Naji Gehchan: Hello, leaders of the world. Welcome to “Spread Love in Organizations”, a podcast for purpose-driven healthcare leaders, striving to make life better around the world by leading their teams with genuine care, servant leadership, and love.
I am Naji, your host, joined today by Joubin Hatamzadeh Chief Operating Officer at Greentown Labs, a community on a mission to solve the climate crisis through entrepreneurship and collaboration. Prior to joining Greetown Labs, Joubin served as the Head of Operations and Administrative Services at French Tech Hub, where he led a team that helped international technology companies expand and succeed in the US market. He has also worked at MDL Corporation and NeuroRx Research.
Joubin, it is so great to have you with me today!
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Naji. Pleasure is mine.
Naji Gehchan: I would love first to hear more about your personal story and what’s in between the lines of your inspiring journey.
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Fantastic. So, uh, my personal story is I don’t want to go too back that I wanted to be, you know, cowboy or Superman when I was a kid, but, uh, I always, you know, I had the desire to.
To go to medicine and engineering was something really, uh, something that aspired at some point. So I ended up studying biomedical engineering. Um, I was born and raised in Iran. So, uh, I, uh, I, you know, got the opportunity to get a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering back in Iran. And working the medical devices company right after the school, but always wanted to explore the world.
And, uh, learn new things and kind of stretch my boundaries. So, I pursued my graduate degree in Canada. In the same discipline and, uh, joined, uh, a lab, which is affiliated to the school that I got my master’s degree and then there was a spinoff. That that’s been up was a startup company that I really enjoyed being part of the team.
1st, few employees to get a lot of things done from setting up the office to be the project manager to be the. Person who’s also 1 of the people who was analyzing the images for multiple sclerosis. Uh, servicing to, uh, uh, but they can form a company. Uh, to, to serve the humanity on, uh, basically on, um, clinical trials, and then I pursued my, I pursued my heart, which was my, my girlfriend at the time, who’s my wife now, uh, was at business school in Philadelphia, wanted to be with her and, uh, found an opportunity that was also enticing to me.
And that was joining manufacturing company, so you may not find correlation between what I studied at a manufacturing company in a lighting environment and then the lighting industry, but it’s all about the transferable skills. And using basically something like the concept search certain disciplines and engineering that you can apply.
So, I joined this, this company, um, being the head of quality control. And, uh, that that that was really, really. Uh, Energizing to me and motivating, because I could solve problems. Uh, things that I could not even imagine that. That that I could know from smaller things to. From small things to kind of a bigger thing, but it’s saving, you know, companies.
Uh, costs improvements, uh, improving the teams and so on and then, um, so all of these have been kind of entrepreneurial. Environment that I work at and at some point, we decided to move to Boston. After my wife finished the program, I joined the consulting company. And I also found a boutique consulting business, which was a subsidiary of a French government supported entity.
And that was basically my journey with a company initially called in France and then optic 21 and finally changed to a French tech hub and, uh, joined as a business developer for life sciences. And, uh, grew into operations, led basically the, uh, designed and led the operations, uh. And administrative services that we’re serving over 100 French clients and focused in, uh, technology.
And then, uh, you know, spending 11 years in that company, the company. Was sold that that business division was sold to an accounting firm and that was basically a moment for me to realize that what I want to. To next with my life, because I was not an accountant and I was looking for a kind of a different.
Type of work and, uh, and, uh, I joined green. Basically, the opportunity that I found at that time as the operations hit the. Hit the check mark. So what inspires me? Um, one of them is. Has been the opportunity to learn and do things that I did not have any background necessarily in area that has been created seemed creative for me and I had the ability to problem solve.
Be with smart people and also be working with people who are good people and, you know, by the time that I joined, what was at the end of the day important to me at that point. I had to 2 little children were. Now, uh, older, but, uh, what is the story that I want to tell my children. That’s what I do and what kind of impact the work I do as.
And, you know, now working in the environment, the impact is very obvious to everybody, and it’s not deniable that this is something to saving the future for our children and the generations after that, and being better people, not destroying the earth further.
Naji Gehchan: Wow. Thank you so much, uh, VIN for this inspiring, uh, journey and several things. So I have different questions for you, uh, sure. Going from here. So, um, you were born, raised in Iran. You left, you lived in several countries, uh, and I felt throughout your focused on impact. So how, it’s interesting you started in healthcare.
