Rob Sobhani

Last updated
Rob Sobhani
S. R. Sobhani.jpg
Born
Sohrab Sobhani

(1960-02-14) February 14, 1960 (age 63)
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, U.S.
Alma mater Georgetown University
Political party Independent (since 2011)
Other political
affiliations		 Republican (before 2011)
Website

Sohrab Sobhani (born February 15, 1960) is an Iranian-American author and lecturer on energy issues, U.S. immigration policies and U.S. policy toward the Middle East. [1]

Contents

Formerly a professor at Georgetown University, Sobhani is currently the chairman and Chief Executive of Caspian Group, a company that specializes in working with companies that have business interests in the United States, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. [2] He is the founder and CEO of Sparo Corporation. [3] Sobhani serves on the Board of Z Advanced Computing (ZAC). [4] Sobhani has published one book on immigration: Press 2 for English: Fix Immigration, Save America, and two books on foreign affairs: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia: A Leader of Consequence and The Pragmatic Entente: Israeli–Iranian Relations, 1948–1988 . [5]

Sobhani ran as an Independent candidate for the United States Senate in Maryland in 2012 against Republican nominee Daniel Bongino, Libertarian Dean Ahmad, and Democratic incumbent Ben Cardin. He received 16.4 percent of the vote, [6] [7] beating the state's all-time mark for an independent or third-party candidate. [8] Senator Cardin was re-elected with 56% of the vote, with the Republican candidate capturing 26.3% of the total. [6]

Early life and education

Born in Kansas, as a child Sobhani lived in Iran, his family's ancestral home. After 1979, his parents left Iran due to the Islamic Revolution and immigrated to the United States, where Sobhani had already begun his higher education. He earned first his bachelors and later his PhD in Political Economy at Georgetown University, [9] where he later served as an adjunct professor in political economy. Sobhani is an usher at the St. Francis Episcopal Church in Potomac, is married and has two children, and has lived with them in Montgomery County for the last 33 years.

Career

Sobhani is CEO, chairman, and founder of Caspian Group holdings, LLC, (Caspian Group). The Caspian Group is a "multidisciplinary group of companies with broad international business interests in the fields of energy (including green renewables), infrastructure development, high technology, publishing and strategic advisory services". [10]

In 2012, Sobhani, with the National Oil and Gas Authority, Petra Solar, and the Bahrain Petroleum Company, made an agreement to bring American-made "smart" solar technology to the township of Awali, the University of Bahrain, and other locations in Bahrain. "Smart solar is an innovative approach that couples solar with smart grid technology and is deployed in partnership with utility companies to generate clean, safe renewable energy while making the electric infrastructure more stable, efficient and energy-independent. This approach builds large-scale solar in a reliable fashion that avoids future costs of rebuilding the grid." [11]

In 1990, the then-Soviet Union state Azerbaijan was negotiating with BP for its offshore oil exploration. Sobhani, an Azeri-speaking American, was sought out by Communist Party leader Ayaz Mutalibov, who decided to allow Amoco a chance to get the deal. [12] In 1991, after Sobhani's talks with Mutalibov, Amoco was granted exclusive rights to the Azeri oil field for one year. [13] Eventually, several companies took a share of the offshore exploration after the fall of the Soviet Union. [13]

U.S. Senate campaigns

Prior to 2012, Sobhani made two runs for the United States Senate in Maryland as a Republican, losing both times in the primary: first in 1992 when he lost to Alan L. Keyes, and again in 2000 when he lost to Paul Rappaport. [14]

In 2012, as an independent, [15] Sobhani primarily ran on a platform of jobs and education. He pledged to accomplish these five goals: [16]

Sobhani pledged to only run for two terms, not to run for a second term if he didn't accomplish his five goals, and reach out to both parties if they are willing.

