Officers

BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The USACC Board of Trustees is a group of Americans and Azerbaijanis interested in promoting friendship, cooperation and commerce between the American people and the people of Azerbaijan. The Board of Trustees offers its recommendations to the USACC Board of Directors on all matters related to the Chambers programs and activities.

Hafiz Pashayev

Hafiz M. Pashayev is the first ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United States. He assumed his official duties in February 1993, and presented his credentials to President Clinton on April 14, 1993.

Since assuming his post, a primary focus of Ambassador Pashayev's activities has been to educate Americans about Azerbaijan's successful efforts to institute democratic and free market reforms while solidifying its independence. He has worked to promote settlement of the conflict with Armenia, to secure humanitarian relief for the 1 million refugees in Azerbaijan. He also promoted development of Azerbaijan's extensive energy resources.

Ambassador Pashayev has had articles published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Boston Globe. In addition, he has spoken before many foreign policy think tanks, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Central Asia Institute of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University, Middle East Studies Association, the Washington, Nashville, Tampa, Birmingham and Los Angeles chapters of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Institute for Peace, and the Washington, D.C. Bar Association's International Law Committee. Ambassador Pashayev has also lectured at numerous colleges and universities including the University of Michigan, Mount Holyoke College, George Mason University, and the University of California.

Prior to his appointment as ambassador, Dr. Pashayev taught physics at Baku State University and served as Director of the Metal Physics Laboratory in the Institute of Physics at the Academy of Sciences in Azerbaijan. In 1984, he was named full professor at the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan.

Ambassador Pashayev received his degree in physics from Baku State University in 1963, and his Ph.D. in solid state physics in 1971 from the Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow. From 1975 to 1976, he undertook research at the University of California at Irvine. He is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and books, and speaks Azerbaijani, Russian, Turkish, and English.

He is married and has two children. His wife, Dr. Rena Pashayev, is a scholar and professor of Arabic literature and history.