Ehsan Bayat

Ehsanollah "Ehsan" Bayat (Persian: احسان الله بیات, born July 15, 1963), is an Afghan American business entrepreneur residing in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida , United States.^[1] He is originally from Ghazni. He is an ethnic Turkmen from the Bayat tribe, and his family belongs to the Qizilbash community of Afghanistan.

Ehsan Bayat is the Founder and Chairman of The Bayat Group^[2], Afghanistan's largest diversified services company. The Bayat Group's operations in Afghanistan include:

Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), which serves approximately 5,000,000 subscribers throughout Afghanistan. AWCC was Afghanistan's first wireless company and established Afghanistan's wireless telecommunications sector.

Ariana Television Network is Afghanistan's largest private media organization, broadcasting to all 34 provinces and reaching an audience of approximately 25,000,000 Afghans.

Bayat Energy^[3], an oil and gas exploration, development and production company. In October 2016^[4], Bayat Power, a division of Bayat Energy, signed an agreement with the Government of Afghanistan to build Bayat-1, a Gas Fired Power plant, located in Sheberghan, Jawzjan Province. When all three phases of Bayat-1 are completed, the power plant will be capable of generating 200 Megawatts of electricity, sufficient power for approximately 200,000 homes and businesses.

In addition to these three enterprises, The Bayat Group also owns highly successful companies operating within the Construction, Security, Logistics and Consumer Goods sectors.

In 2005, Ehsan Bayat and his wife, Fatema Bayat, established The Bayat Foundation^[5] but also among Afghan refugees in Pakistan.^[6]. The Bayat Foundation has sponsored more than 300 projects dedicated to improving the health and welfare of Afghans, including the construction of thirteen maternity hospitals which have treated more than 1,500,000 Afghan women and children.

Early life in Afghanistan and the U.S.

Ehsan Bayat grew up in Kabul's Kārte Seh district and he attended Isteqlal Primary and High School. During the 1979^[7] Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Ehsan Bayat and his immediate family emigrated from Afghanistan, and settled in Flushing, New York From 1982-1986 Ehsan Bayat attended The New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. After graduating from NJIT, Mr. Bayat embarked upon an entrepreneurial career, founding successful import/export and wholesale food distribution companies.

Return To Afghanistan

During this period, Ehsan Bayat maintained strong ties with family and friends living in Afghanistan, and among the Afghan Diaspora living in Pakistan, the United Sates and throughout the world. Committed to rebuilding Afghanistan, Ehsan Bayat returned to Afghanistan in early 2002, shortly after the fall of Afghanistan's Taliban Government in November, 2001.

The Bayat Group: A Leader of Afghan Economic and Social Development:

When Ehsan Bayat returned to Afghanistan in early 2002, decades of armed conflict had devastated the Afghan people and destroyed Afghanistan's economy. Ehsan Bayat, using his exceptional and unique experience as an Afghan American entrepreneur who had established highly successful companies in the United States, began immediately to plan the creation of a new generation of Afghan companies which would operate, based on the following principles:

• Each company would make a positive and long-term impact on the lives of ordinary Afghan.

• Each company would be run by Afghan, employ Afghans, contribute to building democracy in Afghanistan and help establish positive relations between Afghanistan and the wider world.

In 2002, Ehsan Bayat founded Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC). The company operates in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, providing over 5,000,000 Afghan businesses and consumers with the world-class, high speed communications infrastructure, enabling Afghans to connect with the world.

Building on the success of Afghan Wireless, in 2005, Ehsan Bayat founded Ariana Television Network. ATN is Afghanistan's largest privately-owned media network, reaching an estimated audience of approximately 25,000,000 Afghans.

Afghan Wireless Communication Company and Ariana Television Network are the two largest divisions of The Bayat Group, which also owns and operates the following companies:

• Ariana Network Services^[8]
• Bayat Energy
• Best Jobs
• Fine Media Consulting Group
• Fine Mineral Water

Ehsan Bayat and The Bayat Group: Educating And Empowering Afghans:

For over a decade, The Bayat Group has championed building the capabilities its workforce—and supported Afghan economic development—by dedicating significant resources to developing the educational, entrepreneurial and administrative capabilities of its executive, managerial and front line staffs. The Bayat Group provides scholarship assistance to employees attending Afghan Universities. In addition, The Company's internal professional development program offers over fifty-two professional development courses.

Awards and honors

Ehsan Bayat has received the following awards and honors, in recognition of his achievements as a Business Leader and Philanthropist:

• 2016: New Jersey Institute of Technology Alumni Achievement Award^[9]
• 2014: Chosen as Radio Azadi's Nowruz Man of the Year in recognition of exceptional individual contributions to Peace, Democracy and Culture in Afghanistan^[10]
• 2012: Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from American University of Afghanistan for his works^[11]
• 2011: Excellence for his commitment to Afghanistan presented by 4,000 AWCC employees
• 2010: Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award from the Friends of the South Asian American Communities^[12]
• 2008: Man of the Year Award from Afghan-Americans in California
• 2008: Corporate Social Responsibility Award from the Canada-Afghanistan Business Council^[13]
• 2007: Man of the Year Award from Sitara magazine
• 2007: Humanitarian of the Year award from Zeba Magazine
• 2007: First recipient of the Businessman of the Year Award by the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.^[14]
• 2006: National Human Rights Award awarded by the Afghanistan Human Rights Association by President Hamid Karzai

References