ideological imposition of views from the government on society, leading to my generation feeling isolated from the international world. This was one of the influencing factors in my choosing Political Science as a topic of study.

At University, I formed a student body with a number of students and started publishing articles that investigated and assessed topical subjects from different dimensions. This experience contributed greatly to the successful completion of my dissertation which covered Corporate Social Responsibility, a topic which was also enthusiastically received by the University Supervisors. In parallel to writing my thesis I came up with the idea of establishing a committee comprising of a number of industrial associations, NGOs and the UNDP to promote CSR in Iran.

I founded the Corporate Social Responsibility Development Center (CSR Iran) in 2006. CSR Iran is a non-governmental organization that promotes corporate responsibility in Iran. It highlights the importance of business environment improvement especially through more sustainable practices. Since Iran, in the global rankings, it has scored 137, in doing business, 129 in good governance,169 in investor protection criteria and 69 in competitiveness, it highlights the importance of business environment improvement especially through more sustainable practices. Hence, with the agenda of developing domestic responsible business inside Iran, I started involving and also informing several stakeholders and key players nationally.

Building a network of university graduates and students was the first step in strengthening the human capacities of CSR Iran. Sending motivated members of this NGO to international conferences soon became the major path for broadening their knowledge and motivating them and furthering their insights by encountering the best practice international codes of responsible business conduct and applying them Iran. CSR situational survey of the country, conducted in 2009, brought much insight to the country and also reputation for several stakeholders who had triggered the acceleration of the NGO’s activities which was followed by the first Iranian CSR Marketplace and conference. My major aim in CSR Iran is to set the agenda of economic firms appreciating and living up to the idea of responsible business. So Developing the first CSR award, continuing industry specific researches on responsible business, developing MBA courses on CSR and Corporate Governance and drafting and preparing new national legislation submitted through Tehran Mayor’s office under the title of CSR Program for Municipalities, to officially recognize social enterprises as separate legal entities alongside traditional charitable/nonprofit organization and for profit businesses and launching employee volunteering campaign are the highlighted activities.

My efforts in CSR Iran which comprises of partnering in an EU funded project- (that is leading to the enhancment of corporate social responsibility in Turkey and Iran with one of our close partners in the region, CSR-Turkey), holding round table events between Iranian and Turkish business leaders and preparing a review which provides a solid knowledge base on the concept of responsible business. These activities improved my confidence in facilitating the goal of achieving the leveraged impacts of a developed Iranian business climate. CSR Iran has started a regional project on corporate governance in cooperation with partners from Pakistan, Turkey, Kosovo and CIPE. This is a multi-module project to be completed within two years in which I am a member of steering committee and Iran project manager.

Additionally, I have always been interested in the dynamics of social affairs and economic enterprises and their interconnection with innovation and technology. In 2012, I co-founded Iran Entrepreneurship Association to enable the ecosystem for young tech entrepreneurs. When IEA started its work, the startup ecosystem in Iran was almost non-existent. We noticed 3 main problems. One was there was no networking events, people were very isolated. The second problem was there weren’t a lot of business know-how. And the third problem was that a lot of the role models Iranians had, weren’t local. We knew a lot of good Iranian companies that were doing great things, but young nascent entrepreneurs didn’t have any access to them. One of the first things IEA did to fix these problems was bringing Startup Weekend to Tehran alongside other initiatives such as Iran Web and mobile festival and etc. I played a critical role in taking the organization from inception of idea to initial execution to scaling into the national brand it is today.

Since I’m keen on exploring how we can solve complex social issues through hybrid and innovative approaches including business and technology, I have started new initiative called Tehran Hub for Social Innovation is an entrepreneurship and technology innovation center focused on education (through classes and workshops), workforce development (through incubation), business acceleration, and economic development in technology and 21st century skills in partnership with Amirkabir University and Samsung. As a beacon of resource through physical space and curated programming, Tehran Hub provides impactful individuals and organizations the resources to realize their ideas for a better world.Tehran Hub is targeting young social entrepreneurs in the country, and focuses using technology and social innovation to address pressing social, economic and environmental problems in the country, while building a resilient ecosystem for social entrepreneurship.

My main academic interests lay primarily in Innovation Management in Social Enterprises and ,with a special focus on their application for human development. My research aims at studying the innovations that address the needs of communities and social challenges, especially the factors that enhance social impact among the target beneficiaries. So during last couple of years I conducted number of research and an extensive fieldwork and worked closely with a number of enterprises on their corporate responsibility practices and initiatives. So I published Iran Corporate Governance Country Report (2011), Iran CSR country report (2009) and Privatization, Business environment, CSR and Corporate Governance in Turkey Pakistan and Iran (2013).

I have been an invited speaker for various seminars and workshops on , Inclusive Business, Startup ecosystem, Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility , Business Ethics and Social Innovation for Sustainable Development.