BIBA is pleased to report that it had its 79th regular Business meeting on the 15th September at London Hilton Hotel. The purpose of this meeting was to explore the potential of Californian markets and how the UK based business can break into them. When Mehdi Norowzian's film, Killing Joe, was nominated for an Oscar last March BIBA used the occasion to promote BIBA in Californian and develop ties with the California business community. The response was very positive. An enormous opportunity exist for British-Iranian to link with American-Iranians, they both have very successful business communities in their respective countries. One million American-Iranians live in California, most of whom are engaged in a number of professions such as finance, IT, high technology, media, fashion, engineering, biochemistry, etc.

California is a very functional and fragmented society. According to President Clinton's State of Union speech in February 2000, "within ten years, there will be no majority race in our largest state, California and little more than fifty years, there will be no majority race in America.In a more inner-connective world this diversity can be our great strength. Just looks at around us this Chamber (US Congress) we have members in this Congress from virtually every racial, ethnic and religious background. And I think you would agree that America is stronger because of it."

The panel of speakers consisted of four successful businessmen. Fred Bassnett a DTI export promoter from the private sector. He is highly experienced in sales and marketing for a wide range of multi-faceted products oriented disciplines. Trade Partners UK was formed in May of this year, it is a combined commercial resource department consisting of the commercial department of foreign office and department of trade and industry. It is a government agency and is there to support UK trade and industry. Rashid Khatib from Mondus UK, Mondus.com is the first global, online business-to-business marketplace designed exclusively to meet the needs of small and medium-sized business. Its market bidding structure ensures buyers receive low cost, high-quality services and eliminates the inconveniences of identifying vendors and exploring bids, allowing the re-allocated of resources to the most important task of all-profitably growth. Vendors enjoy the benefits of e-business, including exposure to previously inaccessible markets. Dr Kamran Broukhim from L.A, a president and Medical Director runs a successful private practice in L.A and Redondo Beach. He is considered as one of the most active and influential members of the American -Iranian business community in California. He was instrumental in promoting BIBA in USA last March. The singer Andy from LA has his first crossover album, which has just hit the market. He is signed to the American-British Music Company ARK21. Miles Copeland, the company owner as well as Sting's manager, have high hopes for Andy. In his new album, Andy sings in six different languages and performs a number of duets with American Spanish Indian and Lebanese singers. Mehdi Shalforoushan, is the vice president and Corporate Finance Bank of America in the UK and has frequently spoken at BIBA' s meetings as well as writing for its journal. His views on UK economies and US are well documented in our various journals. In his opinion the US economic miracle will continue and the UK economy will follow the US with one-year lag. The sponsors of the meeting were Ardeshir Naghshineh, Maziar Darvish, Shahroukh Kamyab, Fardin Ghodousi and Farnaz Faraiepour, Trade Partners UK.


The Panel of Speakers

Trade Partners UK

The evening started with Fred Bassnett talking about him and Trade Partners UK. He went on to talk about United States being the largest market in the world. In terms of area and the population the United States has two hundred and sixty million people but access to over 380 million on the whole of the northern American southern part of the continent. By showing a slid he pointed the particular interesting figure of the top 10 in ranking of GDP in the world market being United States at $8,239(no1). The next figure showed Japan and United Kingdom being in the 5th position. The State of California is known as the locomotive for the American economy. The importance of doing business in the United States was shown by a slid of bilateral investment from UK into the United States figuring at $151.3 billion. The USA investment back into the UK figuring at $178,6 billion shows that they are both the largest investors in each other at the moment, which is rightly important for any good business relationship. The pound value against the dollar has been stable facilitating business transactions. He goes onto the advantages and special business relationship. As an informative driven society 80 to 85 % of United State businesses have web sites in comparison to 30 % of UK businesses. The importance of web sites when dealing with the American market is vital. Americans want web site addresses to have more information about the business. Although having a common language simplifies dealings with the American market there still remains differences in the language, which need to be clarified when doing business. Many people dealing with American market are suspicious of the legal system but in fact it is similar in many ways to the UK legal system. The advice that he gives is that in order not have problems in USA you should take correct legal advice. The final advantage he points out is the USA's network of routes and the ease at which your market can get to the supply chain. United States has the most advance ports in the world and massive airport freights. Finally he points out the number of services that Trade Partners UK has to offer. It sponsors and supports outward missions. UK groups can go to trade shows. During the 12 months period of 2000 they helped put over 90 shows on missions together with other trade association in United States. Trade Partners offers free consultations with commercial offices around the world. In United States each consulate has commercial offices to give advice and help to Businesses wishing to export, giving free marketing research advice and grants towards export. For special help, documentation or technical help for exporters go to
Mondus.Com the answer to the future of all small and medium size businesses.