Personal life

In a radio interview, Sobhani has stated that he has previously fund-raised for the Urban Alliance Foundation. The non-profit will receive according to his plan a $150 million investment from global non-profit organizations to fund scholarships/internships for low-income students in Maryland.[ citation needed ]

Contributions

Sobhani has contributed as a pundit to the following:

He has also made appearances for his campaign on the following shows:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chevron Corporation</span> American multinational energy corporation

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California, it is headquartered in San Ramon, California, and active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BP Canada</span> Canadian oil and gas company

BP Canada was a Canadian petroleum company and subsidiary of British Petroleum that existed between 1955 and 1992. The name refers to a group of companies that engaged in various segments of the petroleum industry lifecycle. BP entered the Canadian market in October 1953, when it purchased a 23 percent stake in the Triad Oil Company. In 1955, BP formed a Canadian subsidiary, based in Montreal, called BP Canada Limited. The company began acquiring retail stations in Ontario and Quebec and in 1957 started construction on a refinery in Montreal. By the end of the 1950s BP Canada was a fully-integrated operation. In 1964, it acquired from Cities Service the Oakville Refinery, and then expanded its operations significantly in 1971 when it acquired Supertest Petroleum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exelon</span> American utility company

Exelon Corporation is a public utility headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and incorporated in Pennsylvania. Exelon is the largest electric parent company in the United States by revenue and is the largest regulated electric utility in the United States with approximately 10 million customers. The company is ranked 99th on the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constellation Energy</span> Energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland

Constellation Energy Corporation is an American energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across the continental United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WYPR</span> Public radio station in Baltimore, Maryland

WYPR is a public radio station serving the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area. Its studio is in the Charles Village neighborhood of northern Baltimore, while its transmitter is in Park Heights. The station is simulcast in the Frederick and Hagerstown area on WYPF and in the Ocean City area on WYPO.

The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan, largely known by its abbreviation SOCAR, is a fully state-owned national oil and gas company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani segment of the Caspian Sea. It operates the country's only oil refinery, one gas processing plant and runs several oil and gas export pipelines throughout the country. It owns fuel filling station networks under the SOCAR brand in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, Switzerland, and Austria.

Sources include: Dow Jones (DJ), New York Times (NYT), Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and the Washington Post (WP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Oil</span> Largest publicly traded oil and gas companies, also known as supermajors

Big Oil is a name used to describe the world's six or seven largest publicly traded and investor-owned oil and gas companies, also known as supermajors. The term, particularly in the United States, emphasizes their economic power and influence on politics. Big Oil is often associated with the fossil fuels lobby and also used to refer to the industry as a whole in a pejorative or derogatory manner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy in Iran</span> Overview of the production, consumption, import and export of energy and electricity in Iran

Iran has the fourth largest oil reserves and the 2nd largest natural gas reserves in the world. The nation is a member of OPEC, and generates approximately 50% of state revenue through oil exports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azerbaijan–Israel relations</span> Bilateral relations

Azerbaijan and Israel began diplomatic relations in 1992 following Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan is one of the majority Muslim countries, alongside Turkey, Egypt, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kosovo, Morocco, Albania, and the other former Soviet republics to develop bilateral strategic and economic relations with Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Olszewski (politician)</span> American politician

John Anthony Olszewski Jr. is an American politician and the current Baltimore County Executive. He previously served two terms in the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana Stein</span> American politician

Dana Max Stein is an American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing District 11B in Baltimore County, since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he has served as the speaker pro tempore of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BP</span> British multinational oil and gas company

BP p.l.c. is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and one of the world's largest companies measured by revenues and profits. It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading.

Baltimore is a major media market, even though the city is only a 45-minute drive northeast of Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caspian Sea</span> Worlds largest inland body of water, located in Eurasia

The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau. It covers a surface area of 371,000 km2 (143,000 sq mi), an area approximately equal to that of Japan, with a volume of 78,200 km3 (19,000 cu mi). It has a salinity of approximately 1.2%, about a third of the salinity of average seawater. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the southwest, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast.