The majority of, um, our listeners here are healthcare, uh, leaders, uh, so, uh, focused on this purpose of making life better. And obviously now what you’re doing is exactly this from, uh, in a large scale of making, making the world better, uh, from, uh, from the climate crisis we’re living. I would love to hear your, your personal journey, what you took from those different experiences and different parts of the world from, uh, Where you were born to where you are today.
Uh, what, what is kind of the key life lesson you take with you to lead today, your teams, uh, in your company today and, and other experiences you had?
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Uh, thank you. I would say two things. Number one, um, going back to, you know, to the fact that my father is an architect and I was just, uh, following him to, you know, going, going to, to his office.
After school for a change, or sometimes to the construction site, just observing, seeing, enjoying to see that how things are being made following this conversation that I had no clue what it was about, but with the, with the builders, with the masons, with the welders, et cetera. So, I, I knew that, you know, there is a lot of interest in learning things and doing right.
And at some point in my life, it was during the summertime. I was 11. We had a neighbor in the. In a countryside when we had a place. And, uh, our neighbor happened to be an architect and he was making sitar instrument. That was basically my introduction to, uh, an Iranian musical instrument. And it was a summertime, I stayed with them and I became his apprentice, just watching him doing wood, uh, uh, making instrument.
And I was helping, you know, here and there. And, and later on, I realized that, you know, I learned some carpentry. I learned this and that. Um, Uh, somebody at some point told me that listen, it doesn’t matter what you have learned. At some point, those skills become useful and I always believe in that. So, you know, transferable skills.
I think it’s one of the most important things. Uh, in life that we have to invest and the curiosity is very important and, uh, focus is important, but curiosity is important that, okay, what you’re exposed to, uh, what we can learn because we never know where life takes us. And we try to predict life, but sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn’t work. And all of those become handy at some points. So that’s I really believe in now, but the, the other points that, you know, 1 is the transferable skills and the other points, um, I blank on my 2nd question. Would you be kind to to repeat your question? 1 more time?
Naji Gehchan: Sure. So looking at key life lessons you take from your experiences being born in a country, traveling and living in other experiences.
Now I got
Joubin Hatamzadeh: it. Now I got it. The other point is how to deal with uncertainty, which can be nerve wracking. And it happens in work and happens in life. And the lesson was, uh, I was born a few years before the Iranian Revolution, so you can calculate my age very easily. And, uh, as I was in the period that I know what was going around me, uh, there was a war between Iran and Iraq.
And at some point, uh, I remember that Both countries were bombarding each other, so there was an airstrike both ways, and you’re just going to shelter, and there was no shelter. The shelter was the basement of the building we were. So we could live after an explosion, or we’d never know that it was going to impact us or not.
So that was a big point of uncertainty, right? And there was no escape. I had to live there. We had to live there. My parents, my father had to go to work. And I had to go to school. So that was one big point of uncertainty. And then those kinds of airstrikes stopped and then they relaunched by sending missiles, which you couldn’t even expect.
There was no siren sometimes. So you would hear an explosion and then it was a change moving from a company country to another country. So I did it. You know, twice in my life, once from Iran to Canada and the other one from Canada to the US. So everywhere you go, there is an adaptation. There is a cultural adaptation.
There is something that you take in, you have to really, uh, contemplate, you have to adapt, digest. So the key lesson in life is, uh, being flexible and learning to, to deal with uncertainty. And I think that at certain points. I’ve been successful to do that, and sometimes I’ve not been successful to do that.
And I could see that, you know, during the pandemic. It became very handy to me that. I was overseeing team. That the work was tied to the physical space. And physical space became a concern because people were working from home. But at Greentown Labs, which is a climate tech incubator, and we have lab space, desk space, desk got very low occupancy during the pandemic.
Everybody was working from home, but lab was a space that People need it and they could not do those kind of work at homes. So we needed to keep the space safe and I had to basically find kind of a meaningful work to retain my team and keep them also motivated and inspired during a very uncertain and dark.
Naji Gehchan: Oh, thank you so much. Uh, I unfortunately relate to part. Of your story with living war as a child, as you know, um, and really, I love how you frame the key lessons from learning from uncertainty and keep on pushing and moving forward and making an impact as you’ve done. Um, when you talked about, uh, the, what you’ve done with your teams to keep them, uh, Safe, motivated, and literally building tech, that changed the word.
