...continued from homepage

Kamran left the University of Utah at Salt Lake City in 1977, with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, and a Masters degree in Computer Graphics. He began his career in 1978 as a design automation software engineer with Hewlett Packard (HP). A rookie programmer, he also enrolled for a Stanford University course in Integrated Circuit design. "I designed a chip that didn't work," he recalls, "and my professor told me I was a lousy engineer." Unfazed, he approached his boss at HP with a project to create design automation software for chips. "They told me I was too young and inexperienced to lead a project of my own."

But Kamran isn't afraid to try, doesn't back away from risk, and never takes "no" for an answer. Soon enough, he and four colleagues quit to launch their own company, CAE Systems. "When we set off, I didn't even know what a business plan was," he recalls ruefully. Rejected countless times before they found investors willing to take a chance on the company — more for their tenacity than the plan's business merit — CAE Systems was an unqualified success. Thus began Kamran's entrepreneurial career.

Underlying Kamran's entrepreneurial vision is the conviction that modern technologies can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations, cultures and individuals. This vision is reflected in "Schools Online", a nonprofit organization he founded in 1996 with the mission to ensure that every child in every school has effective access to the communication and information resources of the Internet. Inspired by the radical revolutionary Che Guevera and the indomitable, peace-loving Mahatma Gandhi, Kamran believes that Schools Online can play a significant role in promoting world peace.

Today, as he scrutinizes business plans and relentlessly quizzes young would-be entrepreneurs, he says, "You must have a dream to be happy. And you have to try, over and over again, to make your dreams come true. You can't realize your dreams unless you're willing to take risks."