2017 Speakers
THE TRANSCENDENCE OF IRANIAN CUISINE
Hoss Zaré
Renowned San Francisco-based Chef Hoss Zaré is a San francisco–based chef, renowned in the culinary world for his distinctive style that reframes Iranian cuisine to heighten it while simultaneously making it more accessible to the world. He grew up on his family’s century old farm in Tabriz, Iran. In 1986 he immigrated to San Francisco, where his older brother owned and operated the iconic Billboard Café. In 1989, while enrolled as a pre-med at UC Davis, his passion for cooking would have him drive every day from Davis to San Francisco to work as a line cook at the historic Fly Trap Restaurant. This is where owner Walter Zolezzi and Chef Craig Thomas mentored Zaré to the rank of Executive Chef. In his twenty-five year plus career, Chef Hoss Zaré has established a loyal following while at the helm of several restaurants including Aromi, Zaré Sacramento, and Bistro Zaré. After a stint in the Napa Valley, fate would bring him back to the restaurant where his culinary journey began. Chef Hoss Zaré owned and operated Fly Trap Restaurant from 2008 to 2016. During this time he began to draw from the flavors and memories of his childhood and honed in his unique style. Known for his exuberant service and hospitality, or rather “Hoss-pitality”, a term coined by fans and a play on his first name—he often embraces guests with Hossy-Hugs and a smile before any service. Chef Hoss Zaré has received awards and praises, and has been the subject of several publications. Currently, he is working on a memoir and recipe book dedicated to his parents, and also consulting and traveling in his spare time. |
Nilou Motamed
Editor-in-Chief, Food & Wine Nilou is currently a judge on Season 16 of Bravo’s award-winning series Top Chef, and has been named one of AdWeek’s 30 Most Influential People in Food. Nilou most recently served as Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine, one of the world’s leading culinary media brands, with an audience of more than 13 million. Prior to Food & Wine, Nilou was the first-ever Director of Inspiration for Conrad Hotels & Resorts, where she reimagined the guest experience and concierge programs for 24 luxury properties around the globe. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of Condé Nast’s Epicurious. During her tenure, the digital food brand saw record-setting site traffic and unprecedented growth. As the longtime Features Director & Senior Correspondent for Travel + Leisure, Nilou oversaw the magazine’s coverage of restaurants, hotels, shopping, culture, and trends in luxury travel. Under her watch, T+L was nominated for eight James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. In addition to her featured role on Top Chef, Nilou is a frequent guest on national television, including NBC’s Today and CBS This Morning. She hosted the Travel Channel’s series Travel Spies and the restaurant review show Reservations Required. In 2017 Nilou leveraged her global network and expertise in food and travel to co-found Story Collective, a consultancy specializing in brand voice, strategy, and storytelling for the world’s top luxury hotels, restaurants, and destinations. Nilou is a regularly featured speaker at international travel and food conferences, and a longstanding panelist for the James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards. Born in Iran, raised in Paris and New York, Nilou attended Binghamton University and the Sorbonne, and is fluent in four languages. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, writer Peter Jon Lindberg. |
Andy Baraghani
Senior Food Editor, Bon Appetit |
Louisa Shafia
Author |
OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO EXCHANGE
Ali Khademhosseini
Francis Friedman Professor of Physics, MIT Ali Khademhosseini is the Levi Knight Endowed Professor at the University of California-Los Angeles. He holds a multi-departmental professorship in Bioengineering, Radiology, Chemical, and Biomolecular Engineering. He is the Director of Center for Minimally Invasive Therapeutics. |
Saba Valadkhan
Biomedical Scientist; Principal Investigator, Valadkhan Labs Dr. Saba Valadkhan is an Iranian American biomedical scientist, and an Assistant Professor and RNA researcher at Case Western Reserve University. Saba Valadkhan was born in Tehran in 1974 to bright parents who had a great influence on her. She was qualified as a medical doctor in Iran, before moving to the United States to pursue post-graduate study at Columbia University in New York. In 2005, she was awarded the GE / Science Young Scientist Award for her breakthrough in understanding the mechanism of spliceosomes – “akin to finding the Holy Grail of the splicing catalysis field” – a critical area of research, given that “20 percent or 30 percent of all human genetic diseases are caused by mistakes that the spliceosome makes” . As a result of this success, Valadkhan received many invitations by universities to take up a research post. In 2004 she joined the Center for RNA Molecular Biology, one of the top research centers of its kind located at Case Western Reserve University. She is currently a biomedical scientist and assistant professor and RNA researcher there. |
THE PERFORMING ARTS & IDENTITY
Omid Farokhzad
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Physician-scientist, Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital Omid Cameron Farokhzad is an Iranian- American physician, scientist, inventor, nanomedicine technologist, and entrepreneur. Farokhzad is a Professor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Nanomedicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. |
