Leadership

The Council for a Democratic Iran is led by:

Dr. Behrooz Behbudi, Founder

Dr. Behrooz Behbudi is the Founder and CEO for both Council for a Democratic Iran and Global Unity Partnership. Dr. Behrooz Behbudi was born in Iran and educated in Australia and North America, graduating from the University of British Columbia with an undergraduate degree in Arts and Sciences. After completion of his degree here. he then chose to move to the USA, where he earned his doctorate degree in Human Behavior and Leadership at the United States International University, San Diego campus.

Dr. Behbudi’s family has had a strong history of service in Iran, where over three generations of the Behbudi family has held senior level positions in the Imperial Court and government. In 1978,Dr. Behbudi continued this tradition by being nominated to serve as the Shah’s ambassador to Australia. With the Revolution of 1979, Dr. Behbudi’s family were forced out of Iran and they re-settled in the United States. As soon as the change of rule came into Iran after the Shah, Dr. Behbudi’s family, amoung with many others associated with the Shah, found themselves being accused of many false charges. After several years, Dr. Behbudi’s farther himself went back to defend his family’s name, and was soon found innocent of any and all accused criminal charges by the Islamic Republic.

In later years, Dr. Behbudi found himself returning to the United States International University as an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Business and Management. In the 1980s he served as Executive Secretary to the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the World Congress of University Presidents. Over the years, Dr. Behbudi has assumed the roles of consultant, director and financial developer, becoming actively involved in philanthropic organizations as well as in the business world. His particular expertise and experience has been with those companies in the medical, technological and oil industries.

In 1997, after an earthquake devastated the province of Khorassan in northeast Iran, Dr. Behbudi coordinated a team to bring disaster relief to the region. “I was determined,” he said, “to devote my life to helping those affected by war or natural disaster.”

Since then, Dr. Behbudi has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East – to Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan – taking his message of hope, reconciliation and the need for reconstruction to political leaders and other audiences throughout North America and Europe. In recognition of his work, Dr. Behbudi was awarded the Republican Senatorial American Spirit Medal (formerly the U.S. Medal of Freedom), and received the “prestigious distinction of a National Republican Senatorial Committee commission,” in 2007.