Author: kangal.naz

Meet Marici

Meet Marici

The Sustainable Brand Changing the World of Luxury

Wednesday, 22 June 2022, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

Featured by Selfridges, the world’s top department store, Marici is the first plant-based producer of unique luxury accessories. By bringing beauty and sustainability together, Marici is revolutionising the world of luxury accessories by not only looking good but doing good, all the way from its design studio to your most memorable moments.

Marici is a Sanskrit word meaning ray of light. It is a reference to the plant-based leather perfected under the sun, and the inner beauty of every woman, shining like the sun.

Marici founder, Amanda Navaian, is a British-Iranian who houses her beautiful collection in the heart of Chelsea, London’s most exclusive district.

In collaboration with Dr. Carmen Hijosa, the academic researcher behind plant-based leather, Amanda’s stunning creations help put an end to the environmental degradation caused by both animal and synthetic leather luxury goods.

Every Marici piece is designed as an enticing investment to beautify and enrich our life, going from one generation to the next. Mindful materials, kindness to earth, return on investment, innovative technology and conscious consumption define Marici’s products building a community of interest that champion the best for their own self and society.

From newly-patented materials to the latest awards in fashion, the House of Marici is saving our world while beautifying our life.


About our Panelists

AMANDA NAVAIAN

Founder and Creative Director of Mārīcī

Amanda is a luxury designer and entrepreneur with extensive experience in niche luxury and slow fashion. She demonstrates her passion for values and ethical entrepreneurship in her sustainability-centric creations. The British-Iranian designer launched Marici to bring her belief in the oneness of humanity and the interconnectedness of nature and life. After breaking new grounds in London and Paris, Amanda became a top seller of luxury accessories. In 2018 her Marici products generated more revenue for Bloomingdale’s than Valentino, Chloe and Stella McCartney.  In 2021 she was selected to feature Marici as part of Selfridges Project Earth Initiative. Amanda is passionate about innovation, education and uncovering opportunities hidden in challenges.

DR. CARMEN HIJOSA

Founder, Chief Creative and Innovation Officer of Ananas Anam Ltd

Originally from Spain, Carmen’s career has taken her around the world. The journey of Piñatex® – a natural plant-based material made from pineapple leaf fibre – began when she realized the toxic impact of mass leather production while consulting in the Philippines. Driven to find an alternative solution, Carmen undertook a PhD at the Royal College of Art (UK) to develop Piñatex. As a result, she has spearheaded a vibrant new industry that is socially, environmentally and economically responsible.

RAHA DIXON

Chief Executive Officer at Tailor Here

A US native (by way of a study detour in Sydney Australia), Raha Dixon is not only an influencer in all things buzzworthy including entertainment, fashion and pop culture; she cares about how she got there as well as the people she’s met along the way. She’s a proud single mom and has reinvented herself numerous times. A lawyer in her past life, who has written for publications such as the LA Times, People Magazine and InStyle, Dixon has more recently landed in the fashion world with the creation of her company Tailor Here. Working with her mother Nanaz Hatami, they collaborate with prominent stylists to create glamorous looks on major celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Kate Hudson, Naomi Campbell, Kerry Washington and Katy Perry. Raha Dixon is a respected and established resource in the media and fashion industries and we are proud to have her on our team.

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2022 Recipient of the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship

The UK-based charity established this unique scholarship to continue the legacy of Professor Mirzakhani, one of the younger accomplished Iranian women, whose life was dedicated to breaking new grounds.

This year, the Scholarship was awarded to Ayda Afshar, a young but outstanding PhD candidate with several academic publications focussed on biomedical engineering. Advancing research on effective release mechanism for wound healing, she is exploring the latest on bone tissue regeneration in a multidisciplinary environment in order to optimise efficacy and impact on human health and wellbeing. She carries out this work through the UCL Mechanical Engineering Department Edirisinghe Biomaterials Processing Laboratory.

