Saad Mohseni (
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
: سعد محسنی) is an
Afghan Australian
Afghan Australians ( prs, استرالیایی های افغانتبار ''Ostorâliyâi-hāye Afghān tabar'', ps, د اسټرالیا افغانان ''Da Asṭrālyā Afghanan'') are Australians tied to Afghanistan either by birth or by ...
businessman and
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of
MOBY Group
Moby Media Group is the largest media company in Afghanistan. Moby Group is privately owned, with headquarters in Kabul and 15 bureaus throughout Afghanistan. The company also has an office in Dubai, where regional business is conducted.
History
...
, launched in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
in 2002 and now active across South and Central Asia and the Middle East. He has brought top tier news and media content to emerging and frontier markets over the past two decades. Prior to establishing MOBY Group, he headed the equities and corporate finance division of an Australian investment banking firm.
Early years and background
Saad Mohseni was born in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, UK, where his father, Yassin Mohseni, an
Ismaili
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sa ...
Tajik was serving as an
Afghan diplomat. Yassin Mohseni served in Kabul, Washington, DC, London, Islamabad, and Tokyo during his 25-year career.
After the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, Yassin Mohseni, then serving in Tokyo, resigned from the diplomatic corps and sought asylum. The family relocated to Australia in 1982.
Mohseni has two younger brothers,
Zaid
Zaid (also transliterated as Zayd, ar, زيد) is an Arabic given name and surname.
Zaid
*Zaid Abbas Jordanian basketball player
* Zaid Abdul-Aziz (born 1946), American basketball player
* Zaid Al-Harb (1887–1972), Kuwaiti poet
*Zaid al-Rifa ...
and
Jahid Mohseni
Jahid Mohseni (born January 25, 1971), along with his brothers Saad and Zaid Mohseni and his sister Wajma Mohseni, established MOBY Group, Afghanistan's most diverse media company with interests in television, radio, print, web and directories, ...
, and younger sister Wajma.
Mohseni began his banking career as an apprentice at an Australian funds management entity, and later became a commodities and derivatives trader in Melbourne, Sydney, and London, culminating in the management of a trading desk of an Australian investment bank.
Return to Afghanistan and launch of media company
After the removal of the
Taliban government
The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...
in late 2001, Mohseni and his brothers returned to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to participate in the country's reconstruction and launch MOBY Group, with funding support from the United States government. They entered the media arena in 2003 by establishing
Arman FM
ARMAN FM is a general entertainment commercial radio station in Afghanistan. It broadcasts 24/7 in Dari and Pashto and is also available on live stream on ARMAN FM's website.
History
ARMAN FM takes its name from the Dari/Pashto word that means ...
, the country's first privately-owned radio station. Arman played Western and Afghan pop music, which was groundbreaking after years of Taliban rule, in which all music, television, and independent news had been banned.
In 2004, MOBY Group launched
TOLO TV
TOLO ( fa, طلوع, , sunrise) is a commercial television station operated by MOBY Group in Afghanistan. Launched in 2004, it became one of the first commercial stations in the country and laid the foundation for an accessible media outlet by of ...
, which airs international soap operas, The Voice Afghanistan, Afghan Star, and locally produced dramas. In addition to TOLO TV, MOBY also owns
TOLOnews
TOLOnews (Pashto/Persian: ) is Afghanistan's first 24/7 news television channel, owned by MOBY Group, launched in August, 2010. Its sister channels are TOLO TV and Lemar TV in Afghanistan.
The channel is available on terrestrial across Afghanist ...
and Lemar TV, a Pashto-language channel. In 2014, MOBY channels were viewed by over 60 per cent of Afghans. The Taliban have accused Mohseni of being "an American agent."
MOBY Group's regional expansion
In 2009, MOBY launched Farsi1, a general-entertainment satellite channel targeting Persian speakers in the Middle East and West Asia. In 2012,
21st Century Fox
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...
funded further expansion by temporarily becoming a minority shareholder. The Mohseni family assumed full control of MOBY Group following
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
's acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
In 2014, MOBY launched LANA TV in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, the first satellite channel to dub shows into the local Iraqi dialect.
In 2019, MOBY Group launched Darya, Afghanistan's first streaming service offering live and on-demand TV and movies. The platform is available on the web,
Roku
Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services.
The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...
,
Amazon Fire TV
Amazon Fire TV (stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connecte ...
, LG Smart TVs,
Apple App Store
The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Deve ...
and
Google Play Store
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sys ...
.
MOBY Group now owns 17 businesses operating in seven markets across South and Central Asia and the Middle East, spanning television, radio, production, strategic communications, and digital platforms.
Reputation
Mohseni has been called the "
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
of Afghanistan"; he is also considered a friend of Murdoch.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohseni, Saad
Australian people of Afghan descent
Living people
Australian bankers
Year of birth missing (living people)