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At an early age, Payam Zamani faced great challenges in his life. In 1987, at the age of 16, Payam, who is a follower of the Baha’i faith, had escaped religious persecutions in Iran. Ultimately, he was able to come to the U.S. in 1988 as a political refugee. Payam soon found that through hard work and perseverance, there are unlimited opportunities amongst Americans, whom he believed to be some of the most compassionate people in the world. Today, Payam is the founder and CEO of Reply! Inc., a leading marketplace for locally targeted consumer online traffic.

One of the fundamental teachings of the Bahá'í Faith is that the equality of the sexes is a spiritual and moral standard that is essential for the unification of the planet and the promotion of peace. Payam started getting involved in grassroots education initiative projects in third world countries through the Mona Foundation in 2004 and has since raised over $600,000 which has been directly used for the betterment of schools. The Foundation believes that through educated mothers, the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively diffused through the families and communities as a means of alleviating poverty and raising the status of women. Today, Payam serves on the Foundation’s advisory board.

In 2005 Payam and his wife started supporting a secondary school in Ruaha, Tanzania and in 2007 took a crew of family and friends to the school to inspire them to get involved. They traveled to Tanzania to inspect the completion of the projects he sponsored for the all-girls secondary school of 700 kids in Ruaha. The school had no kitchen. Today with Payam's help, they have a fully operational kitchen where healthy food is prepared for the new generation of educated Tanzanian girls. Payam also supported the construction of a water well which replaced a makeshift well that was heavily polluted, so much so that the students were getting ill.

In 2010, weeks before the earthquake in Haiti, Payam was in Port Au Prince, Haiti visiting schools and mapping the next project. Shortly after the earthquake, in addition to raising funds for one of the schools, more funds were raised for earthquake relief. Payam has shown outstanding passion for addressing the education of girls globally both personally and as CEO of Reply! The same innovation, energy and leadership required for a successful business was directly applied to the Foundation’s goals where his passion has led to a “change of culture” as many employees are now involved and it has become part of the Company’s core business values.

Throughout the years the Reply! team has enjoyed spirited challenges from Payam who has pledged to match employee contributions to several initiatives. In addition, Payam championed the approval by Reply!’s board of directors to donate 1% of its monthly profits to fund girl’s education in third world countries. Today Payam gives over 40% of his livelihood to nonprofits and charities that directly impact over 1,500 students worldwide.