Dr. Firaydoun Javaheri is a former member of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Bahá’í Faith. He was elected in 2003 along with Hartmut Grossmann to fill the vacancies left by Ali Nakhjavani and Hushmand Fatheazam. He was born in Iran and holds a doctorate in agronomy, a branch of the agriculture sciences.
Dr. Javaheri lived in Gambia for 2 years and then Zambia for 25 years where he was Chief Technical Adviser for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He served the Bahá’í communities there in the area of social and economic development. In 1995 he was appointed a Continental Counsellor and served for 19 years as a member of its Auxiliary Board.
In 1996 as a Continental Counsellor he helped to inaugurate the Banani International Secondary School in Zambia, a private girls school for grades 8 through 12 based on the principles of the Bahá’í Faith. Kiser Barnes and Lali Warren were present too. At the time Kiser Barnes was a member of the International Teaching Centre and Lali Warren was Continental Counsellor.
Dr. Shapour Rassekh
Dr. Rassekh is an expert in sociology. He is also a former professor at the University of Tehran, and former Iranian Secretary of State for Economic and Social Planning. He worked as a consultant to UNESCO, the IIEP and IBE for many years. He is the author of several studies written for these organizations, including the contents of education: a worldwide view of their development from the present to year 2000 (1988 – in collaboration with G. Vaideanu); Perspectives on literacy: a selected world bibliography (1991); and Education et culture de la paix: sélection bibliographique mondiale (1996). He was co-editor of the report of the IBE curriculum development seminar for the countries of the Arabian Gulf held in Muscat, Oman in February 2001 on the theme “Management of Curriculum Change and Adaptation in the Gulf Region. He is among the editors of Payam-i-Baha’i international journal and has served as the member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Iran and later on, the Continental Board of Counselors in Europe.
Vahid Rafati, Doctor of Islamic studies from the UCLA, Author of numerous books and articles in Persian and English on “Studies of the Baha’i Ethics, History, literature” and completed some of the scholarly written works of the early Baha’is.He lives in Haifa where he worked as Director of the Research Department of the Baha’i World Centre for 30 years (1970- 2000). He continues with his research on Baha’i history. He is an excellent orator and stimulating teacher who through various presentations has opened many avenues for the Baha’i scholarships.
Vahid Rafati was born in Shiraz his family moved to Yazad and later on to Tehran where he studied and graduated from Tehran University in Phycology.
He entered the American University of Bruit, because of the civil war he was forced to continue his studies California USA where he received his PhD in Islamic studies from the UCLA.
By his endeavours Dr Davoudi’s work were collected and made ready for publication: “Man & the Baha’i Faith”, “Divinity & Manifestation”, ”Notes & Essays”.
To name a few books penned by Dr Rafati : “Celestial Existence”, “Biography of Fadel-Mazandarani”, Biography of Eshraq Khavari”.
Shane Tedjarati is responsible for driving Honeywell’s business expansion in High Growth Regions of the world: Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Before coming to Honeywell, Tedjarati accumulated more than 20 years of consulting experience in various industries. He was the regional managing director for Deloitte Consulting (Greater China), where he worked with Chinese stated-owned enterprises and multi-national corporations to help them formulate and execute strategies for sustainable growth in China and abroad.
Tedjarati is a Henry Crown Fellow of Aspen Institute and also the co-founder of its Middle East Leadership Initiative and China Fellowship Program; special advisor to Chongqing and Wuhan Mayors; member of the advisory board of Antai College of Economics and Management Shanghai Jiao Tong University; and industry Co-Chair of China Leaders for Global Operations (CLGO), a dual master’s degree program by MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
