Shahrzad Rafati


Shahrzad Rafati is the founder and CEO of BroadbandTV Corp, a digital media and technology company that provides content creation, distribution, management, and monetization solutions. Shahrzad is credited with pioneering both the technology and business model that made peace between big entertainment entities like the NBA and their fans who were uploading premium content to video sites like YouTube.
Shahrzad has built BroadbandTV as a quadruple bottom line business and measures success across employee, community, environmental, and financial KPIs, citing a workforce of over 40% female identifying employees and managers with a 0% gender pay gap.
In September 2018, it was announced that Shahrzad was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to represent Canada on the Business Women Leaders task force, which was formed to advise global leaders on issues of women's economic empowerment as part of the G20 Summit. In 2019 she was also appointed as the Vice Chair of Invest in Canada, a federal agency that aims to create jobs in Canada by facilitating foreign business investment by highlighting Canada's diverse and skilled talent pool, economic growth across multiple industries, and geographic advantage as a hub for global trade.

Early life

Rafati was born 1979 in Tehran, Iran and immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as a teenager. In 2005, she completed her BSc in computer science at the University of British Columbia, becoming a member of the Golden Key International Honors Society. Rafati also studied French at Université Paris Sorbonne, and is a graduate of the Young Global Leaders Oxford Module: Transformational Leadership at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Career

Rafati founded BroadbandTV in 2005 and has led it since then, garnering a 2013 $36 million investment from RTL Group which was at the time in Canada the largest financial placement in an Internet media company in six years.
Separate from her role at BroadbandTV, Rafati is also a board member for a number of organizations including Hootsuite, a social media management platform, and Bjarke Ingels Group, an architecture firm, as well as Vice Chair of the board at Invest in Canada. She has also been a board member of the Vancouver Economic Commission, and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs.
While attending university, Rafati worked at TIO networks, started a non-profit aimed at connecting donors and charities online, and worked with UNICEF.

Public speaking and thought leadership

Rafati has spoken at events such as TEDx Vancouver. She has also spoken at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, VidCon, Web Summit, CES, Newfronts, Financial Times Digital Media, DMEXCO, Business Insider's IGNITION, and Collision.
Shahrzad has also written in Fortune Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Wired.

Awards