I’m intrigued. How did you do that? Was there like a special recipe? Now looking back, you say, okay, this is what I’ve done that helped them do it well. And that you will replicate next time. And comparatively, is there something you would do differently?
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Certainly, so number 1 thing, I think that, you know, pandemic has taught us a lot of things and 1 of the key takeaways from pandemic.
Was the entity, so I realized that entities very, very important at this point. And being mindful of people, because they are going to a really, really major thing and it sounded and felt apocalyptic for
all of us or the majority of us. In the entire world, so connection with the team was very important for me. From day 1, when I joined, because I was initially heading the operations team and the operations team consisted of people from different. Uh, you know, disciplines working in different functions.
Somebody was running the facility. The other 1 lab, the other 1 front desk reception. Another person doing administrative, even though they were in the same group or team, but their work was completely different. Their lingo may not. Be the same, so, uh, so early on, I, I realized that connectivity. To. Between the team is very important.
So I started having kind of a daily standing meetings. And it was literally standing, so we’re standing around the circle and people were sharing, you know, what they want to do on daily basis and came up with kind of a cadence and the cadence was, you know, on Mondays, we share. What is the goal for the week and every day we touch base that, you know, what are what’s on my mind or what kind of help I need or what are the challenges and on the end, at the end of the day, at the end of the week.
Thanks so much. Was basically sharing the accomplishments that can celebrate all together. So that helped us because that keep us going. Kept us connected every single day that we reduced it, but being very much in touch with every person in my team and try to understand, try to be flexible. There was a, you know, enormous level of anxiety because, you know, when I’m overseeing the physical space, it’s under my purview.
I can’t excuse myself that. Oh, sorry. I’m a family. I can’t come to this. I had to come to this. And you would see people who are to wear mask deniers to people who were religious about masks. And you had to keep a balance. You had to really. Uh, work it out that, you know, people have to be compliant, but actually they are also your customers.
And you had to basically support the team to do to do the same thing. And some people are not comfortable. Bye bye. So, you know, my presence was very important to prove that I’m with the team. Um, um, you know, there’s no excuse. I would put myself on the same location as the team to be together. Uh, we’re problem solving.
With each other, and I realize that it doesn’t matter. You’re the leader or you are a manager. At some point, you are 1 of the team members. And every input is important because people can bring a lot of value that that was really, really proven pretty well. And the other thing that was very important was, you know, in a growing company, you have a lots of ambitions, but you never have time focus or bandwidth to, to have a lot of things that you hope you could have done.
You know, but what we did, I realized that, oh, there’s something called policies and guidelines. That we have been lacking, and that was my idea since I joined. We never had the. Chance to, uh, you know, uh. Obviously, it’s at that point with our with our clients. So, what we did was, you know. I asked the team to to work together and build that it was a little bit difficult.
In the beginning, people had to get into that pattern, but when they warmed up, they enjoyed it. They enjoyed it and that became a huge accomplishment because at the end of the day, it’s sold pretty well and that became kind of a. Like a guideline for, uh, managing the space, answering questions to our members for the users of the space or customers and people saw something rewarding.
And it was also show them the capability that. Okay, you know, you don’t work in the space, but your work can be still meaningful and you can share this accomplishment something that. You may not even think that you were doing this job, but you, you can do it. Uh, and it created kind of bonding between the team.
Naji Gehchan: Thank you for that. Now I would love to talk a little bit about sustainability, climate crisis, uh, those topic you’re heavily working in and bringing new tech through entrepreneurship. Can you first tell us a little bit more how you would approach this topic? How
Joubin Hatamzadeh: I approach this topic? Definitely, you know, I would say that, it’s.
Uh, I would say the way I would see a climate change and climate entrepreneurs and, uh, what I see now that may be in the view of many people, right? You know, sustainability is a big topic, right? And maybe my focus goes into the entrepreneurship based on what you’re thinking about is there are a lot of motivated people, a lot of, uh, creative people, uh, That they, they, they want to make an impact and their work is really.
Addressing climate change and environmental. Issues that’s within the purview or under the umbrella of sustainability. Right. And, you know, 10 years back when green town lab was created, I just use green town labs as kind of a reference point. For what I what I try to to make if you go to to to that space and you’ll see that people are, you know, somebody is building a balloon to take a generator.
