Introduction
Established in 1997, Persia Educational Foundation is a non-governmental UK-registered charity. Its mission is to promote education and advancement of Persian-speaking communities worldwide. It provides knowledge and means to our partners and co-workers in order to encourage open and connected education leading to self-sufficiency and independence.
Persia’s primary target among this population are women and girls. Persia advances that:
- Only through education individuals and communities can reach their actual and true potential while protecting their rich heritage.
- Women, as mothers and first educators of the next generation, offer greater potential to impact the community.
- Promoting and accessing education and training is a universal right and key to achieving Agenda 2030.
- Education and advancement of women and girls is the key to establishing a culture of peace and prosperity.
About Us
The Foundation is comprised of the following bodies:
- Board of Trustees who oversee the overall development of the Foundation in accordance with UK charity laws. The board meets twice a year.
- Core Team, which is composed of its London-based Trustees and Executive Director. The Core Team meets on a bi-monthly basis.
- Staff, Consultants and Volunteers. Persia is managed by its Executive Director on a daily basis. It also benefits from a media consultant, two education consultants and three cohorts of volunteers each year. Persia also benefits from a range of ad hoc panels, task forces and committees. Persia’s financial matters are administered by an accountant and independent auditor in association with its Treasurer and Secretary.
Who we are
Dr. Parviz Mina
Dori Dana-Haeri
Dori Dana-Haeri is a seed investor in start-up companies. She founded and is the Managing Director of DDH Consultants, a strategy and marketing consultancy for growth through innovation. She is a former Director and Founder of Acrostic, an investment banking firm specialising in alternative asset classes. She is also a former General Partner, in charge of fundraising, and a member of the investment committee of Eden Ventures, a £130m venture capital fund. Dori maintains an active role in several charities and advisory boards. She holds an MBA from University of Bath.
Nazenin Ansari
Nazenin Ansari is the Founder and Secretary General of the Board of Trustees of Persia Educational Foundation.
The Managing Director of the multimedia Kayhan-London, she is a Trustee of the Foreign Press Association in London, she serves as on the Board of Directors of Encyclopedia Iranica at Columbia University. Elected to the governing Committee of the Foreign Press Association in London, she served as President, Vice President and organised “Women as Agents of Change” symposium.
Nazenin has worked with and been a member of a number of educational and charitable foundations, including the Friends of Persian Language Society at Cambridge, Benefactors of Kahrizak, the Iran Heritage Foundation, the award-winning Mihan Foundation, the Popli Khalatbari Foundation and Magic of Persia. She is a member of Chatham House, the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Kamran Hashemi
Kamran Hashemi has worked in investment banking in London for over 30 years. He has been a long standing supporter of educational and charitable organisations serving the community at large. Kamran is a member of the Board of Arseh Sevom and previously founding member and member of the Board of Iranian Community Centre established in 1983 to offer legal advisory services to asylum seekers in London, member of the board of trustees of Science and Arts Foundation and a founding member of United4Iran-London.
Abdolreza Ansari (1930-2020)
The late Abdolreza Ansari, one of our founding trustees, was a well-known personality in contemporary Iran. Educated in Iran and the United States, he held several key posts to develop his country and improve life for its citizens: Treasurer General, Minister of Labor & Social Affaires, Minister of Interior, Founder of Workers Welfare Bank, Governor General and Managing Director of Khuzestan Water & Power Authority, Deputy Chair of the High Council for Celebration of 2500 anniversary of Persian monarchy at Persepolis, Managing Director of the Imperial Organization for Social Services, which supported over sixty charitable organisations. He planned and implemented the National Campaign for Philanthropy, and the country-wide program for protection of families who had lost their support.
While living far from post revolutionary Iran, he continued to dedicate his time and resources to advance the Iranian community. For more information please see “The Shah’s Iran, Rise and Fall” on www.ibtauris.com
Reza Ansari
Reza Ansari obtained his BS and MBA from the Wharton School and MA from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.
Reza is the Vice President of Global Value Creation, EMEA (Europe Middle East & Africa), at the EMEA headquarters of the Estée Lauder Companies, in Paris.
Reza has held positions of increasing responsibility at the Estée Lauder Companies in the US, Asia and Europe, over the past 20 years. His positions have included: Director of Corporate Strategy, Executive Director of International Finance & Strategy (Estée Lauder brand); Regional Director of Asia and President of Korea (Aveda brand); Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Initiatives, EMEA; and most recently Global General Manager (Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle brand).
Dr. Nina Ansary
Nina Ansary is an award-winning Iranian American author, historian, and leading authority on women’s rights in Iran. Her books Anonymous Is a Woman: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality (Revela Press/2020) and Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran (Revela Press/2015) garnered multiple awards, including the 2016 International Book Award in “Women’s Issues” (Jewels of Allah) and the 2021 Benjamin Franklin Book Award in “Interior Design” and “History” (Anonymous Is a Woman). She is the Director of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) Global Women’s Lecture Series and the Director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) at The Middle East and North Africa Forum at the University of Cambridge.
In 2017, she was invited to be a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Women, Peace and Security and in 2018, she was appointed as UN Women Global Champion for Innovation. She is the recipient of the 2020 Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award, the 2019 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the 2018 Barnard College, Columbia University Trailblazer Award, and has been recognized as one of “10 Inspirational Women (who) Should be Household Names” by The Hill, one of “Five Iranian Visionaries You Need to Know” by The New York Times and one of “14 Privileged Women to Change the World” by Marie Claire.
Dr. Ansary has appeared on CNN International, Fox News, Larry King, the BBC, Sky News and been featured in a variety of publications, including Time, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, Teen Vogue and the Yale Journal of International Affairs. She regularly presents her work on women’s rights at universities including Columbia, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the UN Social Good and Girl Up Global Leadership Summits. Ansary holds an MA in Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies and a PhD in History from Columbia University. She serves on the International Advisory Board of the Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum (MENAF); a think-tank based at the University of Cambridge, the Board of Trustees of the Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF), and the Board of Directors of My Stealthy Freedom (MSF); an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Iranian women’s actions to secure their rights.
She can be found on Twitter (@drninaansary) | Instagram (@ninaansary) | Facebook (facebook.com/ninaansary)
Dr. Shaheen Fatemi
Dr. Shaheen Fatemi is a Professor Emeritus of Economics at the American University of Paris and the University of Akron in the United States of America.
Dr. Tahirih T. Danesh
Tahirih T. Danesh (PhD law) is a researcher in the use of technology and education to advance access to socioeconomic rights. She manages Persia’s programmes, projects and daily affairs on behalf of our Board of Trustees. To contact Tahirih please email: [email protected]