Omid Kordestani, Google Sales VP: Educate People About Iran

Omid Kordestani: Educate People About Iran

Google Billionaire Stresses Understanding

Omid Kordestani, Google's Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development, was born in Tehran in 1963. An electrical engineering major, Kordestani joined Google as its 12th employee in 1999, and is credited with helping generate billions of dollars in revenue for the company.

In 2006 Kordestani was named by Time magazine as one of the "100 People Who Shape Our World". In September 2007, Forbes ranked him #204 in its Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, with a net worth of $2.2 billion.

Like most Iranian Americans living in the U.S. after the revolution, Kordestani experienced prejudice about his background while growing up in California, and is clearly cognizant of the cultural misunderstanding which prevails even today. "After 9/11, the whole region was painted with the same brush," Kordestani told Bob Cooper of the San Francisco Chronicle in July 2007. "Americans need to understand that Iran is not an Arabic country and Iran is not Iraq."

Kordestani, who is one of the founders of PARSA Community Foundation, a Persian heritage, entrepreneurship and philanthropic society, also emphasizes the need to educate others about the history of U.S.-Iran relations, as in this excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle piece:

Kordestani, 43, knows his success is as much a product of luck as diligence. The family left Iran the year before Khomeini seized power, so instead of theocrats, he had to deal only with the taunts of a few lunkheads at his San Jose school during the Iran hostage crisis. "Iranian kids at other schools got in fights, but I dealt with it by trying to educate them. I told them, 'Did you know the Iranian government [before the Shah] was overthrown by the CIA?' "

VIDEO: Omid Kordestani's farsi language public service announcement for BAIVOTER [Bay Area Iranian American Voter Association], encouraging the community to vote and participate in the democratic process.