The next panel of speaker talked about Mondus UK, a leading business to business market place in Europe designed exclusively to serve the small and medium size businesses. An introduction was given to how Mondus came about, what it does and where it stands today. It is one of the successful companies of its kind in Europe having been nominated as the winner of yell.com web site of the year for small and medium size businesses. It has had three rounds of funding. The first being in April 1999 of $1.6million, in July 1999 Mondus raised through Eden & Zouk $14 million and in August 1999 through SEAT - Pogine Gialle invested $150 million. There has been an increase of 165 and half thousand businesses that have registered as users on the Mondus site. Mondus has several offices two in UK, Oxford and London, Paris, Germany, Stockholm and an office opening in New York. In conclusion Mondus' aim is to become a global market place by expanding its e-commerce activities. This in turn will enable small and medium size businesses to trade cross boarders with no need for significant infrastructure or technical skill. In the near future Mondus shall also be abridging for British businesses to USA market. Its mission is intelligent procurement for growing companies.

Recreating the world in the image of a global village.

The next to speak was Dr Kamran Broukhim. He began by explaining the reason for his interest in the technology sector and the current and new technology available. He then went on to say LA as well as being the entertainment centre of the 21-century is proving itself a business gateway to the entire world. Due to its wonderful social climate it has influenced the creation to what, is known today to be the centre of Internet. The Silicon Valley is booming and expanding on a daily basis providing massive job opportunities. United States and United Kingdom have many similarities: language, culture legal tradition and have similar sensibilities. This for ever-booming business economy that the United States is experiencing is ''due to the well developed infrastructure which has become the hub for legal and financial and investment matters.'' The North American free trade agreement, NAFTA which United States signed with Canada and Mexico seven years ago has dramatically increased trade within north America and created many investment opportunities as well as manufacturing opportunities for firms located overseas. The NAFTA treaty is equivalent to the size of the European Union, both entities exist and work together on trade, related matters. In conclusion trade will be the manner in which business continues to grow in the future.

Andy brings Persian music to the world.

Next among the panel to speech was Andy. He started by saying that his own production company has produced his last couple of albums. He goes on by saying that there is hidden talent amongst Persians, which needs to be supported and recognised in order for the masses to bring Persian culture and music to the world. He confirms that his music career has been a struggle, but a beautiful battle and that without the help of the one million Iranian Americans that supported and paid for his albums and concerts he would not have succeed. He adds "my aim is not to succeed as business man, my aim is to be able to bring Persian music to the world" He had been introduced to Miles Copeland, Stings manager last year, company's' biggest branch ARK21 being in London and is pleased that this British -American company is interested in world music, especially Persian music. With their help he achieves his goal, he has already made many duets with world famous artists and with their help will be able to go into different countries and perform. He ends his speech by telling his audience that "with the help of Miles and the audience we can bring a positive image of Iranians to the world which we have not had in the last 20 years and in return once the world realises what talent lies within us Iranians its going to help all of us in our different businesses and they will be more willingness to do business with us regardless the nature of the business. "

Mr Nigel Alliance OBE
Mr Nigel (Nejat) Alliance, the UK's 38th wealthiest person (1998), Director and major shareholder of N. Brown Group plc, received an OBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List in 1998 in recognition of his charitable services

The son of a textile merchant, he was born in Kashan, Iran in 1935, a city famous fr its textile and carpets. In 1959 he moved to Manchester in the footsteps of his uncle, Jeff Joseph.

