September 1997

This month marks the second anniversary of The Iranian. We have come a long way since our first issue. Back then the very idea of publishing a magazine such as the one you see today seemed overly idealistic.

The story is that I always wanted to have my own magazine, but in the spring of 1995 I could no longer just dream about it. I had to do something.

I was the marketing director and correspondent for, khodaa biyaamorzatesh, Iran Business Monitor and earning some pocket money as host for a segment in Aftab TV in New York (that's another story entirely). I told my friend and colleague Majid (Alex) Zarafshan that I needed to talk to him.

We went to a nice French restaurant across the street at the Citicorp building in Manhattan. "I have an idea: A quality magazine for Iranians, in English. Something we could all identify with. I can just see it..."

Majid was impressed by my enthusiasm but he feared I was not aware of the scale of the project and what it would take to realize. He told me all the things he had learned in business school; about writing a business plan, meeting investors, analyzing statistics and profit margins. He was absolutely right. But I knew nothing about business. And I had no money. All I had was a Macintosh Classic, 14 years experience as a journalist and a dream.

Today, all I have is a Power Mac, 16 years of experience AND a magazine. And I owe it to these wonderful individuals:

Karim Ardalan, Multimedia Internet Services (MIS), web design

Anoosh Hosseini, Global Publishing Group (GPG), Internet server

Kandice McDonald, articles editor

Hossein Mashhadi, Multimedia Internet Services (MIS), web design

And these are the individuals whose generous support has kept the magazine alive:

White Cloud
Iran Javid
Jamshid Ghahramani Ghajar
Shahrokh Mortazavi
Behyar Bakhshandeh
Reza Farahani
Nersi Ramazan-Nia
Hamid Arjomand
Shirin Bazleh
Bahram Javid
Zahra Mahlouji
Sussan Tahmasebi
Mahmoud Shahbodaghi
Abbas Ahmadi
Nader Saad
Janne Shaffers
Pat Bergstresser

My endless gratitude for making the dream come true.

Jahanshah Javid
Albany, California

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Web Site Design by: Multimedia Internet Services, Inc. Send your Comments to: jj@iranian.com. Copyright © 1997 Abadan Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed in any form.