The Honorable Amir Farokhi

Amir Farokhi is a lifelong Atlantan who has spent his career solving problems. From leading local and national social enterprises to helping companies make an impact beyond profits, Amir has built reputation as a thoughtful, pragmatic leader who relies upon coalition-building and collaboration to get things done.

Amir's activism started in college, when he helped push a successful effort to get his institution to recognize MLK Jr. Day as an official university holiday. After practicing law with an international law firm for five years, he co-founded the non-partisan, statewide nonprofit GeorgiaForward to bring business, government and civil society together to tackle the state's most pressing issues.

While running GeorgiaForward, he realized the untapped potential in Georgia's young professionals and launched the Young Gamechangers program which brings together the state's brightest young minds to solve longstanding challenges in Georgia cities. Under the GeorgiaForward banner, Amir also led a coalition of organizations to publish the state's first-ever Civic Health Index.

Amir then served as Chief Operating Officer of College Advising Corps ("CAC"), a $30M+ national education non-profit which works to increase the number of low-income students who apply to and attend college. In this role, he worked at the intersection of business, higher education, and philanthropy, collaborating to address one of America's biggest barriers to socioeconomic mobility for low-income families: access to a college education. While with CAC, he also helped launch a partnership with Achieve Atlanta to increase the number of Atlanta Public School students who matriculate to college.

Today, Amir works as a consultant with a global firm, helping companies realize their purpose beyond profits in order to make meaningful impact for their employees, communities, and customers. Throughout his career, he has been committed to community engagement. From bicycle and transit advocacy to education to strengthening support for Atlanta's firefighters, Amir has worked to make Atlanta safer, livable, and more vibrant.

Amir was born to educators. His mother, a native of Augusta and eighth-generation Georgian, spent nearly 25 years in the administration of Georgia State University's College of Education. His father immigrated to the United States from Iran in the 1960s and received a Ph.D. from Atlanta University before a 35+ year career as a professor at Morris Brown College.

Amir lives with his wife, Julie Okada, in the Old Fourth Ward. He is a graduate of The Galloway School, Duke University, and Duke University School of Law.