Executive Board
Dr. Ali Mostashari is a Strategic Initiatives Advisor for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its New York City Headquarters. Concurrently he serves as a Research Affiliate at the MIT Complex Sociotechnical Systems Research Group. Ali was selected as a top candidate in UNDPs' Leadership Development Programme in 2004. During his tenure at UNDP, he has provided performance management and oversight for over $1.2 billion in development projects in sub-Saharan Africa. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Systems/Technology Management and Policy from MIT, a Master of Science in Enginerring Systems/Technology and Public Policy from MIT, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering/Transportation from MIT, a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering /Biotechnology from the University of Nebraska and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.
Siamak Namazi is partner and managing director of Atieh Bahar Consulting, Irans premier private strategic consulting firm. A frequent contributor to international publications and conferences on Iranian political and economic issues, he has appeared regularly as a commentator in domestic and international media, including CNN International, BBC World, The Financial Times, Fortune Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Reuters, The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, and Business Week. He is recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is a founding board member of the International Association of Iranian Managers (I-AIM). He holds an MS in Urban and Regional Planning from Rutgers University, where he studied under a Russell Fellowship and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.
Dr. Hazhir Rahmandad joined the faculty of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech in fall 2006. He received a Ph.D. in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his undergraduate degree is in Industrial Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. Before joining the faculty of ISE, he was a post-doctoral associate at MIT. Hazhir's current research interests include understanding the evolution of product development capability, organizational learning and change, making strategy happen, and simulation methodologies. He is an expert in System Dynamics modeling methodology and uses simulation models to build dynamic theories of organizational phenomena using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data. Moreover, he is conducting research on comparing different simulation methodologies in the context of policy design for fighting and preventing epidemics. Hazhir's main teaching interests include system dynamics, modeling complex business problems, and dynamics of new product development.
Dr. Ali Zuashkiani (I-AIM President) obtained his PhD in the field of Physical Asset Management (PAM) from the University of Toronto and is currently a post-doctoral associate at University of Toronto. At the same time he is working with Conscious Asset Management consulting group and Aryana Industrial Research Group in the area of PAM. His research areas include maintenance performance management, capital equipment replacement decisions, Condition Based Maintenance, and use of experts knowledge in decision making. He obtained his B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology in Industrial Engineering. Dr. Zuashkiani was awarded by the president of the country as the most distinguished student of Iran in 1999. He has been the chairman of the International Physical Asset Management Conference held in Tehran in August 2005 and 2006. He is a founding board member of the Knowledge Diffusion Network and International Association of Iranian Managers.