The Iran Marine Industrial Company, also known as SADRA, was founded in 1968 as a small ship repair yard in Bushehr. Since then, SADRA has established itself as the leading shipbuilding and ship repairing company in Iran. SADRA is also active in offshore oil & gas development. SADRA specializes in building ships, docks, and floating oil rigs. Sadra Group is a sister company of Iran's state-owned Iran Shipbuilding and Offshores Industries Complex Co. (ISOICO). As of April 2009, the IRGC-controlled construction conglomerate, Khatam al-Anbia owns a controlling stake in SADRA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Intercultural Center</span> Administrative office in Washington, DC

The Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Intercultural Center commonly known as the Intercultural Center or ICC is a seven-story mixed use building on the main campus of Georgetown University named for Edward B. Bunn. The center was built in 1982 as the Photovoltaic Higher Education National Exemplar Facility in conjunction with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The facility hosts numerous administrative offices, student facilities, and conference spaces, but is best known for its contribution to solar power development. Among the occupants of the building are the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and several departments of Georgetown College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 United States Senate election in Maryland</span> Election for U.S. senator from Maryland

The 2012 United States Senate election in Maryland took place on November 6, 2012, concurrently with the 2012 U.S. presidential election as well as other elections to the United States Senate, House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ben Cardin won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican nominee Dan Bongino and independent Rob Sobhani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar power in Maryland</span> Overview of solar power in the U.S. state of Maryland

Solar power in Maryland is supported by the state's legislation regarding the Renewable Portfolio Standard and Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program. The target for renewable energy as of 2017 is 20% by 2020, including 2% from solar power.

Louis Blaustein was an American businessman and philanthropist who founded the American Oil Company (AMOCO).

References

  1. ↑ Harris, Leon (April 23, 2003). "Interview With Professor Rob Sobhani". CNN Live Today. CNN. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Caspian Group". caspiangroup.com. Caspian Group Holdings. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Sparo.com". sparo.com. Sparo Corporation. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Z Advanced Computing". Z Advanced Computing. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Books | Rob Sobhani | International Policy Expert, Author, Lecturer, Business Executive". Robsobhani.com. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "2012 General Election Results". Maryland State Board of Elections. November 28, 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Maryland - Election 2012 - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  8. ↑ Ostermeier, Eric (October 1, 2012). "Rob Sobhani Poised to Crush Maryland US Senate Election Mark". Smart Politics. University of Minnesota: Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
  9. ↑ "C5i Corporation – Rob Sobhani, Ph.D., Board of Directors". C5i Corporation. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Caspian Group". Caspian Group. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  11. ↑ Grikas, Mary (May 21, 2012). "Petra Solar, The National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), The Bahrain Petroleum Company, and Caspian Energy Holdings Announce Landmark Smart Solar Project in Bahrain". Reuters (Press release). Petra Solar. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Pipe Dreams - The Struggle for Caspian Oil". The Washington Post . September 20, 1994. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  13. 1 2 Levine, Steve (October 23, 2007). The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea. Random House Publishing. p. 136. ISBN   9781588366467 . Retrieved May 25, 2017– via Google Books.
  14. ↑ "Candidate - S. Rob Sobhani". Our Campaigns. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Rob Sobhani, Independent for Maryland Senate - Declare Your Independence!". Archived from the original on August 29, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Rob's Pledge - Sobhani 2012". Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  17. ↑ "Bahrain: Standing by an ally". The Hill . October 23, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  18. 1 2 Sobhani, S. Rob. "SOBHANI: Israel's Iran dilemma". The Washington Times . Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Yemen doesn't have to be the next failed terrorist state". The Christian Science Monitor . February 4, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  20. ↑ Sobhani, Rob. "Rob Sobhani". Huffington Post . Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  21. ↑ Sobhani, Rob (August 20, 2012). "Maryland needs a new plan for economic development". The Baltimore Sun . Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  22. ↑ Sobhani, Rob (September 13, 2011). "Keeping the American Dream". The Hoya . Archived from the original on February 4, 2013.
  23. ↑ "American Foreign Policy Must Take Into Account Dueling Irans". Forbes . Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  24. ↑ "Rob is featured on Baltimore's WJZ five o'clock newscast". YouTube. September 18, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  25. ↑ "Highlights from Rob's interview on WBAL's the C4 show". YouTube. September 20, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  26. ↑ "Rob talks with WYPR's Dan Rodricks on The Midday Weekly Review". YouTube. September 14, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  27. ↑ "Rob's Interview with Kate Delaney on America Tonight". YouTube. September 20, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.