The Alliance family founded their mail-order business in the late 1960's and they built a significiant textile interest in the North West of England.

Agenda:

Registration & Tea: 7:00pm to 7:30pm
Business Meeting: 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Reception: 8:30pm to 9:00pm

Location:
Dorchester Club, Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London, W1A 2HJ

Date:
2000-06-26

RSVP:
b.emamian@telinco.co.uk

Tel - 0700 078 2221
Fax - 0700 078 2321
Mob - 0831 295 201

Karim Bagheri will be attending as a special guest at BIBA's 12th General Meeting at the London Hilton Hotel on 11th December 2000. Mr. Bagheri is currently the only Iranian player in Premiership. He signed for Charlton Athletic over the summer. At the moment he is not a regular member of the starting line-up, but participates in the reserves. This is normal practice until players get conditioned to play in the league. There's great anticipation for Karim Bagheri to make an impact in the Premiership in the year 2001.

When Iran took part in the World Cup in France 98, (highlighting with the epic win against the USA on June 14th 1998) at that time Iranian players were unknown to most people. Since the World Cup the footballing world took notice of Iranian football players and now there are many of them playing an active role in clubs all over Europe and even in the USA. However, the F.A. Premiership is arguably the most exciting league in the world. Charlton Athletic proved how entertaining the Premiership can be, with a courageous comeback from 1-3 down to draw 3-3 with the champions Manchester United this past Saturday (December 9th). Mr.Bagheri is the first Iranian International to sign for an English club and if I may speak on behalf of other British Iranians I hope he's not the last.

Mr. Bagheri will be there to meet and answer questions from BIBA members. It should be a wonderful evening and a perfect way to end a successful year.


Karim Bagheri at the BIBA meeting

The 80th Business Meeting was held at the Institute of Directors on the 4th of October 2000, and the theme of the meeting was dedicated to raising capital.

Nader Haghighi and Maziar Darvish have successfully managed to raise substantial capital (£56m & £20m) for MBO and Company flotation. They gave speeches about how to raise capital in a cost-effective manner talking about the process and practical side of raising capital, how to deal with venture capitalists and how they operate, what they look for and how to be recognised as a credit worthy individual.

''Even the best idea in the world will not go very far without the money to get it off the ground. Inventors, entrepreneurs and ideas generators seem to think that all their good ideas need, is professional marketing help. Nothing could be further from the truth. Marketing is a game fought in the mind of the prospect. You need money to get into a mind. And you need money to stay in the mind once you get there. You will get further with a mediocre idea and a million pound than with a great idea alone.''


Panel Of Speakers - Nader Haghighi (Left) Maziar Darvish (Middle)

Nader Haghighi successful story dates back to the time when at the age of nine, he became the family breadwinner, by running a small kiosk in Shiraz. In 1979, aged 20 he moved to UK to study medicine. However his hopes for medicine were abandoned for his passion in retailing. Today he is a successful self-made businessman and has set-up Parisa group in 1997 when he led the £56m management buy-out of Greenalls Cellars. The Parisa group is currently regarded in trade circles as one of the most innovative and successful UK beverage companies with more than 500 outlets across the country and an annual turnover of £200m.

One thing is for sure, the banks need you more than you need them. The Banks purpose is to find the right person with the right track record and correct motivation to invest in. To be recognised as creditworthy it is essential for you to show the full borrowing that you have made from the bank in your account and show it every three to six months. The bank also expects your account to be used on a regular basis i.e-they count on the number of cheques you issue on a daily basis.

To win the Venture Capitalist over to invest in you, your track record must be up to scratch. Before the venture capitalists lends money great attentiveness is given to your business plan. The procedure is for the security of the investment that they are making. From the start there is a very careful examination of your management and you are expected to be calm and have total trust in the procedures. The whole process is very intimidating and before you know you are stuck in the processes so you need to be sharp, focused and play at the venture capitalists own game.

