About Us
Azadeh Ardakani, Founder & Director
Azadeh Ardakani was born in Charlotte, NC and grew up in Iran, Turkey and Canada, and is now based in New York City. A fluent speaker of Farsi, Azadeh studied broadcast journalism at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and social enterprise and nonprofit management at The New School. She worked as a researcher, booker and associate producer for CBC’s (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) late night arts and culture program ZeD. During her three years at ZeD, she gained extensive experience in working with a range of artists, authors, and musicians.
In 2005, Azadeh sought new career challenges by moving to New York City and became a consultant for the pre-production of the TV show The Apprentice. Her pursuits later lead her to the position of Account Manager for a luxury Real Estate Advertising Agency representing the likes of the Trump organization and Tishman Speyer.
In 2007, during a volunteer trip at S.O.S Children’s Villages, an orphanage in Jamaica, Azadeh discovered the power of using her marketing skills towards a social cause that mattered. Her newly found passion for the philanthropic sector led her to land a position as a campaign manager in 2008. Azadeh was instrumental in launching a high profile environmental campaign, in Time Square called “Together.” Azadeh played a vital role in securing alliances with various NGOs and launching a successful press conference event, featuring the UN Secretary General, Mayor Bloomberg, and some of the most prominent brands and NGOs.
In 2009, Azadeh recognized the need to create and foster a community that caters to those creating real change through the arts. This idea led and inspired her to embark on the creation of Beckoning for Change. Azadeh has thus far captured the interest of hundreds of artists with a cause and followers of artists with causes from around the world. An artist herself, Azadeh is also at work on her memoir, Red Shoes in Tehran. Azadeh will begin her Masters in Corporate Social Responsibility at the Nottingham University Business School in the United Kingdom, this year.
Contact: azadeh@beckoningforchange.org
Eleanor Cicerchi, Founding Board Member
Eleanor Cicerchi, Director of the $235 million Signature Campaign for The Newark Museum in Newark, NJ, has extensive experience in fund-raising management and is a frequent speaker and writer about fund raising and nonprofit management. Previous positions include Associate Vice President for Development for Save the Children, an international child-assistance agency, and chief development officer for ORBIS International, a global blindness-prevention agency, and amfAR the American Foundation for AIDS Research. She has taught fund-raising and development at Milano, the New School for Management and Urban Policy and The Fund Raising School of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University for more than 15 years, and has also been an adjunct faculty member in NYU’s master’s program in visual arts management. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, she has a master’s in nonprofit management from The New School University. Eleanor is the immediate past chair of the Development & Membership Standing Professional Committee for the American Association of Museums.
Roya Movafegh, Advisory Board
Roya Movafegh is a multi-media artist. Her work explores the dynamics of assimilation as well as the multiple facets of cultural identity. From an early age, she came to know first hand what it meant to be a person on the run, a foreigner, a refugee, and an immigrant. Born in Austria to Iranian parents, she later moved to her native country only to escape it five years later due to the heavy persecutions her family faced as Baha’is. After living in Germany, the United States, and Canada, she moved to Harlem, NY in 1998 where she founded the group The Young Harlem Photographers, a photography workshop for children and youth. Their work won them the NY Times award at the Art of Change Group Show held at the Time Square Lobby Gallery.
Her more recent photo publication is Wishes in Black and White, a book about race relations in America which was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
She has devoted much of her work to children by reintroducing the role of the arts as a tool to awaken the human spirit and as a means to raise social awareness. She is the co-founder of The Children’s Theatre Company of New York, which has been featured on Good Morning America, CNN, NY1 Parenting Report, and has performed at the United Nations’ Special Session on Children with Nelson Mandela.
Roya is the founder of Nobility Within, dedicated to endeavors that highlight the inherent nobility of us all. One of its programs, Noble-icious! is a program where children explore and polish their spiritual qualities, learn about each other, and support one another in becoming agents of change in the world they are inheriting.
Her latest project is the completion of her novel The People with No Camel, which weaves two journeys of freedom: a ten year old girl escapes Iran in 1981 and a woman’s quest to save her dying forest turns into her own spiritual journey — the search for ultimate freedom.
Rod Talaifar, Advisory Board
Rod received a B.A in 2001 and an LL.B in 2007, both from the University of British Columbia. He joined the firm as a summer student in 2006 and was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2008.
Rod’s practice focuses on securities, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, mining and corporate/commercial law. Rod has assisted clients in connection with mergers & acquisitions, various mining ventures, debt and equity financings, internal investigations and public company disclosure and compliance.
Prior to entering the field of law, Rod co-founded a locally based company, recognized as one of the fastest growing businesses in Canada, that provided strategic marketing and financial communications services to public companies in the mineral exploration, mining, and energy sectors. Rod also previously interned as an equity analyst with a major U.S. based investment firm.