Farid Ghadry

Farid Al-Ghadry (Arabic: فريد الغادري) (born June 18, 1954) is the Syrian-born co-founder and current president of the United States-based Reform Party of Syria, a party lobbying for regime change in Syria. Many of al-Ghadry's critics have compared him to Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile who lobbied the US government to liberate his home country from Saddam Hussein.

Personal life
Ghadry was born in Aleppo, Syria, but in 1964 his family emigrated to Beirut, Lebanon because of political turmoil. There he attended the Maristes Brothers School (Champville - Deek-el-Mehdi). In 1975, the Ghadry family, once again, emigrated to the U.S. and settled in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Ghadry graduated from the American University in Washington DC in 1979 with a degree in Finance and Marketing.

Ghadry, because of his father's work, was granted Saudi citizenship. In September 2007 Ghadry's Syrian citizenship was revoked by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after Ghadry appeared before Israel's Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Farid Ghadry has four children. He is also known in the U.S. as "Frank Ghadry." He has served on the Board of Trustees of Norwood School in Bethesda, Maryland, and headed the Capital Campaign for Crew at St. Albans and National Cathedral Schools.

Work
Farid Ghadry worked at EG&G Intertech Inc., a subsidiary of EG&G, a Fortune 500 U.S. defense contractor, for two years before starting his own business, International TechGroup Inc., in 1983. This company was Washington-based and produced software for the U.S. Navy to digitize paperwork on aircraft carriers. He sold this business in 1989 and has been involved in many entrepreneurial operations since. In 1990, he began buying antiquated Soviet computers and stripping them for gold plating. Reportedly, Ghadry left Russia when his business came to the attention of "unsavory types." Other businesses have included Hannibal's Coffee Company, a chain of coffee shops that went bankrupt in 1996.