Up in the air, because at certain altitude, there’s always wind to capture the wind to generate power on the spot for places that there’s no, uh, you know, access to power and you’re not burning something carbon based to pollute the environment, sounded something really cool, right? The question was, how do you make money?
Where do you sell it? And there were hopes and wishes. So they were like the surviving artists. that you passed by said that this guy is so talented, amazing, but how does he live? How does he make a living, right? So investment and, uh, the focus on environments or did this kind of work was like that, looking at them as surviving artists.
Uh, but, but now after the Paris agreements and also the awareness, the global awareness about, you know, Uh, seriously, we are in a critical situation with the climate and we see the evidence of the climate change every day. And some people are more, I mean, they, they look long term that you have seen waterfalls.
You have seen. Uh, you know, uh, woods, you have seen places that you enjoyed and you wish that your Children, your grandchildren, their Children, et cetera, would enjoy the same thing. And you don’t want to see that the quality of nature declines. Which has impact on a lot of things from food. From vegetation from ecosystems.
And also the life you’re going, we’re going to experience. So, you see that, you know, the investment, the government focus has, has come through this way. And now, you know, investors are looking at climate tech companies more seriously. The way they’ve been looking in biotech or life sciences. So I say correlation because you pointed out that I worked in life sciences.
That has a good will in it and now in environment and there is some similarities that at least solving some fundamental problem. Related to human, right? Because we are selfish enough that. Whenever we talk about the environment, the interest of human being is there is not just the interest of, you know, sky or soil or water by itself.
It has a use for human being. So we are trying to address that. At that point as well, but in general, we work with a lot of, uh. Inspiring and creative people, which is a definition of a lot of entrepreneurs that you see in different sectors. that they really believe in what they do and they really believe in making the world more sustainable and you know it puts you if you work with these people over time even though If you, you are not a believer or you, you, you have kind of a rigid mindset, it puts you in kind of a growth mindset to, to really learn, explore and view things differently and be more mindful.
Naji Gehchan: And I’m sure they giving you hope. So that, that’s my question to you. Is there hope you said, you said at the very beginning, you’re trying, like you used a word that really stayed here in my head about climate, uh, kind of slowing the degradation or trying to stop the degradation. So my question to you is, is there hope?
We will make real strides toward a better, more sustainable world.
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Yes. Yes. And we know you, the people has asked, okay, you’re talking about bunch of entrepreneurs, bunch of startup companies that they’ve Do cool things, right? Some of them don’t escape or some of them are being acquired. Some of these businesses are being, you know, getting over.
That’s true. And what is the impact of the 9 employee company in Massachusetts over East Asia, West Asia, you know, South America, Antarctica, et cetera. Maybe nothing. But when you look at number one, That population of these entrepreneurial entrepreneurs are growing. The whole focus, and then also. Because of them, because of the area of innovation, something that brings money, something that brings inspiration, something that.
It is just, you know, all these forces are also shaping some of the larger companies. To definitely look into these companies, acquire them. Adapt and change their perspective that is really enormous, right? You know, sometimes, uh, people may say that, you know, the category of, uh, corporations, for example, oil and gas.
That has been under criticism, right? Uh, you know, you can’t just say that, you know, those companies are, uh, doing, doing only bad things because if you, you can put, put all, you know, every type of company in one bucket, you see that, uh, they’re, they’re, they’re doing some, some, some great things. And some of them are really helping to change and, you know, think away just from the fossil fuel, invest in a renewable energy.
So we say that it’s a step at a time. And those steps matter. And the great thing is, uh, sometimes I think we are impatient and we we want to achieve the answer right away. But if you look back 10 years ago, 15 years ago, we have seen that we have come a long way, right? Awareness has been made. Now the investment is being made, you know, acquisition, adaptation, all those things are being made.
There are a lot are being figured out. And, you know, think about other technologies 20 years ago, 30 years ago, there were skepticism skepticism around them. There were big questions about them. Some suddenly boom collapsed. But overall, it changed to where we are now. And I see the same thing about sustainability industry.
In the long run, I don’t think there is a point of return. It’s a point of no return, technically. It just forward,
Naji Gehchan: which is, which is great for, for all of us and for the future generations as I said, I’m going to give you now a word, and I would love a reaction to it, whatever first come to mind. The first one is leadership.
