Today is the day the list of candidates for the position of Minister of Communications will be sent from the selection task force to the Advisory Council for the Fourteenth Government. Although this list was supposed to remain confidential, the names were quickly leaked to the media, and now everyone knows that there are 8+2 names on the final list.
According to Iran digital economy annotation, On the evening of Sunday, August 21, 2024, the final meeting of the task force for selecting candidates for the Ministry of Communications took place, and out of 16 candidates for the position, 8 individuals were chosen.
The names of the 8 selected candidates, listed alphabetically, are: Reza Bagheri Asl, Morteza Barari, Mehrdad Torabian, Ali Hakim-Javadi, Reza Faraji-Dana, Akram Fadakar, Yaser Rezakhah, and Sattar Hashemi. Additionally, the resumes of Mohammad Farjood and Mohammad Ali Yousefzadeh were also sent to the Advisory Council for the Fourteenth Government, to be used if necessary.
The final list of 10 names was selected from approximately 60 initial candidates. In the first stage, the number of options was reduced to 16, and their names along with their scores were published in the media; however, these scores do not pertain to the final list. Some names that had high scores in the 16-candidate list did not make it to the final list.
The scores of the candidates have not been disclosed. The advisory task force for selecting the Minister of Communications was supposed to present between 5 to 7 names to the Advisory Council; however, it seems that there was a tie in the final vote, leading to 8 names being sent to the council.
Names Not Included in the Proposed List for the Ministry of Communications
Since the topic of selecting ministers for the new government was first discussed in the media, some names repeatedly came up, and it was even mentioned that they had significant support from influential circles around Masoud Pezeshkian. However, these names did not appear on the final list. It is reported that one of the reasons for eliminating certain candidates was their security background, with those having experience in security organizations failing to gain the task force’s positive opinion. The significant presence of security personnel in various levels of the second administration of Hassan Rouhani and the internet shutdown in November 2019 seem to have influenced this decision.
At the same time, in initial lists and speculations, some individuals were mentioned who were clearly not interested in taking up the ministerial position. Mahmoud Jarrahi, Saber Feyzi, Sajjad Bonabi, Mohammad-Reza Aref, and others were among those who were quickly removed from the list.
In the end, 8+2 names have been sent to the Advisory Council for the decision on the future Minister of Communications and Information Technology. Although the announced names and the task force’s performance are advisory to the elected President, the final candidate presented to the Parliament may not be any of these individuals.
8+2 Candidates Proposed for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Fourteenth Government
The 8+2 individuals proposed as primary candidates for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Fourteenth Government are mostly familiar names to media in this sector, having held various positions in recent years. Among them, there is only one candidate who has received less media attention and is the only woman on the list, who might be introduced as the first female Minister of Communications and Information Technology in Iran’s history. However, if we were to introduce the candidates alphabetically, a more familiar name would appear at the beginning.
Reza Bagheri Asl: Bagheri Asl is known for his work in electronic government over the years, but he was also known in the mid-2000s as the head of the Communications and New Technologies Group at the Research Center of the Parliament. He later moved to the Commodity Exchange and eventually entered the government, gradually rising to the position of Parliamentary Deputy Minister of Communications. Bagheri Asl has worked with various governments and cannot be considered a political or partisan candidate.
Morteza Barari: The head of the Space Organization during Hassan Rouhani’s administration is one of those managers with little controversy, leading to fewer news reports about him. This faculty member of Malek Ashtar University was also the Parliamentary Deputy Minister of Communications at one point.
Mehrdad Torabian: Another name previously associated with rural communications in specialized media is Mehrdad Torabian, currently the Deputy of Asiatech. Torabian was a member of the board of directors of the Infrastructure Communications Company, Director General of the Ministry of Communications’ Provincial Coordination Office, and an executor of rural communications development during the Twelfth Government.
Ali Hakim-Javadi: The current head of the Nasr Organization, Hakim-Javadi entered the media space during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration. Before that, he worked at IzIran and other companies owned by Sa Iran. However, after the Tenth Government, he neither returned to the Ministry of Communications nor to Sa Iran. Since the early 2010s, he has worked in various banking sectors, primarily in electronic banking and payments, and has experience working with various banks.
Yasser Reza-Khah: The former CEO of Rightel, who had previously worked for a foreign company active in Iran and then moved to Hamrah Aval, became CEO of Rightel. Eventually, he could not collaborate with Shasta’s management in the Thirteenth Government and stepped down. Reza-Khah can be considered one of those managers who have advanced from lower ranks to higher positions.
Akram Fadakar: There is limited information about Akram Fadakar in centralized media. She is known to have been a distinguished student, earning undergraduate degrees in both software engineering and electronic engineering simultaneously, and later a master’s degree in executive management. Her career record shows that she started from the lowest organizational levels (Software Specialist at the Management and Planning Organization) and progressed to the position of Director General of IT at Yazd Province and Director General of Communications and Information Technology in Yazd Province.
Reza Faraji-Dana: The Minister of Science in Rouhani’s government, who was quickly impeached and removed from office, is now a candidate for the Ministry of Communications. Although Faraji-Dana studied electrical engineering, his major management activities have been in universities and the Ministry of Science.
Sattar Hashemi: When the list of 16 candidates was published, Hashemi’s name appeared at the top, having earned the highest score. The Shiraz University professor, who quickly climbed the managerial ladder in Rouhani’s second government, moved to the Registration Organization in the Thirteenth Government, and there have been numerous news reports about him recently.
Mohammad Farjood: The youngest selected manager in the ministerial task force had a successful tenure at the IT and Communications Organization of Tehran Municipality, which ended with a change in municipal management. After moving from Irancell to the municipality, he went on to Bank Tejarat to work in banking and electronic payments.
Mohammad Ali Youssefzadeh: Likely the only manager who made it from the private sector to the proposed ministerial list. Youssefzadeh has been with Asiatech for over a decade, turning it into one of Iran’s successful fixed-line operators and managing some of the largest data centers in Iran.
20-Member Task Force
The task force formed to select candidates for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Fourteenth Government had 20 members. The task force was chaired by Nasrollah Jahangard, who was once a main candidate for the Ministry of Communications.
The task force included: Ahmad Motamedi, Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Eighth Government; Mahmoud Vaezi, Minister of Communications in the Eleventh Government; Morteza Barari, former head of the Space Organization; Mahdi Shami Zanjani, a faculty member at Tehran University; Nik Mohammad Baluch-Zehi, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Sistan and Baluchestan University; Amir Hossein Saeedi Naeini, first head of the Nasr Organization; Amir Hossein Hashemi, former CEO of Kharazmi Information Technology Development Company; Davood Adib, head of the Union of Engineering Service Exporters, Consultants, and Contractors of the Iranian Telecommunications Industry; Zahra Behrouz azar, former Director General of Women’s Affairs at Tehran Municipality; Sadina Abai, head of the ICT Committee of the Iran Chamber of Commerce; Shahab Javanmardi, Vice President of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce; Saebeh Solouki, alternate member of the Nasser Organization in Tehran; Ali-Asghar Qaemi, former head of the ICT Organization at Tehran Municipality; Ali Pirhosseini, former manager of the Transport and Traffic Deputy at Tehran Municipality; Maziar Nourbakhsh, board member of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce; Majid Salehi, startup entrepreneur; Ali Hakim-Javadi, head of Nasr Tehran and the country; and Nima Ghazi, head of the Electronic Commerce Association. After Hakim-Javadi and Barari were chosen as candidates for the Ministry of Communications, they resigned from the task force.
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