Susan Akbarpour
CEO / Co-founder

Susan Akbarpour, CEO and Co-founder of SiliconIran, received a B.S in French literature from the University of Ferdowsi-Mashad in 1993. Susan has been also accredited in Mass Communications by the Journalism Periodical School for Professional Journalists in Iran where she was named the leading student in 1995. She has conducted over 300 interviews and reports for many prominent and widely published Iranian Newspapers in Iran and US. She was awarded the 1996 "Interviewer of the Year" award in the National Publication Awards (Jashnvarah-e Matbooat) in recognition of her unique approach to investigative journalism . After her success, she received her independent correspondent license, making her the first woman to obtain this permit since the revolution.

After being named the leading interviewer among 12,000 prominent journalists in Iran, Susan, the award winner, emigrated to the United States in 1997. She settled in San Jose and after participating in a variety of journalistic activities, she decided to create Iran Today, the first English\Farsi newspaper in California.

"I was trying to do everything myself, she recalls, working as the paper's reporter, editor, publisher and advertising sales representative. Susan says she usually worked an 18-hour day."

San Jose Business Journal, January 19, 2001 print edition

"The ambitious Akbarpour hit the ground running when she arrived in the United States in the summer of 1997. Akbarpour, who moved to the Bay Area from Iran a little more than three years ago, publishes SiliconIran for the growing Iranian community in the United States. It's largely aimed at a readership of high-tech entrepreneurs, engineers, physicians, business people

San Francisco Chronicle, December 1st, 2000

Sandy Close, executive editor of Pacific News Service in San Francisco says: "What Susan is doing goes beyond giving her community a sense of identity. It's a very valuable voice in the larger civic life" .

San Jose Business Journal- January 19, 2001

Akbarpour, 33, a former newspaper journalist in Iran, started a quarterly magazine named SiliconIran [in winter 2000], and at the beginning of the year pulled together the networking group. She also operates a Web site that links Iranian businesses around the globe.

San Jose Mercury News, Jul. 25-2002

Susan was born in 1968 in Mashad, Iran to a journalist couple, Reza and Fariba Akbarpour, who published Mellat magazine from 1979-1985. She began her career at age 11 and has been working as an active journalist and publisher for more than 15 years. She has attended San Jose State University to work on a master's degree in journalism. Susan who is a wellknown and active fundraiser for her community's causes, has been featured repeatedly by San Francisco chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley Business INK., San Jose Business Journal, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Washington File; U.S. Department of State publications and so many others.

In Novemeber 2003, Susan received NCM Community Advocacy Award from New California Media for her tireless dedication to Iranian-American business community.

Susan has recently got married and live a happy life in Atherton, California with her husband, Faraj Aalaei .