Sol Khazani
Founder & President:
People often ask me why I chose to start a non-profit focused on providing free surgeries for those in need in third world countries. Ten years ago, I helped take one of my companies public. I was a co-founder of U.S. Auto Parts, the largest independent ,on-line auto parts company in the United States. I had been a Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and eventually Chairman of the Board for this company. I still sit on their board today.
This was my life’s work, which had humble beginnings with me selling bumpers out of the back of my truck. I never forgot those challenging times, and remember all too well what it felt like to struggle and need help.
After earning my BA at University of Tehran and MBA in United States, I started a family, and eventually opened several businesses including a real estate development company, and co-founded U.S. Auto Parts. Over the years, as my businesses became more and more successful, I began asking myself how I could give back.
In my search to make a difference out in the world I ended up volunteering for a medical mission with a focus on reconstructive surgeries. I will never forget my first experience. I was asked to bring a small infant, a baby girl, into surgery. At first I thought it would be better for someone else to bring this baby in to the operating room, I specialized in auto parts, not medicine. But this was a mission made up of volunteers, and this was my job that day.
After the surgery, which took twenty-five minutes, the doctors called me in and asked that I now take the baby back out to the parents. As I picked this baby up into my arms I instantly saw the transformed look of this child’s cleft lip, and while it was a dramatic physical change, I realized this surgery would assist this girl in growing up and being able to function more fully in her world. And I will never forget the look of her mother when I brought her out of surgery. There were more than a few tears all around.
After selling a few of my businesses and helping take U.S. Auto Parts public, I got clear it was now time for me to give back in a bigger way. This started with my co-founding the non-profit foundation Women for World Health. I still serve as their Financial Director today. Once that foundation was up and running I got involved as a lender with KIVA, a micro finance non-profit offering Micro loans to people around the globe in developing nations, as well as joining the board for The Plasticos Foundation, another organization that sends surgeons abroad. After thirty years in business I founded The Khazani Foundation.
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