Gholam Reza Aghazadeh

Gholam Reza Aghazadeh (Persian: غلامرضا آقازاده; born 15 March 1949 in Khoy, Iran) is an Iranian politician. Aghazadeh served as the Vice President for Atomic Energy[2] of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran from September 1997 until his resignation in July 2009. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council.

Gholam Reza Aghazadeh
Aghazadeh
Member of Expediency Discernment Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 March 1997
Appointed by	Ali Khamenei
Chairman	Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Ali Movahedi-Kermani (Acting) Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi Sadeq Larijani
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization
In office 1 September 1997 – 16 July 2009
President	Mohammad Khatami Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Preceded by	Reza Amrollahi
Succeeded by	Ali Akbar Salehi
Minister of Petroleum
In office 28 October 1985 – 20 August 1997
President	Ali Khamenei Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Prime Minister	Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Preceded by	Mohammad Gharazi
Succeeded by	Bijan Namdar Zangeneh
Personal details
Born	(1949-03-15) 15 March 1949 Khoy, Iran
Political party	Executives of Construction Party[1]
Alma mater	University of Tehran

He has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Computer Engineering from University of Tehran. He was an active member of the opposition, and in 1979 he became a director of the ultra-populist IRP newspaper Jomhouri Eslami, run by Mir-Hossein Mousavi. In 1980, Mousavi became foreign minister and made Aghazadeh his deputy in charge of economic relations and finance.

Two years later, as Mousavi became prime minister, Aghazadeh was made state minister for executive affairs, a post attached to the prime minister's office. Later he held the title of deputy prime minister for executive affairs in charge of Iran's oil barter deals with foreign states and companies under a countertrade system started in 1982. He coordinated policies of various ministries through the PM's office. His talents earned him the post of Iran's Minister of Petroleum in October 1985. He held this position until 1997 when he was replaced by Bijan Namdar Zanganeh after the election of the reformist president Mohammad Khatami. He was then promoted to the post of Vice President for Atomic Energy. He held this position from 1997 to 2009.

On 16 July 2009, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency reported that Gholam Reza Aghazadeh had resigned as Iran's Nuclear Chief for unspecified reasons, a resignation of intense interest in such a difficult time.[3] There has been speculation that he resigned following shutdowns and failures in Iran's nuclear program caused by the Stuxnet virus.