An award winner of the UCL PhD Mechanical Engineering Conference in 2021, her laboratory-based reports and research help shine a new light on bone mineral density with a particular focus on hip implants. The impact of her work extends well beyond boundaries of the UK, leading to collaborations with a range of important institutions in the United States, the Gulf countries and continental Europe.

In addition to her academic work, Ms Afshar is a community health volunteer and a scientific writer. Persia is proud to welcome this outstanding Iranian-descent scientist to its family of Mirzakhani scholars, and looks forward to her continued success during the years ahead.

Persia Educational Foundation established the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship in remembrance of the first woman, an Iranian, to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics, the late Stanford Professor, Dr. Maryam Mirzakhani. Each year, an independent panel selects the recipient of the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship from among eligible applicants. The results are announced on 12 May, marking the anniversary of the birth of Professor Mirzakhani (12 May 1977 – 14 July 2017). The scholarship is designed to empower Iranian-descent women studying sciences, technology, engineering or mathematics at UK’s top research university, UCL.

In addition to Persia Mirzakhani scholarship, the foundation offers the Abdolreza Ansari Scholarship. The scholarship is designed to support the education of students of Iranian descent, of any age or citizenship, enrolled in a Master or Doctorate programme in human rights or public service at an internationally accredited university in the UK or beyond.

Persia Educational Foundation is a non-governmental UK-registered charity. Its mission is to provide scholarships and educational opportunities to Iranian descent students throughout the UK. To support more students, please contribute to Persia’s Scholarship Scheme. Please note 100% of your donations plus the additional 25% Gift Aid are awarded to eligible students studying at UK universities. In this manner, for every Pound of your donation, £1.25 are donated to an Iranian descent student. 

To find out more and arrange contributions, please email us at: info@persia.education.

How Do We Improve Public Policies & Citizens’ Lives?

Wednesday, 11 May 2022, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

How do we improve the communities we live in and serve the homeland we share? How do we make policy and decision-making a process that promotes and protects the values essential to just policies in administering public affairs?

The desire to excel and succeed drives many of us. The vision to improve lives inspires many more of us. One way to do this is through the use of technology. More specifically, it helps us build access to information that helps map track and influence policy.

In our May webinar, meet two Iranians whose stellar records point to experiences and insights into this very process. They will help us gain a better understanding of improving civic processes that make democratic values not only an aim for the elected officials but a reality for the average citizens.


About our Panelists

S. Rob Sobhani

Business Executive and International Policy Expert

With 25+ years of outstanding international business accomplishments, S. Rob Sobhani is a globally recognised thought leader with the ability to take a vision and turn it into reality. A foremost specialist on global energy markets and top-valued consultant at the highest levels of government in the U.S., the Arab world, and Asia on issues related to US foreign policy and energy, Dr. Sobhani is an expert in areas of international finance, negotiations, energy security and infrastructure development. He holds a strong board experience with multiple startup and early-stage tech company board appointments. He has created multiple e-commerce patents to leverage corporate sales and sales for online merchants.

Naeim Khanjani

CEO of Electo Analytics

A leading entrepreneur in American GovTech, Naeim is the CEO of Electo Analytics, a public affairs software company based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2020, Electo Analytics works to bridge the gap in public affairs information access, thereby empowering policy teams of all sizes to reach their goals.

In 2021, Forbes recognized Naeim on their Next 1000 list. The list honors entrepreneurs who are shaping the future of business. Naeim has an MBA and holds experience in consulting both domestically in the United States and in the MENA region.

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Human Impact & Iran’s Water and Environmental Security

Wednesday, 20 April 2022, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

Featuring a leading expert in this field the webinar will present unique insights into the nuances of how human and natural processes are largely intertwined, and the manner in which they form new hybrids of natural-human systems.

Our webinar will begin with a brief conceptual overview on what natural-human systems, in particular human-water systems, are and how they are formed. We will then learn about a practical definition for water security and focus on human roles in the advent of one of Iran’s flagship water security crises, the Lake Urmia. Insights obtained locally at the Lake Urmia is then upscaled to provide a holistic and country-wide understanding of the states of the surface and ground water resources, along with their interactions with human decisions and management practices as well as other elements of environment.

