Mehrdad (Mike) is a computer engineer by trade, and since 1990, a mountain guide by choice. He is a keen mountain climber and an avid cyclist. He founded his software development company in 1998 while remaining active in mountain climbing and biking activities throughout those years. During that time, he climbed most of the high altitude Iranian peaks and started leading groups of friends and associates on trekking tours throughout the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges. It was during these trips that he realized, mostly through positive feedback from his companions, that he had a knack and talent for leading and engaging his groups.
His next move was to start travelling outside of Iran and get a feel for how world travelers functioned and operated in foreign lands. He has accomplished a number of backpacking trips in various Asian countries some taking several months at a time. It was during these trips that he started thinking about the potential for Adventure travel in Iran. Most of the travellers he met had no idea about the possibilities of adventure based activities in Iran. They might have heard of the country but little else and certainly had little desire to see the country mostly due to lack of knowledge. Most assumed Iran was strictly a desert country with little else.
After his return back to Iran, with a couple of his friends he started to research and study the possibilities for Adventure Travel industry in Iran as a potential new destination for the global adventure travellers. Finally in 2006 he decided to quit the computer industry and plunged into the uncharted waters of this new and alien profession in Iran. He changed his entire life style in order to open Adventure Iran with a couple of his close friends who shared his vision. He went through all the official courses in tourism and guiding in order to be licensed as an outdoors tour operator. The first steps into this new field was to take domestic travelers to locations that were not covered by the small and limited adventure tour industry. The next move was to create outbound tours for Iranians into other Asian countries as adventure tours which was practically unknown at the time. This was only possible due to his previous experience as a traveler with extensive knowledge of several Asian countries due to several adventure trips to these locations. As a result of his knowledge and local contacts that he made during these trips, he has become an experienced guide and subsequently has led many adventure tours in South East Asia as well as Himalayas for Iranian travelers.
His next logical step and the central goal was to concentrate on bringing international travelers to Iran. So the local travel trips were gradually faded out in order for him and the company to focus on the core philosophy that is to introduce and show the entire land of Iran to adventurous global travelers.From that time, he had different roles in Adventure Iran as a mountain guide on the beginning, Sales, Product manager and marketing department. Currently he is managing director of the company focusing on designing new and innovative journeys and attending a number of industry exhibitions mainly in Europe, in order to introduce Iran for new potential trade.