Farsheed Ferdowsi
Following a year of postgraduate studies at Vanderbilt University, Farsheed Ferdowsi founded Access Data, a business software development firm in 1979. This was followed by a string of other companies in the information technology and business services industry, including PayMaxx and Inova Payroll.
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Farsheed was recognized by the Nashville Business Journal as the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002 and is an alumnus of Leadership Nashville. Throughout the years, he has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations in Middle Tennessee. These include the Red Cross, the Nashville Zoo, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Middle Tennessee YMCA, and the Rotary Club of Nashville.
He holds a master’s degree in structural engineering from U.C. Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Vanderbilt University. He is a frequent speaker at Nashville area colleges and universities, as well as civic organizations and clubs. Farsheed is an Iranian native. He came to the USA at age 18 before the Islamic revolution of 1979. However, he has kept current with the sociopolitical developments of his native country. He is a member of the Baha’i Faith, the largest religious minority in Iran. Adhering to this faith, members of his extended family have suffered severe persecution at the hands of the Islamic Republic. His father, Fatollah Ferdowsi, a prominent Baha’i and a successful entrepreneur, was executed on January 4, 1982, solely for his religious beliefs, and all his assets were seized by the regime.
Farsheed Ferdowsi has authored a novel entitled Mushroom in the Sand (2009). Seven years in the making, the international thriller/ spy novel revolves around Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program.
His latest book, Under the Staircase—A Martyr’s Journey (2022), is a nonfiction biography of his father, Fatollah Ferdowsi. For this project, he spent more than three decades researching his father’s story and its backdrop—the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the persecution of the Baha’is for the past 175 years.
Farsheed and his wife, Aram live in Brentwood, Tennessee.
