MEET THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS & ADVISORS OF BAYAT FOUNDATION
When your mission is to be better, faster and smarter, you need the best people driving your vision forward.
Board of Directors
Dr. Ehsanollah Bayat
Founder & Chairman of the Board
Dr. Ehsanollah Bayat is the founder and Chairman of Telephone Systems International, Inc. in New Jersey and other organizations helping to rebuild Afghanistan; Afghan Wireless Communication Company, Ariana Radio and Television Network, Bayat Energy, and the Bayat Foundation. Dr. Bayat has received numerous awards recognizing his ongoing dedication to business and humanitarian efforts including the Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award (2010), the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce Businessman of The Year Award (2007), Zeba Magazine’s Best Humanitarian Award (2007) and the Afghanistan Human Rights Association Human Rights National Award (2006). Dr. Bayat was one of the first to return to help rebuild his homeland after the Taliban regime was deposed and U.S. sanctions were lifted. Dr. Bayat earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Technology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1986.
Fatema Laya Bayat
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Mrs. Bayat is President and Executive director of the Bayat Foundation and Senior Vice President of Ariana Television. Through these roles she is a voice for empowering women of Afghanistan through entrepreneurship, education, health care and rule of law.
Fatema Laya Bayat moved to the USA in her youth and pursued and received a Bachelor degree in English Literature and Education and a master’s degree in Special Education.
Fatema leverages her formal education and teaching experience along with her knowledge of her country of origin to help establish education and health care opportunities for widows, women and youth of Afghanistan.
Mariam Bayat
Corporate Treasurer & Director
A graduate of Seton Hall University in New Jersey, with a Bachelor of Science and a master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy, Mariam began to express her passion of helping to serve the youth of Afghanistan by speaking about the importance of their involvement at the founding symposium of the Afghan Trusted Network held on Capitol Hill in 2009. Mariam was a member of the board of trustees of the American University of Afghanistan and has continued to follow her passion of helping the Afghan people by playing a key role in hosting Afghanistan’s first ever conference - co-hosted by The Bali Process- working toward ending modern slavery of men, women and children held in bondage in Afghanistan and throughout the world to “help build new lives with freedom, opportunity and hope.” She continues to push forward initiatives to help further nourish Afghanistan.
Dr. Rosalie J. Wyatt
Secretary of the Board
Rosalie J. Wyatt is President of Wyatt Consulting Group International, Inc., a firm specializing in identification and mobilization of stakeholders for public/private partnerships, new initiatives and policy discussions. Clients served include General Dynamics Information Technology Soft Power/Stability Operations and League for Hope for community development in North Africa. She has over 20 years of private sector experience in the technology and finance sectors including marketing and business development for Motorola Personal Communications Sector in Latin America, Europe and Asia and Ready Systems Corporation in Silicon Valley, and OTC trading on Wall Street. Ms. Wyatt is National Director for the ReadyCommunities Partnership/CCROA, Board Director for the Community Institute for Preparedness, Response and Recovery, Secretary of the Board for the Bayat Foundation and Director of the Afghan Trusted Network. Rosalie received her B.S. in Business Administration from Pepperdine University, a Master of International Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University and is a student of French and Spanish.
Charlotte Ponticelli
Director
Charlotte M. (Charlie) Ponticelli is an international consultant and adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America. She has 23 years of US Government experience, serving most recently as Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor and Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues at the US Department of State. Mrs. Ponticelli is a member of several advisory boards and international organizations, including the Council of American Universities Abroad, the Bayat Foundation’s Afghan Trusted Network, the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women, and the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council.
She is currently an advisor to TTi Global, assisting with a workforce development project to provide technical skills training for young Afghan women and men; advisor to the Grossman Burn Foundation; and Chief Operating Officer for Disaster Logistics Relief, a global humanitarian organization specializing in telemedicine and disaster-relief technologies.
Allen J. Maines
Director
Allen Maines is an Executive Partner at Holland & Knight in Atlanta, Georgia where he concentrates on major commercial and civil regulatory litigation, and corporate investigations. He has served as lead trial counsel to some of the world’s largest entities.
Mr. Maines provides advice with respect to corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions for a wide range of transactions. Mr. Maines has also served as co-chair of the firm’s Global Litigation Department, Chair of the firm’s Securities Litigation Practice Group, Chair of the Securities Law Committee of the International Bar Association, and Chair of the IBA’s Publication Committee.
He is recognized as a top practitioner by his peers and by in-house counsel for his high-quality work. Allen received his J.D. degree with honors from the University of Florida, is a member of the Florida and Georgia bars and has authored a number of publications.
Mezhgan Nabi Alamshahi
Director
Mezhgan Alamshahi is a healthcare professional with over 20 years of broad experience in clinical and business operations. Mezhgan currently serves as Director of Continuum of Care at Kaiser Permanente, Northern California Region – a leading health care organization serving about 11.7M members across 9 States. Mrs. Alamshahi is responsible for development strategic plans in compliance with federal, state and local regulations, oversight of coordination of care in both outpatient and inpatient setting across the continuum of care in Napa Solano Service Area. She had previously held the Director of Accreditation, Regulation, and Licensing and Risk Management / Patient Safety, where she led the hospital through successful regulatory surveys in compliance with The Joint Commission, CMS, and California Department of Public Health. Mrs. Alamshahi received her B.S in Health and Safety from California State University and MBA from Golden Gate University. In her spare time, Mrs. Alamshahi enjoys traveling with her family and hiking in nature. Mrs. Alamshahi has served on the board of the Bayat Foundation as a director since 2008.
Montgomery Simus
Director
Montgomery (Monty) Simus is a global business executive who spent much of the past decade focused on the deployment of catalytic philanthropy, innovative social finance, and equity investment capital to high-growth, purpose-driven enterprises that serve millions of at-risk Afghans. Monty is passionate about impact philanthropy in the fields of health, education, and enabling infrastructure, and has developed his inclusive business-driven emerging market development experience in more than 100 nations around the world. A graduate of Yale and Harvard, he served as a Senior Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard from 2015 – 2017 focusing on research related to the water-energy-food nexus, and is a frequent writer and speaker on issues of freshwater scarcity, the linkages between water and energy, and emerging markets.
Mary Baumgarten
Director
Dedicated to bringing awareness to hunger problems around the world thorough community involvement, Mary Baumgarten served in several key leadership roles, including Vice Chairman, at Feeding Children International of Stewart/Food for Kidz before retiring to focus on her role as President of MBS & Associates, Inc. Mary continues to generously share her leadership, program management, and logistics expertise with several non-profit organizations actively distributing nutritional meals to children in need worldwide.
