Izak Parviz Nazarian

Izak Parviz Nazarian
Born 1929
Tehran, Iran
Residence Beverly Hills, California
Occupation Businessman, philanthropist
Spouse(s) Pouran Nazarian
Children Benjamin Nazarian
Dora Nazarian
Dalia Nazarian
Daphna Nazarian
Relatives Younes Nazarian (brother)
Neil Kadisha (son-in-law)
Sam Nazarian (nephew)

Izak Parviz Nazarian (born 1929) is an Iranian-American business mogul and philanthropist. A co-founder of Qualcomm, he is a Managing Partner of Omninet Capital, an investment vehicle. He is a major donor to charitable causes in California and Israel. He helped modernize the Israeli electoral system.

Early life

Izak Parviz Nazarian was born in 1929 in Tehran, Iran.[1][2][3] His father died when he was five years old.[4] His mother opened a sewing shop.[2] He has a brother, Younes Nazarian.[5] He grew up in Tehran, where he was educated at the Alliance Israelite Universal Elementary School and the Technical High School.[3] In 1943, in the midst of World War II, he worked as a waiter's assistant on a United States Army base in Iran.[2]

At the age of eighteen, he moved to Italy, where he became a member of the Haganah in Genoa in 1947.[3] On 17 May 1948, three days after Israel had become an independent nation,[4] he made aliyah to Israel, where he served in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War as a member of the 7th Armored Brigade.[1] He was wounded in a mining explosion and stayed in hospital for five months.[4] Unable to fight, he resumed his service in the Israel Defence Forces and became Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir's chauffeur.[1]

Career

Nazarian started a gravel transportation business shortly after his service with the IDF.[1] He acquired trucks and hired drivers to move gravel to construction sites in Israel.[1] He also owned a cement factory in Yarka.[2] He returned to Iran in 1957, where he expanded his construction business and oversaw the construction of many government buildings.[1] He enjoyed close ties with the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.[1]

During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, his name was on the kill list.[1] He went into exile in the United States, settling in Los Angeles.[1] By 1985, he co-founded Omninet with Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi, initially to track the flow of trucks from one construction site to another.[1] The start-up, which merged with Qualcomm, has become one of the world's largest chipmakers.[1][4] As Nazarian is a major shareholder, he has become a billionaire.[1]

Additionally, he serves as a Managing Partner of Omninet Capital, "a diversified investment firm in the fields of private equity, real estate and venture capital",[4] and Managing Partner of Omninet Ventures.[6] He is also the Chair of Stadco, "a leading producer of high-precision tooling and parts for the aerospace industry."[4]

Philanthropy

Prior to 1979, Nazarian was an advocate of women's rights in Iran.[7] Once in the United States, he worked with Armand Hammer to help Soviet Jews escape to Israel in the 1980s.[3][7] He is a co-founder of the Iranian American Jewish Federation, headquarted in Los Angeles.[3]

Nazarian is the founder of the Magbit Foundation, a non-profit organization which gives scholarships to university students in Israel.[4] He has made charitable contributions to Tel Aviv University (where he endowed the Chair for Modern Iranian Studies),[7] Ben-Gurion University, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science.[4] He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University,[3][7] where The Pouran and Izak Parviz Nazarian Building is named in honor of Nazarian and his wife.[8] Moreover, he was recognized as one of four "philanthropic visionaries" alongside Guilford Glazer, Jona Goldrich and Max Webb by the American Friends of Tel Aviv University at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in 2013.[7][9]

In 2003, he founded the Citizens Empowerment Center in Israel (CECI), a non-partisan organization which promotes election reform in Israel.[1][10][11] In 2009, he published an opinion piece entitled 'Israel must address flawed electoral system' in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.[12]

Personal life

He is married to Pouran Nazarian.[4] They reside in Beverly Hills, California.[2] They have a son and three daughters.[4] One of them, Dora, chairs the American friends of CECI.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Niv Elis, How an Iranian changed Israel’s electoral laws, The Jerusalem Post, 03/12/2014
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Araleh Weisberg, Nazarian’s mission, Israel HaYom, June 24, 2012
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Humanitarian Award Recipients: Mr. Izak Parviz Nazarian, Magbit Foundation, April 21, 2013
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 Tom Tugend, Iranian Jews struggle with segregation, presumption and assimilation -- how the stranger became the Angeleno, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, February 22, 2007
  5. ↑ Yoav Yitzhak, Nazarian family negotiating to acquire Discount Bank, Globes, 01/02/2004
  6. ↑ Izak Parviz Nazarian, Bloomberg Business
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 American Friends of Tel Aviv University: Passing the Torch
  8. ↑ Tel Aviv University: Pouran and Izak Parviz Nazarian Building
  9. ↑ Ryan Torok, Philanthropists honored for lifetime of giving, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, June 27, 2013
  10. ↑ Tom Tugend, Israel’s electoral vote revision got boost from Los Angeles philanthropist, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 14, 2014
  11. ↑ Tom Tugend, L.A. philanthropist gives boost to Israel’s electoral vote revision, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 19, 2014
  12. ↑ Izak Parviz Nazarian, Israel must address flawed electoral system, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 27, 2009

External links