Never settle all your negotiations with one venture capitalist group or banker. Do everything in your power to maximise your state. Get correct advice from a lawyer, a lawyer with the necessary experience to handle the process. When dealing with the financiers and negotiating be ruthless and organised during the process. Getting the correct level of working capital is vital to your success so be very suspicious of the people you deal with and particularly be aware of equity and the debt financiers restricting your freedom of action by imposing restrictive convenience on the fear of operation.

Having completed the procedure of getting the funding you will be under a lot of pressure and will be expected to deliver the result that you have promised. You will need support in delivering the expected result. Be prepared to re-examine your strategy at any stage to ensure that the business does not fail.

SO
''Let us never negotiate out of fear but never let us fear to negotiate''

BIBA (BIBAuk.com) and IABC (Iranian -American Business Council) held their first joint business meeting at Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on 16 Oct 2000. The business meeting was dedicated to linking British and American businesses.

Dr. Kamran Broukhim had worked extremely hard to organise the meeting. As expected, it was an enormous success that will eventually lead to closer links between British and American businesses. The meeting started with British consul Lorraine Johnson explaining the function of her office in Los Angeles, followed by Babak Emamian1s speech on the aims of this venture and the role of BIBA.

Farad Azima, CEO of NXT Plc spoke about the opportunities in high technology that exist for British and American companies and how the London Stock Exchange could in some cases be better than NASDAQ for raising capital or company flotation.

Mehdi Norowzian said that the UK film industry forces you to produce films with much smaller budget than its US equivalent.

Therefore, you make use of every possible resource to its fullest potential. That is why British film-makers are so much in demand in Hollywood. Finally, Superintendent Ali Dizaie proved, contrary to CNN report, that London is still one of the safest Capitals of the world.

Professor Faraneh Vargha-Khadem
Professor Vargha-Khadem is the Head of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and Institute of Child Health at University College London. She is also Head of Clinical Neuropsychology and Consultant Neuropsychologist at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Professor Vargha-Khadem is Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts and a PhD examnier both in the U.K. and internationally.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder, Kids Company
Camilla Batmanghelidjh is the founder of " A Place To Be" and " Kids Company" . She is at present managing Kids Company, an organisation which offers support to thousands of vulnerable children, most of whom are from exceptionally deprived backgrounds and some of whom have criminal records. As a practising psychotherapist, Camilla works on the front line in child mental health. Her work has been commended by the Department of Health. Her pioneering work is a popular topic with the education section of many national newspapers in the UK. On 15th March 2000, a documentary prepared by Ruby Wax on Kids Company was broadcast on BBC2. Last year, with the help of a group of professional West End performers, musicians and children from the Kids Company, Camilla directed a musical documentary called " Kids Need Friends" , based on the life of one of the youngs kids of the centre at Kids Company. Camilla's academic acheivements include a First Class Honours degree in Fine Arts, Performings Arts and a Masters in Psychotherapy.

Tanya Zabihi, Fisher Meredith Solicitors
After she was called to the Bar as a Barrister in 1988, Tanya decided to join the Crown Prosecution Service to work as a Crown Prosecutor. Later she developed interest in the area of child abuse. For 11 years she was responsible for all areas of child protection in the County of Surrey. In 1999 she decided to specialise even further, representing children directly, hence she re-qualified as a solicitor and joined what is known as The Children Panel.

Cyrus Ardalan, Senior Banker, Paribas
Cyrus Ardalan holds degrees in Economcs from University College London and Oxford. His professional background includes work for the World Bank, Chemical Bank and at present he is Global Head of Bonds and Fixed Income Marketing at Paribas, promoting the growth of the Euro currency market. Last October, he was part of the panel of BIBA's 71st meeting (Finance), when he delivered an exceptionally informative talk on the topic of " Creation of a Single Currency and its Effects on Global Markets" . Cyrus is a supporter of equal opportunity in the work place.

