Mohammad Modarres
Mohammad Modarres is an award-winning social entrepreneur and local economic activist who has created multiple first-to-market products and brands that focus on bringing people together. He uses the stage to connect the dots between overlooked moments in time that have led to leaps in human creativity and peace...and bigotry and violence. Mohammad is a TED Resident and NPR How I Built This Fellow. He spends his free time converting classic VW Buses into electric vehicles and working on creating how-to videos for new American immigrants.
Watch Mohammad's
official TED.com Talks
With over 1,800,000 views, Mohammad's second TED Talk as a TED Resident highlights the complexities farmers face in today's challenging global food industry. The solution?..
In his first official TED Talk, Mohammad speaks about Halal, Kosher, and merging both dietary laws to use "interfaith food" as a medium to foster cultural understanding and build peace.
Audience
Speaker
Mohammad is a two-time TED Resident and public speaker with more than 1,800,000 online views on TED.com. He uses the stage to offer social and economic solutions that promote equity and inclusion. His talks, at the intersection of activism and entrepreneurship, include:
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The rise of the new activist - the social entrepreneur!
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How the Renaissance became Italian
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Why you shouldn't protest on Saturdays
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How to build a more inclusive dinner table to combat anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim bigotry
Consultant
Over the last five years, Mohammad has consulted c-level executives who work at nonprofit foundations and public companies on building new business development strategies to create unique B2B/C brands that reflect the diversity of their changing communities.
Past projects have included:
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Rebranding an athletic foundation for an NFL athlete
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Building the online marketing strategy for the "Mother of Modern Dance"
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Developing the communications strategy of a Grammy Award-winning producer
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Producing a gala that raised $300,000 in one night for local nonprofits
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Creating fundraising documents for two companies that later went public
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Training executives for their TED Talk-style speaking events
Entrepreneur
As an award-winning small food business owner focused on using food as a tool to promote diversity and inclusion, Mohammad is not new to social entrepreneurship. His previous ventures include:
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Co-founding a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics for autoimmune disorders
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Establishing an online fair trade shop that imported products from four countries
What People Have Said
"Mohammad is one of the most promising leaders of his generation...He is gifted, energetic and visionary. It's been a pleasure to watch his career unfold. And we all will benefit from his successes. He has my highest esteem and strongest recommendation for any endeavor he can imagine."
Dr. John Bader,
Executive Director at the Fulbright Association