Hushang Ansary ( fa, هوشنگ انصاری, born 1927) is an
Iranian-American
Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship.
Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...
former diplomat, businessman, and philanthropist. He served for eighteen years in the Iranian government prior to the
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
including as
Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance and Iran's Ambassador to the United States from 1967 to 1969.
He has been chairman or director of companies both in Iran and in the United States.
Biography
Born in 1927 in Ahvaz, in Iran's
Khuzestan Province
Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...
, Ansary first worked as a newspaper and magazine photographer in Ahvaz, Tehran, and England before moving to Japan in 1954. There he met
Abbas Aram
Abbas Aram (1906–1985) was an Iranian diplomat and served as foreign minister for two terms between 1959 and 1960 and between 1962 and 1966. In addition, he was the ambassador of Iran to various countries, including Iraq, the United Kingdo ...
, Iran's ambassador to Japan, who soon brought him to the attention of
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ( fa, محمدرضا پهلوی, ; 26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980), also known as Mohammad Reza Shah (), was the last ''Shah'' (King) of the Imperial State of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow in the Irani ...
. The Shah asked Ansary to return to Iran and appointed him to several government positions starting in 1961, including
undersecretary of commerce, ambassador to many African nations and to Pakistan, and
minister of information
An information minister (also called minister of information) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with information matters; it is often linked with censorship and propaganda. Sometimes the position is given to ...
.
In 1964, he married Maryam Panahi, a friend of ambassador Abbas Aram who had many high-ranking acquaintances in the governments of the United States and Iran.
He served as ambassador to the United States until July 1969. Then he was named as the
minister of economic affairs and finance. His accomplishments during this time included assisting the Shah in lending millions of dollars in aid and grants to other countries and the signing of an agreement with U.S. State Secretary
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
to build eight
nuclear power plants in Iran.
By the 1970s, the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
considered Ansary to be one of the seventeen members of "the Shah's Inner Circle" and he was one of the Shah's top two choices to succeed
Amir Abbas Hoveyda
Amir-Abbas Hoveyda ( fa, امیرعباس هویدا, Amīr 'Abbās Hoveyda; 18 February 1919 – 7 April 1979) was an Iranian economist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Iran from 27 January 1965 to 7 August 1977. He was the l ...
as
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
. Ultimately, this appointment went to
Jamshid Amouzegar
Jamshid Amouzegar ( fa, جمشید آموزگار; 25 June 1923 – 27 September 2016) was an Iranian economist and politician who was prime minister of Iran from 7 August 1977 to 27 August 1978 when he resigned. Prior to that, he served as ...
, and Ansary became the leader of the Constructionist wing of the
Rastakhiz party
The Party of Resurrection of the Iranian Nation ( fa, حزب رستاخیز ملت ایران) or simply Rastakhiz Party ( fa, حزب رستاخیز, Ḥezb-e Rastāḵiz, lit=Resurgence/Resurrection Party) was Iran's single legal political party ...
, which opposed Amouzegar's Progressive wing. Some of Ansary's supporters have seen Amouzegar's appointment as a poor decision in hindsight. Even his now ex-wife Maryam Panahi, to whom his marriage "came to a bitter end" according to historian
Abbas Milani
Abbas Malekzadeh Milani ( fa, عباس ملکزاده میلانی; born 1949) is an Iranian-American historian, educator, and author. Milani is a visiting professor of Political Science, and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of the Ira ...
, said "not appointing Hushang was one of the shah's two biggest mistakes, leading to the revolution." In November 1977, Ansary became the director of the
National Iranian Oil Company
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; fa, شرکت ملّی نفت ایران, Sherkat-e Melli-ye Naft-e Īrān) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Ir ...
, but resigned one year later and moved to the United States, citing health problems.
Business and philanthropy
During his time in the Iranian government, Ansary also maintained a successful career in business. He was the director of an unstable company called Fakhre Iran, which he made profitable and sold to the government. Ansary arrived in the U.S. a very wealthy man and became a U.S. citizen in 1986.
[ After settling in the United States, Ansary started the Parman Group, a ]holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
for leisure industries, textiles, international trade, and real estate, which included IRI International - a company that makes oilfield equipment. IRI International was sold to National Oilwell Varco
NOV Inc., formerly National Oilwell Varco, is an American multinational corporation based in Houston, Texas. It is a worldwide provider of equipment and components used in oil and gas drilling and production operations, oilfield services, and ...
in 2005. Ansary was the chairman of Stewart & Stevenson
Stewart & Stevenson is a manufacturer and distributor of products and services for the oil and gas, marine, construction, power generation, transportation, mining and agricultural industries.
History
In 1902, Stewart & Stevenson originated in Ho ...
LLC[ until the company was purchased by Kirby Corp in September 2018.
