December 18th, 2014
The 1979 Iranian Revolution caused an exodus of its people who left the country in search of safer havens. You can say that the Iranian Revolution helped globalize Iranians by creating a large diaspora scattered throughout different continents. According to various sources, in 2010, there were an estimated four to five million Iranians living abroad, mostly in North America, Europe, Persian Gulf States, Turkey, Australia and the broader Middle East. Their combined net worth is estimated at $1.3 trillion (2006 est.)
In 2000, the Iran Press Service reported that Iranian expatriates had invested between $200 and $400 billion in the United States, Europe, and China, but almost nothing in Iran. One Iranian has chosen to return to Iran and invest in the country. Recognizing mismanagement as Iran’s curse at both the private and public sectors, an Iranian expatriate, Rouzbeh Pirouz, decided to do something about it in 2007 and conceived the Iranian Business School (IBS), a graduate institution in Tehran, Iran, focused on teaching Iranians advanced business management concepts.
IBS started offering classes in 2010 and already hundreds of Iranian men and women have enrolled and attended classes. In cooperation with Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, IBS is offering an Executive MBA (EMBA) program.
On Oct. 4, 2013, the IBS received an Office of Foreign Assets Control license from the U.S. government allowing it to raise funds as a charity in the United States and to bring American faculty to teach in Tehran and pay them.
Admission to IBS requires the Karshenasi (undergraduate degree equivalent to the US Bachelor’s), five years of work experience and English language proficiency. TOEFL and IELTS test scores may be required of those who had completed their previous studies at a non-English speaking institution.
Classes at IBS are structured to include lectures, seminars, case studies and interactive simulations highlighting the challenges of managing business in Iran. International experts, mainly prominent Iranian-origin academics, will work closely with the local faculty. Programs at IBS are bilingual: Persian (Farsi) and English.
Mr. Pirouz believes that isolating Iran only helps the hard-liners and not the people. According to Mr. Pirouz: “An Iran integrated in the global economy, with a growing private sector, will be good for Iran and the world.” He hopes that IBS will help promote this vision through its cohorts of graduates and help from the Iranian diaspora.
Jasmin Saidi-Kuehnert
President & CEO, ACEI