Our distinguished presenter will also outline future challenges and opportunities for Iran’s water security, particularly under climate change conditions, increasing population, and declining land and water resources.


About our Panelists

Dr. Ali Nazemi

Associate Professor in the department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Dr. Nazemi’s research looks at characterizing current and projecting future interactions between climate, land, water and human systems at local, regional and global scales. He was one of the recipients of prestigious Dorthey Hodgkin’s Postgraduate Award from the UK government from 2005 to 2009 and currently serves as the co-chair of hydroclimatology panel of the World Climate Research Programme’s Global Energy and Water Exchanges core project. Apart from observing, capturing, and reflecting on water cycle and the environment includes it, Dr. Nazemi is interested in good books, good arts, and good music.  

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Young Inventor Extraordinaire

Wednesday, 11 May 2022, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

A Toronto City Youth Councillor, Mental health advocate, and Quantum physics inventor. At the tender age of 17, his start-up explored the “Quantum Analyzer sensor based on the photoelectron’s radiation detection”.

In 2020 Nouraee was selected as a Young Leader Delegate to participate in the Future Skills Conversation. This extraordinary event is hosted by the Economic Club of Canada and the Global Institute for Conscious Economics, with keynote speaker, Barack Obama.

Earlier in 2021 Nouraee, an electrical engineering student, represented Canada among the top 1,000 inventors from 35 different countries at the prestigious invention and innovation awards by the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA) based in Geneva, Switzerland. After walking away with the bronze medal, he began to receive increasing attention from both Canadian and international media.

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Persia Educational Foundation Welcomes 2022 With A Call for Applicants

The webinar included distinguished panellists including well-known journalist, Amir Taheri, Persia Trustee, Nazenin Ansari, neuroscientist and human rights advocate, Mahmood Amiri-Moghaddam, and award-winning Oxford student, Sam Loni. The panel was moderated by One Young World Director, Safoora Biglari.

Panellists highlighted the human right to education encapsulated in Mr Ansari’s fervent belief that investing in youth education would further global prosperity. This belief stemmed from his own experiences as an American educated Iranian with an outstanding record of service to Iran and the world. Mr Ansari made significant contributions to the modernisation of Iran as Treasurer General, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Minister of the Interior, and Managing Director of the Imperial Organisation for Social Services. Following a life dedicated to public service and philanthropy in his homeland, Mr Ansari established the Persia Educational Foundation in London, UK, to support Iranian descent students studying abroad. The Facebook Live webinar is available on Persia’s YouTube channel.

In addition to the Ansari Scholarship, the Foundation offers the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship for Women in STEM, now in its fifth year. To expand access to its education scholarships, Persia is now accepting applications for the coming academic year. More information on Persia’s scholarships and application forms is available on its website at: www.persia.education

Persia Educational Foundation is a UK-registered charity. It provides educational support to Iranians with an ambition to give back to their communities through the pursuit of public service. Persia is gift aid registered and welcomes 100% of your donations to its scholarship fund at https://www.persia.education/donate/

The above was published on Kayhan London site.

Open Up: Building Stronger Ties

Wednesday, 19 January 2022, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

Our January webinar will feature an Iranian-American serial entrepreneur whose latest startup addresses this very challenge by using an innovative approach to team building for remote teams in the post-pandemic ecosphere.

OpenUp’s mission is to help corporations develop stronger interpersonal relationships through meaningful conversations. Its unique platform enables people to have open-ended conversations, guided by questions curated based on the intentions of the group. The goal of these conversations is to forge deeper bonds among the participants by building empathy, discussing past experiences, present values, and future aspirations, and sharing resources and ideas.

OpenUp is made for all types of communities, including corporations, social media groups, community organisations, neighbourhoods, human rights violation survivors, business teams, and educational institutions.

