Susan Akbarpour (Persian : سوزان اكبرپور) is Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mavatar Technologies, a retail and e-commerce technology company that is developing a blockchain protocol called mCart.

Akbarpour is based in Atherton, California.

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Akbarpour was born and raised in Mashhad, Iran.

Akbarpour's mother died in a car accident when Akbarpour was 13 years of age, and Akbarpour lost her father to cancer seven years later, which left Akbarpour by herself to care for her two younger brothers as well as manage her family's business.

Akbarpour graduated from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in French Language and Literature, and later went on to attend Stanford Graduate School of Business, from which she earned a Master of Science in Management in 2010.

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Following in her parents' footsteps, Akbarpour began her career in journalism and joined the staff of Khorasan, the largest newspaper in Mashhad and the second-largest in Iran, where she quickly ascended the ranks to the editorial board.

In 1997, after she was banned from writing for having run afoul of the authorities, Akbarpour emigrated to the United States and settled in San Jose, California.

In 1999 Akbarpour launched Iran Today, a monthly news magazine catering to Iranian-Americans, and the following year founded Silicon Iran, a quarterly publication targeting Iranian-Americans in the technology industry, which later evolved into a publishing and event management company called Teksia.

In 2004 Akbarpour founded Linkore, a so-called "venture catalyst" firm that offered strategic business services such as executive search, event planning, and marketing strategy.

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Following her graduation from Stanford, in 2011 Akbarpour founded Mavatar Technologies, and presently serves as its Chief Executive Officer.

Akbarpour is also Partner at Candou Ventures and Monjeri Investments, and serves as an Advisor to Trustroot and as a Director at VOmax.

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Akbarpour is married to fellow Iranian-American technology entrepreneur Faraj Aalaei, and together they have one daughter.

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Women in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency