Omid Kordestani

Omid Kordestani
امید کردستانی

Omid Kordestani at the Web 2.0 Conference, 2005
Born 1963
Tehran,[1] Iran [2]
Residence Atherton, California [3]
Ethnicity Iranian
Citizenship United States
Alma mater San Jose State University
Stanford Business School
Occupation Executive Chairman, Twitter
Known for Former Chief Business Officer, Senior Vice President, and Senior/Special Advisor, Google
Former Non-executive Director at Vodafone
Net worth IncreaseUS$ 500 million (2010)[4]

Omid R. Kordestani (Persian: امید کردستانی‎‎) is an Iranian-born 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 a special advisor to the CEO and founders at Google during July 2014 to October 2015[5] and was Non-executive Director at Vodafone from March 2013 to October 2014.[6][7] 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.[8]

Early life

Omid Kordestani was born in Tehran, Iran[9][10][11][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 at the age of 14 after the death of his father.

Education

He graduated with 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.

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 is consider one of the wealthiest residents in Northern California. San Jose magazine estimates his net worth at $1.9 billion.

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
  2. 1 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. ↑ "Unfinished mansion near Google exec sold". SFGate.com. February 14, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Omid Kordestani Net Worth". Business Insider. 2010-03-15. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  5. ↑ "Management team – Company – Google". Archived from the original on 2015-10-09. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  6. ↑ "Vodafone Group plc : Vodafone Appoints Omid Kordestani as a Non-Executive Director". 4-traders.com. Retrieved 2013-02-28.
  7. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pub/omid-kordestani/51/151/465
  8. ↑ Hof, Rob. "LIVE: Google's First-Quarter Earnings: Revenues Down, Profits Beat Forecasts, Investors Yawn". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  9. ↑ Alumni Profiles: Omid Kordestani: Google Inc. Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development
  10. ↑ Committee on Institutional Advancement: Approval of Meeting Minutes of March 11, 2008
  11. ↑ "San Francisco Luxury Living » Omid Kordestani’s $33 Million Year". Sfluxe.com. 2008-12-27. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  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. 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.

External links

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