In recent years Ansari and Parman have come under scrutiny of the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) with regard to financial misappropriations regarding an insurance company operating in the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The CBCS has stated that under shareholder Parman International B.V., in which Ansary is a majority shareholder, ENNIA Caribe Holding and ENNIA Caribe Investments had appropriated 1,5 billion Antillean guilders (approximately $838 million) from ENNIA insurance companies.][https://www.centralbank.cw/uploads/files/Persberichten%202019-005%20Reactie%20op%20mediaberichten%20NED.pdf ] These insurance companies operate on the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten and therefore fall under the supervision of the CBCS. According to the CBCS, the appropriation took place by having the insurance companies invest in shares in another Parman subsidiary, Stewart & Stevenson Inc. When these shares were sold in 2017, although the insurance companies had held 74% of the shares and should have received $558.7 million, they only received $282.2 million and thus lost approximately $273 million. In another transaction, land at Mullet Bay (sint Maarten) was put in the books of the insurance company for 771 million guilders (just under $431 million) although according to Cushman & Wakefield, one of the largest appraisers in the world, the value is only 89 million guilders ($49 million). In August 2018, after negotiations between CBCS and ENNIA and major shareholder Husang Ansary collapsed, Ansary gave instructions to withdraw $100 million in policyholders money from ENNIA. After CBCS placed ENNIA under an emergency measure, the $100 million was returned to ENNIA. The CBCS notes, however, that $50 million came from a private account of Ansary. On January 29, 2019, a United States Bankruptcy Court declared CBCS is entitled to the accounts since based on the emergency measure, CBCS, and not Parman, is effectively managing ENNIA. The accounts had been frozen because Parman and its major shareholder Ansary did not want to confirm that the CBCS is entitled to the accounts. According to the CBCS, the procedures of Parman and Ansary delay the restructuring process of ENNIA, which increases the risk of its policy holders.
Ansary is a devoted Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, a former friend and business partner of Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig
Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. (; December 2, 1924February 20, 2010) was United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to and in between these c ...
, and James Baker
James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...
, served on the National Finance Committee of the Bush-Cheney 2004 Presidential Campaign and is a trustee of the George W. Bush Presidential Library
The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which opened on April 25, 2013, is a complex that includes former United States President George W. Bush's Presidential library system, presidential library and museum, the George W. Bush Policy Institute, ...
. In 2015, Ansary and his wife donated $2 million to a Super PAC supporting the presidential candidacy of Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Bush, who grew up in Houston, was the second son of former President George H. W. Bush a ...
. He donated $2 million to Donald Trump's inauguration.
He was involved in the creation of several medical and educational institutions, such as the University of St. Martin and the James Baker Institute
Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, also known as the Baker Institute, is an American think tank on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1993, it functions as a center for public policy research. It is named ...
.[ In February 2014, Ansary supported the ''A Thousand Years of the Persian Book'' Exhibition at the Library of Congress.]
Ansary and his wife Shahla are based in Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
. He has two children, Nina Nina may refer to:
* Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname
Acronyms
*National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq
* Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology
*No income, ...
and Nader, and is the brother of Cyrus A. Ansary
Cyrus A. Ansary (born 1934) is an American lawyer and philanthropist.
Early life and education
Ansary, an Iranian American, was born in Tehran, Iran and is the brother of Hushang Ansary. He visited Mt. Vernon, New York in 1950 while attending ...
.
Awards and honors
* Ansary is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is an American award founded by the Ellis Island Honors Society (EIHS) (formerly known as the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO)), which is presented annually to American citizens, both native-born a ...
(2003) and the Woodrow Wilson Award
Woodrow Wilson Awards are given out in multiple countries each year by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution to individuals in both the public sphere and business who have shown an outstanding commitm ...
.[
* ]Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University
The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York (state), New York.
Weill Cornell Medicine is af ...
established the Ansary Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics in 2004 in honor of a grant from Ansary and his wife Shahla.
* The American Academy of Diplomacy
The American Academy of Diplomacy is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan, elected organization whose active membership is limited to men and women who have held positions of high responsibility in crafting and implementing American foreign policy. ...
's Ansary Outreach Program was a two-year series of discussions, lectures, and seminars about U.S. foreign policy which began in 2004.
* The Ansary Gallery of American History at the George Bush Presidential Library
The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and burial site of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States (1989–1993), and his wife Barbara Bush. Located on a site on the west campus of T ...
was named in his honor in 2004.
* James A. Baker III Prize for Excellence in Leadership (2013)
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansary, Hushang
1927 births
Finance ministers of Iran
20th-century Iranian businesspeople
Living people
Rastakhiz Party politicians
Ambassadors of Iran to the United States
Ambassadors of Iran to Pakistan
Iranian emigrants to the United States
People from Ahvaz
Politicians from Houston
American philanthropists
Texas Republicans
Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States
National Iranian Oil Company people