$Chaired & Sponsored By: Maryam Safinia

Maryam Safinia, Safinia & Company
Maryam Safinia is the founder of Safinia & Co., a property consultancy company active in sales in Kensington & Chelsea. Originally trained as an architect, she decided to start her own consultancy comapny when she arrived in the UK in the 1980's. She is a firm supporter of women in business. She is also known for her charitable work and support to cancer sufferers.

Susan Jahanshahi, BIBA Women\'s Forum Coordinator
The idea of BIBA's Women Forum was initiated by Susan Jahanshahi, a property consultant to international organisations and their employees in London. In 1985 she founded Parkview, a property consultancy company active in sales and rentals, with strong emphasis on personal service. She is also known, for her profile in public relations work for various institutions and charites. As a mother of two teenagers, Susan is particularly interested in the application of living values amongst young people. Promotion of practicing business ethics, futuristic trends and self-management skills in today's competitive work place are one of Susan's professional priorities.

Agenda:

Registration & Tea : 6:30pm to 7:00pm
Business Meeting : 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Reception: 8:30pm to 9:30pm

Location:
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ED

Date:
2000-05-17

RSVP:
b.emamian@telinco.co.uk
Tel - 0700 078 2221
Fax - 0700 078 2321
Mob - 0831 295 201

May 2000 saw the launch of another awaited BIBA 's Women Forum at the institute of Directors Pall Mall, and BIBA is pleased to report that the evening was a glowing success. The Women's Forum is the original idea produced by Susan Jahanshahi, a property consultant who has also actively involved in promoting a number of organisations and charities.

Recognising the importance of women's role in society today, BIBA wants to highlight the achievements of successful women, and in doing so take a big step towards correcting the imbalance. By holding women Forum, BIBA wishes to celebrate the success and achievements of the British-Iranian women and also to encourage further involvement in BIBA's activities. As a result, it has been decided to try to have a minimum of one-woman speaker present on the panel of experts at every business meeting, which hopefully encourages further involvement from women in the future.

Mrs Maryam Safinia, the founder of Safinia & Co chaired the meeting, and the panel of experts consisted of three very distinguished and successful women and Mr Cyrus Ardalan a Senior Banker at Paribas and a supporter of Equal Opportunity at work place. Faraneh Vargha-Khadem is the Head of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and Institute of Child health at University College London. She is also the head of Clinical Neuropsychology and Consultant Neuropsychologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. Professor Vargha-Khadem is Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts and a PhD examiner both in the UK and internationally. Tanya Zabihi After she was called at the Bar as a Barrister in 1988, Tanya decided to join the Crown Prosecution service to work as a Crown Prosecutor. Later she developed interest in the area of child abuse. For 11 years she was responsible for all areas of child protection in the County of Surrey. In 1999 she decided to specialise even further representing children directly hence she re-qualified as a solicitor and joined what is known as The Children Panel. She acts for children directly and parents and works for local authorities who want to remove children in to care and also represents parents in custodial disputes where there is a high level of hostility in respect of the care being given up to their child by the other parent. Camila Batmanghelidjh is the founder of 'A place to be' and 'Kids Company'. She manages 'Kids Company', and organisation which offers support to thousands of vulnerable children, most of who are from exceptionally deprived background and some with criminal records. As a practising psychotherapist, Camila works on the front line in child mental health. The Department of Health has commended her work. Her pioneering work is a popular topic with education section of national newspapers in the UK. On 15th of March 2000, a documentary prepared by Rudy Wax on 'Kids Company' was broadcasted on BBC2. Last year with the help of a group of professional West End performers, musicians and the children from 'Kids Company', Camila directed a musical documentary called 'kids Need Friends', based on the life of story of one of the young people of the centre at kids Company. Camila's academic achievements include First Class Honour degree in Fin Arts, Performing Arts and Master Degree in Psychotherapy. The sponsors of the meeting were Mrs Maryam Safinia, Ms Farkhondeh Sabi and Ms Nasirn Sanjabi.

The evening started with an introduction by Maryam Safinia, indicating that in her generation of women in Iran had problems weather to work or not. She also highlighted that the aim of the Women Forums' was to address different kinds of questions and problems for women today. She then went on to introduce the first speaker.