Mehran Kardar
Francis Friedman Professor of Physics, MIT Mehran Kardar is an Iranian born physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He received his B.A. in physics from the University of Cambridge, and obtained his Ph.D. from MIT. |
Navid Negahban Actor Born in Mashhad, Iran, Mr. Negahban caught the acting bug at the age of eight, when his portrayal of an old man drew laughter from a large audience at an elementary school play. His passion for acting led him to Germany where he spent eight years honing his theatrical skills prior to arriving in the United States. Sometimes called "the man of a thousand faces," Navid’s credits include Showtime's Emmy-winning original series Homeland, American Sniper, Baba Joon, The Stoning of Soraya M, Brothers, Powder Blue, Charlie Wilson's War, and Words and Pictures, as well as countless other television, film, and theatrical productions. |
Sarah Shahi Actress Aahoo Jahansouz "Sarah" Shahi is an Iranian-American television actress and former NFL Cheerleader of Iranian and Spanish ancestry. She played Kate Reed in the USA Network legal drama Fairly Legal in 2011–12, Carmen on The L Word in 2008, and also starred as Sameen Shaw on the CBS crime drama Person of Interest. |
Max Amini Comedian Max Amini is an Iranian American comedian. He is trilingual in English, Persian and Azerbaijani. Max Amini was born in Tucson Arizona, to Iranian parents who immigrated to Arizona. He was raised in the East Coast where he went to a high school in Washington, D.C. and then moved to California and graduated from UCLA's school of Theater, Film and Television in 2004. As an actor, Max has numerous film and television credits including NBC's Heroes, regular appearances on Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia, and a leading role in the film How Beer Pong Saved my Life. |
FROM HEALTHCARE TO DATING: IRANIAN-AMERICAN INNOVATION
Alexi Gharib Nazem
Co-Founder and CEO, Nomad Health Alexi Gharib Nazem, MD, MBA, is the co-founder and CEO of Nomad Health, the first online marketplace for freelance clinical work. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. Previously, he led national field operations for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s successful 100,000 Lives Campaign. Alexi trained in internal medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston after receiving an MD from Yale and an MBA from Harvard. He also holds a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale. |
Leila Pirhaji
Founder and CEO, ReviveMed Leila Pirhaji is an experienced computational biologist and entrepreneur with a PhD from MIT. She is Founder and CEO atReviveMed, an award-winning, AI-driven drug discovery platform using metabolomics. |
Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer
Co-Founder and CEO, AirPR Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer is the Founding CEO of AirPR, a technology platform to increase PR performance. He was a former Entrepreneur in Residence at Shasta Ventures focused on consumer internet and the social graph. Prior to joining Shasta, Sharam was a Senior Associate at Sierra Ventures focused on consumer internet, enterprise software (cloud computing / virtualization), and mobile. He served as a Board Observer at Makara (sold to RedHat) and TouchCommerce. Prior to joining Sierra, Sharam was in Mergers and Acquisitions at JP Morgan. Sharam began his career as a technologist at Appian Corporation, a business process management software startup. At Appian, he managed the first enterprise-wide tracking system for the Department of Homeland Security, concurrently managed the development of three software products, delivered training seminars, and authored white papers, best practices documents, and technical notes on Web Services. Sharam has lectured at universities, events, and conferences, and judged business plan competitions at Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford. He is also an advisor and mentor to eLab (Princeton University's Accelerator), Dorm Room Fund (First Round Capital Accelerator), and Acceleprise (Enterprise Technology Accelerator). Sharam graduated with honors with a BSE in Computer Science from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Born in Syracuse, NY, Sharam played NCAA Division I ice hockey and is fluent in Farsi. He also enjoys barefoot waterskiing and playing with new technologies. |
Shayan Zadeh
Founder and CEO, Leap Rail Shayan is founder and CEO of Leap Rail, an AI startup helping hospitals to run more efficient and streamlined operating rooms through power of machine learning and predictive analytics. Previously, Shayan co-founded Zoosk, one of the world’s largest online dating platforms and a top 10 grossing app in the Apple App Store. Shayan led Zoosk as CEO for 7 years, raising over $60M in venture capital and growing the company to over $200M in annual revenue. Prior to founding Zoosk, Shayan was a program manager and software engineer at Microsoft. Shayan received a Master in Computer Science from University of Maryland, and an MBA from University of Washington. He has been named to 40 Under 40 list by San Francisco Business Times and Alumni Hall of Fame by University of Maryland. In addition, Shayan is an angel investor and advisor to startups such as Medopad, Sherbit (acquired by Medopad), Mavatar, SnapShip, PaperKarma (acquired by reputation.com), Identified (acquired by Workday) and AppComputing. In his free time, Shayan enjoys bicycling, tennis, and playing with his dog, Ivy. |
THE U.S AND IRAN: WHAT'S NEXT?
