Empowering 1800 Future Iranian-American Leaders by PAAIA

There are powerful special interest groups in American politics with racist or radical views against Iranians, and nothing scares them more than seeing the ever increasing population of successful Iranian Americans. And no public policy advocacy group seem to be more organized and efficient in empowering the estimated 1.2 million Iranian Americans better than PAAIA: the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans.

Last Sunday (May 10, 2009), at the conclusion of the two-day "Knowledge is Power" Iranian Future Leaders' First Annual Conference held at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) , PAAIA sponsored a first-in-kind gathering of some of the most accomplished Iranian Americans to share their experiences with the next generation of leaders. The talented and well-connected Rudi Bakhtiar (former CNN anchor and current PAAIA's director of Public Relations), and the popular actor/comedian Maz Jobrani, co-hosted the forum with a fitting title "Passing the Torch of Success."

The "sold-out" event was planned by Babak Hoghooghi, Director of PAAIA, and attended by an unprecedented 1800 young students, professionals and progressive celebrities like Andy and Tehran. The following is the lineup of the distinguished speakers:

- Parisa Khosravi (pictured above), Senior vice president of CNN who joined the giant cable network as a student intern and is now in charge of the international newsgathering for CNN worldwide. Her advice for the younger Iranian-Americans was to "Go after what you like in life."

- Dr. Pardis Sabeti, (pictured above) an MIT, Harvard and Oxford educated evolutionary geneticist who CNN calls one of the geniuses of our time. She is also the lead singer and bass player of the Rock band Thousand Day.

- Dr. Firouz Naderi (pictured above), Associate Director of NASA’s JPL and the former Mars Exploration Program Manager who headed the Program during the spectacular landing of the rovers on Mars. Dr. Naderi encouraged the audience not to let the Press or others define the Iranian-American community, and instead define ourselves by working harder than non-immigrants, and in jobs we love. He shared that in his own life and career, he was a constant learner, and as soon as he got comfortable in a job or position, he deliberately moved on to another, where he could learn and grow again. In answering one of the questions by the audience that "Do you believe in luck?", Dr. Naderi indicated: "You have to put yourself in a position to get lucky and if/when the luck comes you should be able to capture it."

- Dr. Hamid Biglari (pictured above), Princeton nuclear physicist turned Wall Street executive who today manages a global business in 140 countries with over a trillion dollar of assets at Citigroup. He called his three career transitions from Physicist, to Manager/Consultant, and then to Wall Street executive, as three Re-births. He emphasized the extreme importance of being a good listener in life, and called "success" an outcome, and not a goal, of any process or project.

- Sam Nazarian (pictured above), a Hollywood young mogul who in his early thirties presides over an empire of hotels, restaurants and nightclubs frequented by the young, famous and successful. Sam encouraged everyone to allow, help and empower others to follow their dreams.

- Omid Kordestani (pictured above), Vice President of Google and a force behind making this iconic company a worldwide phenomenon, and among Time's list of "100 people who shape our lives." The topic of his speech was: "Life is messy, Take the lead". He suggested that the audience communicate with diverse people (of diverse backgrounds and talents), and a person's value and success in life is often determined by the values/success of his/her friends and partners.

The event was followed by a reception for the speakers.

PAAIA, the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans, is a non-partisan, non-sectarian, national grassroots membership organization dedicated to bringing the Iranian American community together, to project an accurate and positive image of Iranian Americans,  and to build a highly respected and influential voice for the Iranian American community in the U.S. political process. They often avoid direct involvement with foreign policy issues but focus on domestic U.S. policies and issues affecting the Iranian American community.

PAAIA is striving to build local chapters and membership base in different cities to foster and strengthen grassroots community relations among Iranian Americans. To become their member or learn more about them you can visit their website: www.PAAIA.org.

(The following picture of audience, courtesy of Bita Milanian publicist and founder of Butterfly Buzz, who greatly helped with publicity of such great event)