Reza Marashi

Reza Marashi served as the first Research Director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), joining in 2010. Before NIAC, he spent four years at the U.S. State Department's Office of Iranian Affairs and worked at the Institute for National Strategic Studies on China-Middle East issues. He was also a Tehran-based private strategic consultant connected to the Atieh Bahar consulting ecosystem. His career path — from the State Department's Iran desk to NIAC — exemplifies the revolving door between government Iran policy positions and the NIAC network that critics have highlighted.