Women in the male-dominated work force.

Cyrus Ardalan started off by sharing with the audience what the geneses of the discussion would be: Why there has been a bias towards women in general and why society has been tended to be more male- dominated. He addressed this by looking at some issues women have faced in his profession, investment banking and finally what can be done to try to eliminate this bias over time. He relates the strong economical bias against woman in society by some data and emphasises that this is partly due to women concentrating in less paid jobs and less managerial jobs. He defines the gender bias that we face by giving an example that amongst all senior executives in United States only 5% are women and 95% are men. He goes on by pointing out the key factors that have tried to limit the population of women in certain businesses notably his own that because of very few applicants and various cultural reasons certain jobs do not appeal to certain women. He finished by saying that it would have a profound effect, if women could apply to more male-dominated jobs and that institutes could be more sensitive and contribute to creating a conducive environment in attracting women and retaining them in the male -dominated work force.
Left: Mr Cyrus Ardalan / Right: Mrs Maryam Safinia

Women as first educators.

Next among the panel to speak was Professor Faraneh Vargha-Khaden. She started by raising a few points about women living in exciting times today and enjoying freedom and privileges. She emphasised that these privileges and achievements are especially striking for those who are Persian and have lived a portion of their lives in Iran because they know what it has been like to be raised in an environment, which is culturally depriving. She then moved on to what she believes the future should comprise, and a theme that she maintains throughout her whole speech was that although women have achieved a great deal, they still have a long way to go. There are certain conditions and elements that have to be examined in order to enhance the furthering of women in their particular endeavours. She also states thatsociety should truly be dedicated to the task of abolishing prejudices and getting rid of all the ignorance's that permeate the many levels of society in order to bring about an alternative perception and alternative view of the world. This in turn would really endeavour the education of women who are first educators of children. She also points out that with respect in gaining equality with men the most important thing for women is not gaining all types of equalities of all sorts which predominantly is material orientated. To go in to the future we must aim at an inner reflection and recognise that people are equal because they have god given rights. She goes on to suggest that if women were truly equal to men and had been involved in the decision making processes that lead to for example WW2 killing 52 billion people they would have not accepted the decision of sacrificing their sons, husbands and their brothers. So judging by the responsibilities that women have been given in terms of becoming peacemakers in world of the future we recognise what a long way we have to go.

Following the footsteps of Cheri Blair.

It was then turn of Tanya Zabihi to share her opinions, and she started off by saying that traditionally until 24 years ago the legal profession in England had always been dominated by white middle class public school boys. She moved on by saying that in the legal profession society has evolved and women too are recognised in the legal profession field. She estimated that the percentage is 60% women and 40% men. She gave examples of leading female lawyers in the country, notably Chere Blair, who is becoming highly prolific in the area of human rights. One of the most important judges in the country who presides in the family division is a woman called Lady Justice Butler Slosse. She goes on by saying that woman lawyers are being recognised as equals, if not sometimes better than their counterparts. Not because of their gender, it is simply related to their capability and having a lot of proficiency in the area of law to be good lawyers in fighting for their clients and what they actually believe in. She affirmed that female lawyers are going to continue to increase in this country and then relating it to her own story of not listening to her teacher she says:

"When I first came to this country I was fifteen and had a very strong American accent, I did have a funny surname and I'd been living in Iran and been educated in Iran I said to my teacher at the time that I did want to become a lawyer and most of all wanted to go and get called to the bar and he told me not be so ridiculous, I was not English, I did not have an English surname and I had not been educated in England and also on top of that I was a woman ….. and I have had no sexual discrimination and the only difficulty I have had is people having difficulty pronouncing my surname.." And the message from all this is that she believes that women are totally different and do not need to compete with men and prove themselves against men. If they are capable in what they do and as long as they know what they want to achieve and they are proficient and respect each of their fellow human beings than they can all set out to achieve what it is that they want to achieve

Camila Batmanghelidjhs' success defines "work is love made visible"

