Ehsanollah "Ehsan" Bayat (Pashto/, born July 15, 1963) is an Afghan American business entrepreneur who is the founder and chairman of Bayat Group, Afghanistan's largest private company.
Early life and education
Bayat was born in Kabul; his family belongs to the Qizilbash community of Afghanistan. He grew up in Kabul's Kārte Seh district and attended Isteqlal Primary and High School.
During the 1979[1] Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Bayat and his immediate family immigrated to Flushing, New York. From 1982 to 1986, Bayat attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. After graduating from NJIT, he embarked upon an entrepreneurial career, founding successful import/export and wholesale food distribution companies.
After graduating college, Bayat maintained strong ties with family and friends living in Afghanistan, and among the Afghan diaspora living in Pakistan, the United States, and throughout the world. Committed to rebuilding Afghanistan, he returned in early 2002, shortly after the fall of Afghanistan's