BISHOW BHATTA
President
[email protected]
Tel.+1-650-417-5977 (USA)
Tel. +977- 9851-051-740 (Nepal)
Bishow was born in Gorkha, Nepal, educated in Kathmandu and Calcutta, India. Throughout his earlier life in Nepal, he’s had extensive experience in electronics, customs and shipping, construction, business renovation, bookstores and publishing, and hotel and restaurant management. In Kathmandu, he owns several properties and a home in Goldhunga. By 2006, he and his wife, Deepa, and four children immigrated to the United States. During this time, he was employed by Google in Mountain View, California. At the same time, he co-founded the orphanage, Nepal Children Orphan Home (NECO), in Goldhunga, Kathmandu. First started with 4 children, the orphanage has since expanded to 32, plus staff. In the past, Mr. Bhatta has been a member of Kiwanis Club International, the National Rifle Association, and the Nepal Red Cross. Currently he is a member of the Child NGO Federation of Nepal (CNFN) and a member of the Bahá’í Faith, where his projects exemplify “the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” NECO Home is a platform to teach that all humanity is one family, women and men are equal, universal teachings from all religions should be taught, destructive prejudice must be overcome, and world peace should be the goal of our time.
FARAMARZ MARK YAZDANI
Treasurer
Dr. Yazdaniis an economist by education with a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He worked for about 20 years in the energy market, helping independent power producers negotiate power purchase agreements (PPA) with their respective utilities. His last assignment, 1999-2008, was assisting the Government of Indonesia restructure the Indonesian electricity market. After that assignment, and for the last six years, he has been building homes in the San Francisco Bay Area and been active in other areas of the real estate market. He is also the treasurer of another nonprofit foundation, the Hakone Japanese Garden and Estate in Saratoga California.
KAREN HERMANN
Karen Herrmann served on the NECO Foundation board for the past two years while working as a technician for an engineering firm nearby Topeka, Kansas. She and her husband, Markhave a rural home in Berryton, about a one hour drive west of Kansas City. They are also members of their local Bahá’í community: Mark since 1978, Karen since 1979. Their home in Berryton is actually a small farm which has chickens, turkeys and a pig as well as a large garden that grows vegetables for themselves and their nearby family. Karen and Mark have three daughters ages 28 to 33 and two grandsons. They learned about the orphanage work from Dave and Sharon Lund. Lauren, their eldest, volunteered serving the children in Kathmandu for about a month in 2008. All of their stories about their visits to Nepal touched the rest of their family. They say they are honored to be able to help with their support which has now lasted for several years.
ANTHONY A. LEE
Anthony A. Lee, Ph.D. (UCLA, 2007) teaches African and African American history at UCLA and a West Los Angeles College. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, FlorGeola, M.D. He is also co-owner of Kalimat Press, an independent Baha'i publishing company. Lee has a number of academic publications in his fields of interest, African history, African-American history, and Baha'i Studies. He is the general editor of the twenty-three-volume series Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions (Kalimat Press). His full-length book,The Baha’i Faith in Africa, was published by Brill (2011). Lee is also a poet. His first book of poems, This Poem Means, was the winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award for 2005 (Lotus Press). He is the winner of the Poetry of the Sacred Award for 2012 (Merton Institute). His translations have been published in Táhirih: A Portrait in Poetry: Selected Poems of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn (Kalimát Press, 2004). He is also co-translator of Rumi: 53 Lessons on Love: Poems of Sorrow and Renewal (White Cloud Press, 2014), Desert Sorrows: Poems by Tayseer al-Sboul (Michigan State University Press, 2015), and Love Is My Savior: The Arabic Poems of Rumi (Michigan State University Press, 2016).
Cyrus Parvini
Cyrus with his wife, Simin
Cyrus is the founder and president of the non-profit tax exempt charity Children Education Foundation of Mountain View, California. The foundation promotesVirtues Educational Programs to many orphanages and schools around the world. Cyrus received his BS degree from California State University at East Bay in Industrial Management/Planning and Scheduling. His experience in International Business and Real Estate Development spans over 30 years. He and his wife, Simin, are the owners of the Little Prodigy Preschool, a high standard Preschool in Northern California with over 90 children. Cyrus is also the producer of the documentary film “The Promise of World Peace- A Bahá’í Perspective”, which has been broadcast on 40 TV Stations in United States and reached 67 countries in various languages. His foundation is a major supporter of our orphanage.
Gerald Babel-Sutter
Gerald Babel-Sutter (41) supports NECO through raising awareness and funds in Europe. Apart from supporting the Nepal Children Orphan Home, Gerald is director of the URBAN FUTURE Global Conference, one of the world's largest events for making cities more sustainable. Gerald was born and raised in Vienna (Austria), studied at Karl-Franzens University in Graz, at Montclair State University (NJ), at New York University and at Harvard University. In previous positions he worked for international corporations and management consultancies in Europe, China, India and the USA.