Abolhassan Diba

Abolhassan Diba (4 January 1894 – 16 April 1982) was an Iranian politician, socialite, and businessman. Diba was born 4 January 1894 in Tabriz, Iran, to a well-established family which can trace its line from the 8th century. His mother, Princess Malektadj Firuz, was a princess of the (then reigning) Qajar dynasty and his father, Fazlollah Vakil-el-Molk, was a Private Aide to the Crown Prince, Mozaffar-ed-din Mirza. At birth, he was given the Qajar title of "Saghat-ed-Dowleh". At the death of his father, the family moved to Tehran in 1902. In 1909, he accompanied his half-brother, Mohammad Mossadegh, to Switzerland and France, where he graduated from the Ecole des Sciences Politiques of the Sorbonne, with a degree in economics and administration. On his return to Iran after graduating college, he went into public office, becoming deputy minister of finance. He married Pouran Vakili and is the father of Farhad and Malektadj Diba who was a relative of the former queen Farah Pahlavi. After the coup d'état by Reza Khan (1921), he left government employ, sold his land holdings and entered into private business, which was frowned upon by his aristocratic peers at that time, setting up the firm of Diba & Bayat, which later became Abolhassan Diba and Company. He was innovative and forward-thinking, always seeking to bring modernity to Iran. In this quest, the following activities are worth mentioning: He imported the first Leyland trucks into Iran (1921), to be used for road haulage instead of mules and camel caravans. He introduced agricultural machinery (tractors, harvesters) to replace the use of bullocks. A civil construction department was established to undertake the development of rail construction, bridges, buildings and roads. For this purpose, the first asphalting machinery was imported with which the company built some of the first paved roads in Iran. Another section imported automobiles. He was the first to bring mechanised accounting procedures to Iran, with an Electronic Digital Computer in 1957.