On Sat. Dec. 9th, 2017, Reza Niazmandand, Born in 1921, which many call him the father of the industrialization of Iran, died at Shariati Hospital in Tehran. He alone narrates the history of Iran’s industrialization. One who was involved in the establishment and foundation of the “Industrial Management Institute“, the “The Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran” (IDRO), the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO), and dozens of institutions and other industrial funds with direct or indirect intermediation. He was the Deputy Minister of Economy at the time of Alinaqi Alikhani.
He was born in Kermanshah, and lost his father which was a businessman, in childhood, and grew up under the supervision of a mother who had three children when she had only 25 years.
He was a moderate student and never became a first class student. Also he was not allowed to work after completing his diploma, because her mother insisted she would go to university and become an engineer. He chose to study mining at the Faculty of Industry of Iran and Germany because it was said that a steel smelter would be established in the country. Later he went to America to study management, when he had only $ 200! And he paid for his education and his life by work in a movie theater.
When he returned back to Iran, he was scheduled to work at the “Planing Organization of Iran“, which was established only several years earlier. Among his most durable tasks was the revival of declining industries. For example, “Mazandaran Textile Industry Co.” which at that time was Iran’s largest company with eight thousand workers. His first success was to turn a not profitable company with about 150.000 US$ loss to a profit making unit by making about US$ 3.5 millions profit. He documented this process of eliminating disadvantages and modernizing the organization in one of his first reports about the Iranian industries’ problems.
Reza Niazmand is the one who founded the Industrial Management Institute of Iran and was selected as the Industrial and Mining Deputy of the young Ministry of Commerce, when Mr. Alinaqi Alikhani was its minister.