OpenUp is free to use on both iOS and Android, and is available in over 160 countries worldwide. For more information or to download the app, please visit: https://openup.chat


About our Presenters

Sina Eghrari

Entrepreneur

Over his 22-year career as a serial entrepreneur, Sina Eghrari has co-founded over six companies, balancing a blend of software development expertise and business acumen, to consummate projects for Fortune 500 brands and startups alike.

More recently, Sina was co-founder and CTO of San the Francisco-based digital advertising agency, SocioFabrica, where he lead technology professional services for clients such as Ross Stores, eBay, and NTT. Earlier in his career, Sina co-created e-commerce company Payless Decor, where he operated every aspect of the business, building the company to $2.4m annual revenue. After selling Payless Decor, he co-founded an interactive advertising platform, raised $3.8m between debt and equity, and grew the core team quickly to keep up the growth.

Sina graduated first in his class from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the age of 19. He went on to design computer chips for Intel and Motorola, then returned to Georgia Tech to complete a Master’s degree in Computer Science. Sina is the CEO of OpenUp Inc.

Alvaro Gomez

Head of Growth at OpenUp and Founder of Goguru Consulting

At only 26 years old, Alvaro Gomez has been part of the creation and launch of 4 successful startups. Originally from the South of Spain, at the age of 18, he went to study computer engineering at the most recognized university in his country. Despite being the first in his class, he dropped out before completing his first year to co-found Mencanta: the tinder for fashion. Later he was the CMO and co-founder of Lola Market, the leading app in Spain to sell groceries online, billing more than €1 million a month in just two years and recently being acquired by Glovo. With the experience he learned, Alvaro founded Goguru Consulting to help other Startups grow such as Scoobic.com, Playtomic and Claps.ai. After meeting Sina kitesurfing in the Dominican Republic, he is now the Head of Growth at OpenUp with the dream to help millions of employees around the world be happier in their workplace.

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Persia Ansari Scholarship & Human Rights Day

Friday, 10 December 2021, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

Earlier this year, in honour of one of Persia Educational Foundation’s founding trustees, Persia established and began to accept donations for the Abdolreza Ansari Scholarship.

It was Mr Ansari’s fervent belief that investing in youth education would further global prosperity. This philosophy and his illustrious career inspired the establishment of the Persia Educational Foundation, to support and empower Iranian youth and young professionals.

Mr. Ansari entered Iranian politics as a hard-working graduate, eager to help modernise his homeland and contribute towards its growth. It is therefore fitting that his legacy should live on in the form of a scholarship fund aimed towards Iran’s best and brightest, those dedicated to a life in public service and human rights.

Applications submitted by eligible Iranian descent students in a Master or Doctorate programme at an internationally accredited university in the UK or beyond, will be reviewed by an independent panel to select the recipient.

To mark the inauguration of this scholarship, and Human Rights Day coinciding with the first anniversary of Mr. Ansari’s passing, Persia and Kayhan Life will hold a webinar at 17:00 UK on Friday, 10 December 2021.


About our Panelists

Nazenin Ansari

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.

Amir Taheri

Writer, Editor and Author

From 1984 to 1987, Amir Taheri was editor-in-chief of Jeune Afrique, the French weekly specializing in Africa. Between 1980 and 1984 he was Middle East editor for the London Sunday Times. He also wrote for the daily Times and contributed to The Daily TelegraphThe Guardian, and the Daily Mail among other leading British publications. Between 1972 and 1979 he was the executive editor-in-chief of Kayhan, Iran’s main daily newspaper. He has been a columnist for the pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat and its sister daily Arab News since 1987. Taheri has been a contributor to the International Herald Tribune since 1980. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and The Washington Post. Between 1989 and 1995 Taheri was editorial writer for the German daily Die Welt. He has also written for other publications including Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, La Repubblica, L’Express, Politique Internationale, Le Nouvel Observateur, and El Mundo in Spain. Currently he is a contributor to the German weekly Focus. Taheri has published nine books. In 1988 Publishers’ Weekly in New York chose his study of Islamist terrorism, Holy Terror, as one of The Best Books of The Year.