Joubin Hatamzadeh: That’s a good one because that’s the one that I try to have a definition for myself.
Definitely leadership is something to be able to inspire, motivate, and help moving forward.
Naji Gehchan: The second one is greenwashing.
Joubin Hatamzadeh: It’s a bad thing. You’re faking something. And it’s a bad intention. It has bad outcome.
Naji Gehchan: So if I flip this around, And double click on it. What is your biggest ask for leaders today from a social impact aspect? Whatever industry we’re in, what is your biggest ask for us to make real important good strides towards a more sustainable world?
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Be genuine, be intentional, because you know, to make this sustainability move forward, Uh, you know, to to get where we all desire. It gets, uh, it’s to it, it requires a lot of commitment, a lot of work, uh, not not giving up. So, and really, really, you need to put a lot of efforts in that and be very, very genuine about what you do.
Because people it works out when you’re genuine people see that and believe you and follow you and they, you know, you, you have more buying and the other bond that that I said, you know, in addition to that, be intentional. It is very important. I can give leadership. And then other things, I think it works pretty well.
Naji Gehchan: The third one is sitar.
Joubin Hatamzadeh: So sitar is the indian instrument and sitar s e t a r uh is the one that I play and uh,
it’s like love and kind of
You know something that you would it’s it’s a medium of conversation to to express your heart
Naji Gehchan: What a great segue to my last word spread love and organizations
Joubin Hatamzadeh: spread love in organization. It’s fantastic. Yes
Naji Gehchan: Any reaction to it?
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Yeah, it’s very important. It is very important. Uh, spread loving to any organization. I think is, is something that I, that I really relates because at the end of the day, uh, uh, during a pandemic being in a very, uh, you are, you have been to bring down lab. You have seen the space. People enjoy visiting the space.
People enjoy working here. It’s cool. It’s nice. It’s vibrant. But when the pandemic happened. I felt very depressed every day I came because the energy was not the same. It was felt like Sunday evening that the occupancy was 1 or 2 people. Rather than over 400 or 500. On a daily basis, right? So, I realized at that point that.
You know, in an incubator you don’t have intellectual property, you have a lot of assets. Now what’s the meaning of these assets when nobody’s using it? You know, even for a month or two months, you have to pay a lot, you know, for hvac, electricity, and all those things. For who and for what and what. What’s important at that point is you would be able to.
Uh, keep something that is meaningful and that is personal and the team. So the team was the biggest asset in my opinion. Even though the company doesn’t have, you know, intellectual property, that is the biggest intellectual property. How can you keep people in place? You know, people are incentivized, but incentive money becomes a number and people adapt their lifestyle to, to that number and.
But it’s not a long term motivator. Work is the type of work they do is motivator, but the human connection is another motivator, and love describes it pretty well. Love, affection, empathy. They work all hand in hand and create kind of a stronger human connection.
Naji Gehchan: Any final word of wisdom, Joobin, for leaders around the world?
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Your job is asking really, uh, uh, difficult
I think being empathetic is very important.
Having empathy is important, and be intentional about that.
Naji Gehchan: Uh, Joobin, you broke, so I’m gonna re ask the question, and if you can give me the answer again. It just broke, I didn’t hear it, actually. Okay, can you hear me?
Joubin Hatamzadeh: Sorry, but that Internet connection I would say that, uh, uh, have empathy have empathy is very, very important. You know, business is important mission is important. Responsibility is important, but, uh, as long as you work with human beings. As for a leader,
uh, I think any manager level for any person working with. Any other individual. That’s the important factor.
Naji Gehchan: Well, thank you so much for this great conversation, this inspiring chat. Thank you for joining me from the lab itself. Uh, and this is, uh, labs are always moving people, as you said. So this is why from time to time, I know, uh, you were moving also around some of the discussions and the lively things happening in the lab.
So thank you so much for your time. I know you’re. Doing great things and super busy to make sure that our children and our grandchildren will have a better word and a better earth. So thanks for being with me again today.
Joubin Hatamzadeh: It was a real pleasure and thank you so much.
Naji Gehchan: Thank you all for listening to SpreadLove in Organizations podcast. Drop us a review on your preferred podcast platform
Follow us on LinkedIn and connect with us on spreadloveio.com. We’re eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. Most importantly, spread love in your organizations and spread the word around you to inspire others and amplify this movement, our world so desperately needs