The story
Founded by Habibollah Asgaroladi, Hassan Sane'i and Mehdi Karroubi in 1989.1
History
The organization was launched on April 26, 1989, when the first Supreme Leader of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini, ordered his aides to manage, maintain or sell properties confiscated or supposedly abandoned after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The order called for the implementation of Article 49 of Constitution of Iran under which the government had the right to confiscate all wealth accumulated through illegal means, restore it to its "legitimate owners"; and if those owners could not be identified, entrust it "to the public treasury".
Habibollah Asgaroladi, Mehdi Karroubi and Hassan Sane'i were appointed to take over all "sales, servicing and managing" of assets of unknown ownership. The assets were to go to seven bonyads and charities specified by Khomeini, such as the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, State Welfare Organization of Iran. The money would be used to aid "families of the martyrs, veterans, the missing, prisoners of war and the downtrodden." According to Reuters, one of the three co-founders of Setad, Mehdi Karoubi, wrote in 2009 that the organization was intended "to operate for no more than two years".
Khomeini died about a month later. The organization did not disband but developed over the next two decades into a vast parastatal known as the Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam - Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam. According to Reuters, the organization has engaged in the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians, religious minorities, business people and Iranians living abroad.
In 2006, as the United Nations and Western powers began to impose increasingly harsh economic sanctions on Iran, the task force began studying how some developing economies managed to grow so rapidly. The task force concluded that what Iran lacked and needed were conglomerates on par with South Korea, Japan, Brazil, and the United States.
In 2013, as the West pressured Iran's economy with sanctions related to its nuclear development program, the headquarters' extensive economic operations provided the Islamic Republic with an independent source of revenue.
Leadership
Mohammad Shariatmadari was appointed as the leader of Setad by order of Ali Khamenei in 1994. Iranians who have served in the running or overseeing of Setad include Mohammad Javad Iravani, who took over as head of Setad in 1997, and Mohammad Mokhber, who became the CEO in 2007. Hossein-Ali Nayyeri (until 2023) and Kazem Najafi Elmi (until 2014) were members of the Board of Trustees of Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order.
In 2009, Mohammad Saeedikia, a former Iranian minister of housing and urban development, was named chairman of the Setad subsidiary Tadbir Construction Development Group. Aref Norozi served on the board of Tadbir Investment and was head of Setad's real-estate division. From 2013, Ali Ashraf Afkhami was the head of the Tadbir Economic Development Group. Mohammad Reyshahri, a former intelligence minister, was chairman of Rey Investment Co, appointed by Khamenei.
In 2021, the Board of Trustees of the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order elected Aref Norouzi as head of the executive staff.
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The current head is Parviz Fattah.
Barakat Foundation
On 11 December 2007, based on the sentence of the second Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, "I'm concerned about solving problems of the deprived classes of the society. For instance, solve problems of 1000 villages completely. How good would it be if 1000 points of the country are solved or 1000 schools are built in the country", the Barakat Foundation has been established to solve the problems of in needed people and make habitable the deprived region where poor people live.
The Mechanism of Barakat Foundation is summarized in eight steps. First, the region to implement the Poverty Reduction Project is selected. Then, by choosing the consultant (or experts) and holding meetings, studies on the status of capacities of development at the target area and on the basis of the formulation and implementation of the plan, it is considered as the agenda. After completing the establishment mechanism for implementing the plan and ways for Financing support and education steps, the project begins to operate economically. After the evaluation and documentation of the process of carrying out the project, the Barakat Foundation will be removed from the implementation process. Finally, the project is donated to people for economic activity.
This process was called Sunshine, in order to reduce poverty through the participation of local communities. The Foundation has mainly concentrated on the entrepreneurship of needy people.
Barakat Foundation
Barakat Foundation is a charitable bonyad that concentrates on the economic development projects in the rural region, and "has stakes in the country's pharmaceutical industry."
According to the reports, its activities include building schools in rural areas, launching economic projects in rural and deprived regions of Iran focused on job creation, and implementing infrastructure projects such as road construction, building homes for the underprivileged, providing water, electricity, telecommunications, mosques, and carrying out agricultural projects.
Ehsan-Foundation
Ehsan-Barakat Charity foundation associated to Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order and Barekat Foundation was founded in order to request of current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei to provide more quickly help for individual cases (needy people). As Mokhber, the chief of Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order nominated, the activities which be performed by the Charity relies on people's help.
From Wikipedia’s article on Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3