In the late 1970s he founded Nazem and Company, which has managed seven private venture capital funds and a joint venture, the Transatlantic Venture Fund in partnership with Banque National de Paris of France. Over the past four decades he has started, financed or guided more than three hundred cutting edge enterprises that have defined new fields in high technology and healthcare. Some of these companies have become multi-billion dollar enterprises. The most recent venture Mr. Nazem has founded is Flagship Global Healthcare, where he is Chairman and CEO. Flagship is a membership-based healthcare delivery system that provides its members with priority access to renowned physician specialists globally.

Mr. Nazem is also known for his work as a turnaround specialist. As Chairman of Oxford Health Plans, he led the reorganization and successful turnaround of the company when it experienced operational and financial difficulties in 1997. Oxford was sold to United Health Group in 2004 for $5 billion. Mr. Nazem also led the turnaround of one of America’s most prominent family fortunes, taking it from near bankruptcy to being highly ranked on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in the world. He has been managing private wealth for three decades and currently is the Managing Partner of Hedgeworth Capital, a private hedge fund he founded in 2003.

Mr. Nazem devotes much of his time and attention to important philanthropic concerns as well. Through the Nazem Family Foundation he has supported many civic, educational and healthcare-related causes, including. He currently serves on the Science and Technology Advisory Board of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the Economic Club of New York. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, awarded to American citizens of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to the United States.

Mr. Nazem received a B.S. degree in biochemistry from Ohio State University, an M.S. in physical chemistry from University of Cincinnati and an MBA in finance from Columbia University. He has also done doctoral work in nuclear physics at Washington University. He worked as a chemist at Keebler and Company, and Matheson Coleman and Bell before he headed to Wall Street. Mr. Nazem was a securities analyst and Assistant Vice President at Irving Trust Company (now Bank of New York) for many years before founding his own venture capital firm.

Mr. Nazem lives in New York City with his wife, Susie Gharib, anchor for Nightly Business Report on PBS-TV. His son, Alexi, is a student at Yale University’s School of Medicine, and his daughter, Taraneh, also a medical student at Mount Sinai Medical School.