Board of Directors

hamletProf. Hamlet Isakhanli, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Member, Board of Directors

Isakhanli’s academic and literary works cover a broad range of fields including research in mathematics and in many areas of humanities and the social sciences, poetry, and creative writing. He is the living founder (and president) of Khazar University, of the Dunya School, and of a publishing house in Baku, Azerbaijan. Isakhanli also serves as a lecturer, editor, and translator of poetry. He is often described as a polymath displaying talent in a wide range of subjects.

AdilDr. Adil Baguirov, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Chair, Board of Directors

Baguirov is a post-doctoral fellow in political science and energy security studies at the MGIMO University’s Institute of Energy Policy and Diplomacy. He also holds degrees in International Relations and Business Administration from the University of Southern California (1999), as well as a Ph.D. in political science from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (2002). Dr. Baguirov has 20 years of experience working in the energy, technology and real estate industries.

Dr. John Vafai, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Member, Board of Directors

Vafai is a graduate of Teheran University School of Law, Yale Law School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He left his post as a Professor of Law at Tehran University in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. Vafai has serves as both an academic and a private practice lawyer in Honolulu, New York, Moscow, and Baku. Today, he lives in New York and has a private law firm advising Americans who would like to start businesses in the former Soviet Union.