Farmanfarmaian, Manucher

Farmanfarmaian was born in Tehran. He studied petroleum engineering at Birmingham University in England before returning to Iran to become director general of petroleum, concessions, and mines after World War II. In 1958 he became director of sales for the National Iranian Oil Company. He also served on the board of the Consortium, the international oil conglomerate responsible for all of Iran's export sales. A key signatory in the 1959 Cairo agreement that resulted in OPEC, he was also Iran's first ambassador to Venezuela.