Mahmoud Khayami
Mahmoud Khayami | |
|---|---|
محمود خيامی | |
U.S. | |
| Nationality | Iranian |
| Citizenship | French |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman and industrialist |
| Spouse | Zahra Seyyedi Rashti |
| Children | 5 |
Mahmoud Khayami, CBE, KSS, GCFO (7 January 1930 – 28 February 2020) was an Iranian industrialist and philanthropist of French nationality.
Life
Mahmoud Khayami was born in 1930 in Mashhad, Persia where he attended elementary and high school. In 1951 he transferred to Tehran and before long he was involved in the automotive industry. Eleven years later he inaugurated the Iran National company in partnership with his brother, Ahmad Khayami (who later formed a separate company: Kourosh Department Stores). Iran National was destined to become the largest industrial complex in Iran, today known as Iran Khodro or IKCO.
One of the leading champions of Iran's industrialization of the 1960s–70s, he began the production of the popular Peykan cars in 1967, based on cooperation with the Hillman-Hunter company of England which provided the model for it. By 1979, 100,000 cars were produced annually with approximately 44 percent of the parts manufactured in Iran. By 1979 Iran National and its affiliated enterprises employed over 20,000 workers in Tehran, Mashhad, and Tabriz.
Although Khayami has died, his family is still involved in the automotive industry, primarily in dealership ownership of one of their previous international partners
In later life, Mahmoud Khayami was active as a philanthropist and collector of fine
He split his time between the United Kingdom, the United States, and France, having been forced to leave Iran at the time of the
It was announced by the Department of Education and Skills in 2005 that Mr. Khayami had become a sponsor of the UK Government's
He appeared in the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List.
Labour party donations
On 3 June 2007, the Observer reported that he had donated £1 million to the Labour Party (one of the most generous ever donations to Labour, eclipsed only by a £2m donation from the steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, and a similar sum given by Lord Sainsbury).
References
- Observer
- Foreign & Commonwealth Office
- [1] Archived 24 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- The Khayami Foundation
- Iran Khodro Web Site
- Encyclopædia Iranica Gala 2003
- Iran Khodro Web Site
- Caliber Motors, Anaheim, California
- Association of Papal Orders in Great Britain Archived 6 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- Royal Institute for International Affairs
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
