Omid Kordestani
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Omid Kordestani was born in Tehran, Iran , and grew up there attending Andisheh Don Bosco School, an Italian Catholic school in Tehran that emphasised education and language skills. He moved to San Jose, California at the age of 14 after the death of his father. He graduated with an electrical engineering degree from San Jose State University and went to work for Hewlett Packard as an engineer. Several years later in order to pursue a business degree, he entered Stanford Business School and earned his MBA in 1991.
Kordestani has more than a dozen years of high-technology consumer and enterprise experience. He started his career in marketing, product management, and business development at the 3DO Company, Go Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard. Kordestani joined Netscape as director of OEM Sales. During his four-year stay at Netsape, he was able to establish major accounts with clients such as Citibank, AOL, Amazon, Intuit, Travelocity, Intel, @Home, eBay, and Excite. While at Netscape, Kordestani grew the company's website revenues from $88 million per annum to more than $200 million per annum within 18 months.
Kordestani joined Google in May 1999, leading the development and implementation of the company’s initial business model. He played a part in Google's worldwide revenue generation efforts as well as the day-to-day operations of the company’s sales organization. His efforts together with those of others, have transformed the world's top search destination into online advertising's hottest property, scoring more than 100,000 advertisers in just 18 months. From years of Internet experience, Kordestani knew to avoid annoying pop-up ads and intrusive flash banners. He implemented the idea of selling paid listings. He found this to be a simple, yet effective, method which had been perfected by rival overture. Kordestani believes that the right relationships create the most effective business solutions. He once refused a multimillion-dollar deal because the fit had not been right. He looks for quality int he form of repeatable and sustainable revenue from a long-term customer.
In the May 8, 2006 issue of Time Magazine, Kordestani was named one of Time's "100 People who shape our world". Kordestani is one of the wealthiest residents in Northern California. San Jose magazine estimates his net worth at $1.9 billion. He was selected as The Persian Person of the Year in 2007 by Persian Awards. Kordestani is one of the founders of PARSA Community Foundation, a Persian heritage, entrepreneurship and philanthropic society.
