Omid Kordestani

Omid R. Kordestani (Persian: امید کردستانی‎, born 1963) is an Iranian Kurdish-American businessman who has been the Executive Chairman at Twitter since October 2015. He was previously a Senior Vice President, the Chief Business Officer, and most recently a special advisor to the CEO and founders at Google from July 2014 to October 2015[3] and was a director of Vodafone from March 2013 to October 2014.[4][5] Kordestani had also previously been at Google from May 1999 to April 2009, reaching the position of Senior Vice President for Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.[6]

Omid Kordestani
(Persian: امید کردستانی‎)
Omid Kordestani at the Web 2.0 Conference, 2005
Born1963 (age 56–57)
Tehran,[1] Iran[2]
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materSan Jose State University (BS)
Stanford University (MBA)
OccupationExecutive Chairman, Twitter

Early life

Omid Kordestani was born in Tehran, Iran[7][8][9][2] and grew up there attending Andisheh Don Bosco School, an Italian Catholic school in Tehran that emphasised education and language skills. He moved to San Jose, California after the death of his father in 1976.[10]

Education

Kordestani graduated from Buchser High school in 1980. He later received an electrical engineering degree from San Jose State University and went to work for Hewlett Packard as an engineer. Several years later in order to pursue a business degree, he entered Stanford Business School and earned his MBA in 1991.[11]

Career

Kordestani has more than a dozen years of high-technology consumer and enterprise experience, including key positions at Internet pioneer Netscape Communications. He was also vice president of Business Development and Sales and grew Netscape's website revenue from an annual run-rate of $88 million to more than $200 million in 18 months. He started his career at Netscape as director of OEM Sales, and during his four-year career at that company he was responsible for establishing major customer relationships with Citibank, AOL, Amazon, Intuit, Travelocity, Intel, @Home, eBay, and Excite. Prior to Netscape, Kordestani held positions in marketing, product management, and business development at The 3DO Company, Go Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard. He joined Google in May 1999, leading the development and implementation of the company's initial business model and was Google's senior vice president of worldwide sales and field operations until April 16, 2009. Kordestani played a part in Google's worldwide revenue generation efforts as well as the day-to-day operations of the company's sales organization.

On July 18, 2014, Kordestani came back to Google to fill the vacancy of Chief Business Officer at Google after Nikesh Arora, who was recruited to Google by Kordestani himself, left for SoftBank.[12][13] Initially interim, his post became permanent in October.[14]

On October 14, 2015, Kordestani left Google and became Executive Chairman at Twitter.[15]

Philanthropy

Kordestani is one of the founders of PARSA Community Foundation, a Persian heritage, entrepreneurship and philanthropic society.

Personal life

Kordestani net worth was estimated to be $1.4 billion in 2009, after his divorce from Bita Daryabari. Kordestani has two children with Daryabari, and two with Gisel Kordestani, whom he married in 2011. [11]

Recognition

In the May 8, 2006 issue of Time Magazine, Kordestani was named one of Time's "100 People who shape our world".[16]

Kordestani was selected as the Persian Person of the Year in 2007 by Persian Awards.[17]

See also

References
  1. "California" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
  2. Bob Cooper (2007-07-15). "OUT OF IRAN / Five extraordinary Iranian Americans love both countries but loathe their leaders' war talk". Sfgate.com. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  3. "Management team – Company – Google". Archived from the original on 2015-10-09. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  4. "Vodafone Group plc : Vodafone Appoints Omid Kordestani as a Non-Executive Director". 4-traders.com. Retrieved 2013-02-28.
  5. "Omid Kordestani Executive Chairman at Twitter". linkedin.
  6. Hof, Rob. "LIVE: Google's First-Quarter Earnings: Revenues Down, Profits Beat Forecasts, Investors Yawn". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  7. Alumni Profiles: Omid Kordestani: Google Inc. Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development Archived 2010-06-25 at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Committee on Institutional Advancement: Approval of Meeting Minutes of March 11, 2008" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 22, 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
  9. "San Francisco Luxury Living » Omid Kordestani's $33 Million Year". Sfluxe.com. 2008-12-27. Archived from the original on 2015-07-20. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  10. "OUT OF IRAN / Five extraordinary Iranian Americans love both countries but loathe their leaders' war talk". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
  11. Wong, Queenie (2017-03-12). "Following Iranian immigrant Omid Kordestani's rise in building Google's business, leading Twitter's board". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
  12. Larry Page (2014-07-18). "After almost ten years, +Nikesh Arora our Chief Business Officer, has decided…". Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  13. "What Omid Kordestani, the Chief Business Officer, Says About Google". Re/code. 2015-07-20. Archived from the original on 2015-07-20. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
  14. "Exclusive: Google CEO Larry Page Reorgs Staff, Anoints Sundar Pichai as New Product Czar". Re/code. 2014-10-24. Archived from the original on 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  15. "Omid Kordestani Leaves Google, Joins Twitter As Its Executive Chairman". TechCrunch. 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  16. Deutsch, Donny (2006-04-30). "Omid Kordestani". TIME. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  17. "In The Spotlight: International Awards and the Accomplished Iranians Who Have Earned Them". Payvand.com. 2006-11-22. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
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