User:Lmohajer

The subject of the article is a leading industrialist of Iran, Mr. Ahmad Ladjevardi, who, together with his family, founded the Behshahr Industrial Group in 1953. One of the largest and most diverse private sector groups of enterprises in that country, the Behshahr Industrial Group, was active in banking and insurance, textiles, consumer goods, packaging, mining, prefabricated steel structures, trade and distribution, and had extensive trading operations with the United States, Germany, and Japan. Mr. Ahmad Ladjevardi and his family were pioneer industrialists who invested in productive operations which employed and trained Iranians, created import substitution, added value in Iran and promoted equal opportunity. The Ladjevardi Family led the modern industrialization of Iran with the latest technology and implemented the most effective and up-to-date management systems. Ahmad Ladjevardi was the family member responsible for the setup and establishment of the production and manufacturing operations of the group, which by 1978 comprised 44 companies employing about 13,300 people. By 1976-8 Ahmad Ladjevardi had become the president and/or chairman of the consumer goods, mining, prefabricated steel structures, and distribution divisions of the group, including the presidency of the group’s main holding company, Behshahr Industrial Development Corporation. This was the first private company that offered its shares to the public and joined the Tehran Stock Exchange. Besides being on numerous boards of the Behshahr Industrial Group, being listed in Marquise who’s who in the world and being recognized by a number of management awards, he was a member of the American Management Association, Stanford Research Institute and a member of the Board of Trustee of ISO in Iran Soon after the Islamic revolution, the Behshahr Industrial Group, among other companies, was nationalized — confiscated by the Provisional Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Due to the anti-free enterprise policies of the Islamic Republic after the revolution, which did not encourage private sector development or participation in many of the major industries of Iran, the Research Center of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) commissioned a report in the year 2000 to study and see if the success of major entrepreneurs and businessmen prior to the1979 Islamic revolution could have lessons for the future. The case chosen was that of the Ladjevardi family. The completed case study was distributed among members of the Islamic Republic’s Parliament as a future guideline for entrepreneurial development in Iran. The case study was then taken up by Dr. Ali Saeidi at Tehran University who expanded and published it in to a book about the history of the Ladjevardi family and their successful approach to industrial development and management in Iran. I respectfully request your permission to write about the vision, values and principle, and the long term effort of the Ladjevardi family and their contribution to the Iranian society in Wikipedia — how they grew from being merchants in the bazar more than a century ago to becoming the leading industrial conglomerate of its time.