Misplaced Pages

Mehdi Samii
Ambassador-at-large and Advisor to the Prime Minister for International Financing
In office 1971–1973
Prime Minister	Amir-Abbas Hoveyda
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran
In office 1970–1971
Prime Minister	Amir-Abbas Hoveyda
Preceded by	Khodadad Farmanfarmaian
Succeeded by	Abdolali Jahanshahi
In office 1964–1969
Prime Minister	Hassan-Ali Mansur
Deputy	Khodadad Farmanfarmaian
Preceded by	Ali-Asghar Poorhomayoon
Succeeded by	Khodadad Farmanfarmaian
Head of Plan and Budget Organization of Iran
In office 1969–1970
Prime Minister	Amir-Abbas Hoveyda
Preceded by	Mohammad-Safi Asfia
Succeeded by	Khodadad Farmanfarmaian
Personal details
Born	(1918-06-24)24 June 1918 Tehran, Qajar Iran
Died	30 June 2010(2010-06-30) (aged 92) Los Angeles, California, USA
Political party	Resurgence Party (1975–78) People's Party (1957–75)
Relatives	Fereydoun Mahdavi

Mehdi Samii (Persian: مهدی سمیعی; 1918–2010) was an Iranian chartered accountant, banker and economist. Samii is credited as "one of the chief architects of Iran's rapid economic and Industrial growth in the 1960s", as well as "a midwife of in the creation of the bank " and "more than anyone else responsible" for it. According to Abbas Milani, "the fact that the bank was a relatively independent institution, free from corruption and political interference and unusually efficient", is attributed to his leadership.

Biography

Samii was born in Tehran in 1910. He held office as the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (1964–1969; 1970–1971), the head of Plan and Budget Organization of Iran (1969–1971) and Ambassador-at-large (1971–1973). Before that, Samii rejected job offers for ministerial roles twice: Once in 1960 when Jafar Sharif-Emami offered him the role of the minister of agriculture and the next in the following year when Ali Amini proposed that he become minister of commerce.

He was a co-founder of Iranian Institute of Certified Accountants. He died in 2010.

References

1. ^ Milani, Abbas (2008). Eminent Persians: The Men and Women who Made Modern Iran, 1941-1979. Vol. 1. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. pp. 760–767. ISBN 978-0815609070.
2. ^ Mehrzad Boroujerdi (2020). "Rethinking the Legacy of Intellectual-Statesmen in Iran". In Ramin Jahanbegloo (ed.). Mapping the Role of Intellectuals in Iranian Modern and Contemporary History. London: Lexington Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-7936-0007-3.

External links

• Media related to Mehdi Samii at Wikimedia Commons

This article about an Iranian politician is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 20th-century Iranian economists
• Governors of the Central Bank of Iran
• People's Party (Iran) politicians
• Iranian bankers
• Iranian accountants
• Rastakhiz Party politicians
• 1918 births
• 2010 deaths
• Iranian politician stubs