Mahasti Afshar

Mahasti Afshar comes to PAAIA with twenty years of experience as a senior non-profit executive. Most recently, she was at the National Geographic Society where as Vice President for Development she engaged thought leaders, visionary entrepreneurs, and philanthropists in the exploration and preservation of the natural environment and endangered languages and cultures.

Prior to that, she served as the Vice President of Alliances at X PRIZE Foundation, an organization focused on innovation through competition where Anousheh and Amir Ansari, "two of the sharpest people anywhere" served on the board. This followed a five-year appointment as Director of Endowment at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, 2002-07, where she raised $100 million to secure the organization's financial future. She takes pride in having welcomed Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Shahram and Hafez Nazeri, Homayoun Kalhor, and Homay and the Mastan Ensemble to Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl during her tenure.

Mahasti served as Director of Heritage Recognition at the Getty Conservation Institute for ten years, 1989-99. She produced award-winning international exhibitions, documentaries, virtual reality galleries, books and other public education initiatives to raise public awareness about the importance of cultural heritage and its preservation. Subjects ranged from Nefertari's tomb paintings in Egypt to the historic Center of Quito, Ecuador, and the Mogao Grottoes in China. Her favorite initiative, "Landmarks of a New Generation," involved 8-18-year-olds in Los Angeles, Cape Town, Mumbai, Paris, Mexico City, Sydney and other cities photographing what signified landmarks to them personally. Displayed at UNESCO, the World Bank, 2000 Sydney Olympics, and many national museums, the project brought a fresh, youth-centered, dynamic and ecological perspective to the field of heritage preservation.

In 2000, Mahasti served as the Executive Director of ARCH Foundation in Austria where she launched a conservation program in Morocco, prepared the restoration of Klimt's atelier in Vienna, and established programs in China, India, and Greece.

Mahasti's career began in 1968 as director of drama and classical music at the National Iranian Radio and Television and continued for ten summers at the Shiraz/Persepolis Arts Festival where she recorded live performances by the best of the avant-garde and the best of the traditional artists from around the world. "Everything I know about vision and strategy I learned at NIRT, not to mention standards, taste, pride in our culture and social assets, creativity and courage, and the value of treating and measuring everyone by the same yardstick. Landing at PAAIA feels like a homecoming back to the future."

Mahasti holds a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indo-European Folklore & Mythology (1988) and an M.A. in ancient Mesopotamian Religions and Literature (1976) from Harvard University, and diplomas in film and TV production from the BBC, London, and ORTF, Paris (1968-69). She was born and raised in Tehran, completed high school in England, owes her love of Persian to Shahrokh Meskoob, knows French and Spanish and has studied several ancient languages including Avestan and Pahlavi.