Sam Loni

Program Director at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)

 Sam has an extensive background in sustainable development and works at the intersection of public policy, economics, and environmental change. He has been recognised by Forbes Magazine as one of Asia’s top under-30 social entrepreneurs, by the Nobel Peace Prize Forum as a young peacebuilder, and by the NAAEA as an environmental leader. He serves on several international boards and committees, including Mission 4.7, the Lancet COVID19 Commission, the UN-SDSN Leadership Council, the Global Citizen Policy Committee, the UN-MGCY board of directors, and the UN-LEASH Innovation Labs. He is currently undertaking graduate studies at the University of Oxford with a focus on the economics of sustainability, where he has been the recipient of several academic awards including the Sir Walter Raleigh Scholarship, the Rotary Scholarship, and the Saïd Foundation Scholarship.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam

Neuroscientist and Human Rights Advocate

Amiry-Moghaddam completed his medical studies in 1996 at the University of Oslo, and later obtained a PhD at the Center for Neuroscience and Molecular Biology[1] in that university. In 2004, he received the King’s gold medal for the best medical doctorate at the University of Oslo. Amiry-Moghaddam has been a collaborator to Peter Agre, who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2003. Amiry-Moghaddam spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in 2006. Today, he works as a Professor in Medicine and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Oslo. He is also co-founder and spokesperson for the NGO Iran Human Rights[6] which monitors the violations of human rights in Iran.

Safoora Biglari

Director of Community at One Young World

responsible for maintaining engagement with OYW’s key stakeholders and its community of 13,700+ Ambassadors who are affecting positive change across every sector, in every country in the world. Safoora and her team create and connect Ambassadors with growth opportunities, bespoke programmes, leadership development, media visibility and impact measurement. Notable 2020 programmes include the Covid-19 Young Leaders Fund which provided nearly $500,000 in support to young leaders on the frontlines of the pandemic response, and successful collaborations with the World Bank, Obama Foundation, Hamilton Commission, and 20+ multinationals.

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“My Life in Art” with Omid Constantin Djalili Stanislavsky

Wednesday, 18 October 2022, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

According to his website, Omid Djalili is “an actor/comedian who spends most of his time trying to keep his weight down by yoyo dieting and playing football in West London still hoping to get spotted by Brentford Football Club.”

Djalili first began to attract comedy fans in 1995 by pioneering ethnic comical performances that not only made audiences laugh, but also made them think about our collective reality.

Since then, he has performed for millions around the planet. Alongside his standup career, he has starred in some of the biggest box office hits of all time, starting with the Gladiator and The Mummy, and including Spy Game, Notting Hill, Sex and the City 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, Over the Hedge, The Infidel and Casanova.

He is no stranger to TV comedies, including Whoopi Goldberg’s NBC sitcom, Whoopi, and two series of his own “Omid Djalili Show” on BBC. He is currently the host of ITV quiz show, Winning Combination.

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Iranian Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

Wednesday, 6 October 2022, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)

In 2017 Persia Educational Foundation established a scholarship fund in honour of the late award-winning Stanford mathematician, Maryam Mirzakhani. Professor Mirzakhani was the first woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics.

The scholarship is designed to support education of Iranian descent women of any age or citizenship enrolled in a Master of Science or final year of a Doctorate programme studying STEM at the prestigious University College London.

Our panel includes the amazing Persia Mirzakhani Scholars Mahtab Farahbakhsh, Niaz Shokri, Negar Shahrezagamasaei and Sara Javidnia, and will be moderated by the distinguished Dr. Eli Keshavarz-Moore, Professor of Bioprocess Science & Enterprise, Chair, UG Exam Board, Vice-Dean (International) and Careers Liaison Officer at University College London.

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Persia provides educational support to Iranians worldwide who have the ambition to give back to their communities through the pursuit of public service. Established in 1997, Persia Educational Foundation is a non-governmental UK-registered charity, No. 1066546.


© Persia Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.  Charity No. 1066546