Hamid Ladjevardi is chairman of American Baltic Investments, which identifies, develops, and arranges capital for investment in targeted projects in the Baltic countries, focused on energy, wood products, technology, real estate, trade, and transit logistics.

He is a senior advisory board member of the nonprofit organization Latvian Foster Family Association, which works with foster families and guardians to promote the welfare of children left without parental care, and raise awareness of the benefits of de-institutionalizing childcare in Latvia. Ladjevardi is also a board member of the U.S.-based nonprofit organization The Kids First Fund, which supports children that are abused, abandoned or neglected in Latvia.

Previously, Ladjevardi was co-founder and manager of Baltic Fund I, L.P. (1994-2002), the first and longest-running private equity fund in the Baltics. His responsibilities included managing and operating the fund – including setting up offices in New York, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – and serving on the supervisory boards of major invested companies.

Prior to co-founding Baltic Fund I, Ladjevardi was vice president of Morgan Stanley & Company, Inc., where he served as a portfolio manager and market advisor for 12 years. As a portfolio manager, he managed funds in equities, fixed income, and currencies for institutions and high-net-worth families in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. As a market advisor, he advised clients on the state of the U.S. economy, and provided them with forecasts on the U.S. stock markets, interest rates, major currencies, and oil prices.

Ladjevardi previously held senior management positions at the Behshahr Industrial Group (BIG), one of the largest and most diverse private-sector groups of enterprises in Iran, which his family managed and controlled. The Behshahr Industrial Group was active in banking and insurance, textiles, consumer goods, mining, trade, and distribution, and had extensive trading operations with the United States, Germany, and Japan. Ladjevardi was deputy managing director of the Behshahr Industrial Co., the largest producer of vegetable oil in Iran, and an advisory board member of the holding company the Behshahr Industrial Development Corporation (BIDC), the first publicly held corporation of BIG.

Ladjevardi also served as deputy managing director of finance and a member of the executive committee and the board of Akam Group of Companies, active in construction, building materials, real estate, and new business development. As part of the executive committee, Ladjevardi negotiated with many of the group’s joint venture partners and was subsequently involved in the management of those companies. These included Akam Dillion Construction Co, Dravo Corporation, and Owens Corning Fiberglass Corporation.

In 1974, Ladjevardi and his brother created the Behshahr Art Collection, one of the most highly regarded contemporary Iranian art collections in Iran. He has remained active in this field, co-founding the nonprofit American Foundation for Contemporary Iranian Art, which has organized contemporary Iranian art exhibitions in New York, Houston, Boston and Los Angeles.

In 2000, he conceived and organized the world premiere touring Baltic Art Exhibition in the United States, for which he was awarded the Best International Project prize from the Latvian Artists Union and Cultural Capital Foundation of Latvia. To mark the 21st anniversary of the declaration of re-independence of the Republic of Latvia in 2012, he helped to conceive and organize the Important Contemporary Artists of Latvia Exhibition, which toured to New York, the Latvian embassy in Washington D.C., the Driehaus Museum in Chicago, and Latvian National Museum in Riga.

Additionally, he served as a trustee of the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey, which has the largest collection of non-conformist Soviet and Baltic art in the world.

Ladjevardi graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science and earned his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School.

He has been listed in numerous publications, including Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in Finance & Industry. He has appeared as a guest speaker at many Baltic financial and government-sponsored seminars on private equity investments, risk management, and corporate governance in the Baltics. His work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Leaders Magazine, discussing the Baltics and economic growth policies for developing countries. Ladjevardi is co-chairman of the U.S.-Baltic Foundation, which promotes democracy, free markets, investments, and cultural exchange with the Baltic States.