Recognizing the accomplishments of Utah Tech University’s Class of 2023, Khosrow B. Semnani, an industrialist, community leader and philanthropist, will deliver the keynote address at the university’s 112th Commencement Ceremony.
The ceremony, which will honor Utah Tech’s 2,093 degree candidates, is scheduled to take place on May 5 in Greater Zion Stadium on the Utah Tech campus. The stadium’s gates will open at 5 p.m., and guests must be seated by 6 p.m., when the processional will begin. The university’s one ceremony combined with master’s, baccalaureate and associate graduates, will start immediately following the processional.
“Khosrow B. Semnani is not only a successful entrepreneur from whom our graduates can learn great career advice, he also is a generous philanthropist who has impacted countless lives around the world,” Utah Tech President Richard B. Williams said. “Utah Tech University graduates and their guests are going to be inspired and enriched by Mr. Semnani’s remarks. We are so grateful he has agreed to help us celebrate our graduates.”
Semnani was born in 1947 in Iran, studied English in England in 1966 and traveled to the United States. He eventually arrived in Salt Lake City and graduated from Westminster College with a Bachelor of Science in physical sciences in 1972. He received a Master of Engineering Administration from the University of Utah in 1975.
Semnani began his career working as a research scientist at Kennecott Copper Corporation. He also worked as a plant engineer for Thatcher Chemical Company, and then as an engineering manager at Sperry Univac (later Unisys).
Using his expertise in physics and industry management, Semnani started Utah’s first hazardous waste disposal facility at Grassy Mountain. After he sold that facility, he founded Envirocare, the first privately owned low-level nuclear waste disposal facility in the U.S., in 1988. In 2004, after 16 years of growth and profitability, he sold the company, which later became Energy Solutions. Through his company, S. K. Hart Management, he manages a diversified global investment portfolio.
To share their good fortune with others, Semnani, with his wife, Ghazaleh, founded the Semnani Family Foundation in 1993. The foundation works with a wide variety of organizations to provide humanitarian relief across the globe. The foundation’s “One Kind Act a Day” initiative aims to inspire people to perform one deliberate act of kindness every day. The foundation also founded the Maliheh Free Clinic in 2005 to provide free healthcare to thousands of uninsured poor people in the Salt Lake City area.
Semnani founded Omid for Iran in 2009 to encourage policies that protected the people of Iran and promoted their liberty. He wrote “The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble: The Human Cost of Military Strikes Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities,” published in 2012 in partnership with the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. In October 2018, he published “Where Is My Oil? Corruption in Iran’s Oil and Gas Sector,” also in partnership with the Hinckley Institute.
Semnani will address the first class of graduates to participate in a Commencement Ceremony under the Utah Tech University name. Utah Tech offers more than 250 academic programs across all disciplines — humanities, arts, education, health sciences, business, and STEM — at the most affordable university tuition rate in Utah. UT students make, create and innovate in the classroom and online while gaining real-world active learning experiences through internships, clinical experiences, undergraduate research, industry partnerships and service learning.
To learn more about Utah Tech University’s 112th Commencement Ceremony, visit utahtech.edu/commencement.