Bernadette Meehan
Director of International Programs, Obama Foundation Bernadette Meehan is the Chief International Officer at The Obama Foundation. Previously a career Foreign Service Officer for thirteen years, Bernadette served in a variety of assignments in Washington and overseas. From January 2016 to January 2017 she served as a Senior Advisor at the White House National Security Council, conducting negotiations with the Government of Cuba and overseeing a series of regulatory changes and migration agreements. From August 2015 to August 2016 Bernadette was an adjunct professor and resident fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. In June 2015, Bernadette completed her first three years of service at the National Security Council, most recently as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Spokesperson for the National Security Council. Prior to her assignment at the National Security Council, Bernadette served at the State Department as Special Assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her overseas diplomatic assignments include Dubai, Baghdad, and Bogota. In 2007 Bernadette was selected as a Powell Fellow, recognized as one of the 12 most promising future leaders in the Department of State. Prior to joining the Department of State, Bernadette was a Vice President of Private Banking at J.P. Morgan and Vice President of Asset Management at Lehman Brothers. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in Political Science. A native of New York, Bernadette speaks Spanish and conversational Arabic. |
Jon Finer
Fellow, Institute of Politics; Former Chief of Staff and Director of Policy Jon Finer was Chief of Staff and Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, where he previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. Before that he worked for four years at the White House, including as Senior Advisor to Deputy National Security Advisor Antony Blinken and as Special Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa and Foreign Policy Speechwriter for Vice President Joseph R. Biden. He joined the Obama Administration in 2009 as a White House Fellow, assigned to the Office of the White House Chief of Staff and the National Security Council Staff. Prior to entering government service, Jon was a foreign and national correspondent at The Washington Post, where he reported from more than 20 countries and spent 18 months covering the war in Iraq, embedding with the U.S. Marines during the 2003 invasion and based in Baghdad in 2005-2006. He also covered conflicts in Gaza (2009), Russia/Georgia (2008) and Israel/Lebanon (2006); the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign; and the 2004 Major League Baseball playoffs. Jon spent a year in Hong Kong as a Henry Luce Foundation Scholar, working as a reporter and editor at the Far Eastern Economic Review. He has a law degree from Yale, where he co-founded the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project; an M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and an undergraduate degree from Harvard. He was born and raised in Norwich, Vermont. |
CLOSING REMARKS
Dr. Cyrus Amir Mokri
General Counsel, JP Morgan Chase & Co's Corporate and Investment Bank
Cyrus Amir Mokri is currently the General Counsel at JP Morgan Chase & Co's Corporate and Investment Bank. Previous to that, he was a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Treasury Department.
Cyrus was a senior legal and policy advisor to the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He participated in the legislative process that led to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and subsequent implementation through rule making. He also served as the agency's deputy representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council as liaison for inter-agency affairs.
Cyrus is recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor given for outstanding contributions by immigrations to the United States. Cyrus is a graduate of Harvard College.
General Counsel, JP Morgan Chase & Co's Corporate and Investment Bank
Cyrus Amir Mokri is currently the General Counsel at JP Morgan Chase & Co's Corporate and Investment Bank. Previous to that, he was a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Treasury Department.
Cyrus was a senior legal and policy advisor to the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He participated in the legislative process that led to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and subsequent implementation through rule making. He also served as the agency's deputy representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council as liaison for inter-agency affairs.
Cyrus is recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor given for outstanding contributions by immigrations to the United States. Cyrus is a graduate of Harvard College.