To bring to an end the evening's speeches, Camila Batmanghelidjh spoke a little of why and how she started to work in psychotherapy. She started off by accounting her comfortable back ground and how whilst growing up in her families big mansion she became more and more preoccupied with the well being and poor circumstances of their maids and servants and people in general with little money. Then she went on to talk about the start of her career and how difficult and demanding but rewarding it all was. She gives an account of the time she opened up the children centre and picked out the most vulnerable children from schools and worked on them over the holidays. When the opening of the children centre went on the news a curious gang of ruff adolescents showed up at the entrance of the centre to cause trouble.. She went on to explain by being courteous and not retaliating she eventually won them over. The message she was putting forward here was to emphasise that she has faith in that it is not what you do in life or how academically well you do that is important, what is essential is where your attachments are and sharing-rather than giving what you have spare. In terms of the whole theme of men and women, to contribute she adds; ''is in the context of love and respect that the whole thing should be thought about. It is not about gender or weather you wear trousers or skirts. It's about your capacity to love and that capacity to love should be forded to the females, males and children and anybody in our society who is there as a human being. I for myself have certainly learned that emotional commitment and genuine care is an enormous wealth that I never would want to do with out. ''The meeting was bought to an end by Maryam Safinia saying that everyone needs to devote themselves to something and she goes on to praising the successes of these women who work with such devotion. She quotes her favourite poet: ''work is love made visible'' then the question and answer session stared slowly.

BIBA held its 82nd business meeting on the 8 November 2000 at the Institute of Directors. The tenth business meeting of the year was dedicated to ‘Technology.’ The panel discussed business opportunities in technology specifically application of next generation of micro-processor, clean fuel production and industrial manufacturing. The structure of modern economy is based on scientists creating new ideas or inventions and then industrialists, experts and professionals turning them into mass production. Application of science is part of almost every aspect of any industry. For example, mobile phones, clean fuel, digital TV, new management systems, new risk management’s for banking and insurance, new retailing methods, new teaching methods, film-making, media, publishing, Oil & Gas, medicine, textile, design & fashion e-commerce… etc.. Unfortunately most people associate technology with mostly the electronics industries. Scientists, industrialists, experts and professionals in effect are the leaders of the modern society, not the politicians. As long as we have a systematic and scientific approach towards our business or profession, that offers new idea and added value, the business community and the public will embrace us, regardless of our background.

Dr Esmail Karimi chaired the meeting. He as an industrialist has held various engineering management positions today is an Engineering director at MAN B&W Diesel Ltd Ruston. The panel of speakers consisted of Mr Saeed Zahedi and Mr Namdar Baghaie. Mr Saeed Zahedi a medical physicist winner of the Queens’s awards for technological achievements in 1996 and Prince of Wales Award for his innovation for his design and development of intelligent Prosthesis (artificial limbs). In December 1999 he was awarded an OBE from HM Queen the Elizabeth II for services to Prosthesis Industry. He is the Researcher Manager at Blatchford a leading international firm in Prosthesis Industry. He is currently responsible for implementation and application of the next generation of micro-processor technology used in design, adaptation and operation of artificial knee hip and foot. Mr Namdar Baghaie is a Biotechnology scientist Assistant manager at BIOFIN technologies in UK. He is involved in research and application of advanced technology to produce fuels chemical energy materials from plants. BIOFIN is aiming to become one of the world leaders in producing ethanol and electricity in its bio-refineries based on its patented technology, in conjunction with the local partners across the globe. 75% of world production of ethanol is used as motor fuel and the market is worth more than 10 billion dollars. The sponsors of the meeting were Abbas Arabi, Jamshid Fakouri, CEO, DC Group, Ali Farahani, Dr Hossein Kamyab, Cantab, Civil Eng. I&H Partnership Ltd. and Dr Imam Kamyab, QMC-Mech. MBA I&H Partnership Ltd.signup

Mr Namdar Baghaie, BIOFIN (Top Left) Dr Esmail Karimi (Top Right) Panel of Speakers (Bottom Middle)