Employee Spotlight: Hoosh Karimabadi

Get to know your coworkers! Each newsletter will highlight a different member of the marketing team. This month’s highlighted team member is Hoosh Karimabadi, Senior Director of Marketing & Business Intelligence.

1. Where did you grow up?  I emigrated from Iran to the U.S. when I was 15, but if you ask my family, they’ll tell you I haven’t grown up. “You’re a child” is what I hear most often, especially nowadays.
2. Do you have siblings? Where do they live and what are they doing with their life? I have two older brothers who are slackers. One is a plasma astrophysicist in San Diego who runs multiple startups and the other one has his PhD in Computer Aided Control of Manufacturing Firms (I had to look it up) and is currently a Senior Analyst at Wachovia Bank in New York.
3. What were your extra-curriculars in high school? Soccer, swimming, French Club (oui oui is pretty much all I remember), and SADD.
4. What college did you go to? University of Maryland and Washington Adventist University.
5. What was your major? Biochemistry and Information Systems, so naturally I went into Marketing.
6. What was your career before MileOne? I was VP of Marketing at BHS. You know, the company that provides MileOne’s EAP!
7. What is your favorite kind of music? I have eclectic taste. From 80’s hairbands, pop and rap to some alternative stuff.
8. What was your favorite concert you've ever been to? It’s a tie between Coldplay and U2.
9. What are your favorite sports teams? The Washington teams: Redskins, Nationals and Capitals (and no, I didn’t forget the Wizards). My all-time favorite is FC Bayern Munich.
10. What is your favorite food? A version of beef stroganoff that my mom makes that substitutes shoestring fries for noodles. It’s out of this world.
11. What is your favorite vacation spot and the best things to do while there? Marrakesh. Driving to the middle of the dessert at 4 am, going on a balloon ride and watching the sun rise over the horizon, and then eating breakfast prepared by the locals in a tent upon landing. It’s surreal.
12. What are the top 3 things on your bucket list? 1. To build a house/vocational training & job placement center where every 6-9 months a group of homeless from the area can move into, learn job skills, find permanent housing and then move out for the next group to come in. 2. Be able to visit Iran again. 3. Attend a Germany vs. Iran World Cup match.
13. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? See #2 on my bucket list above.
14. If you could have a discussion with anyone (dead or alive), who would it be, and why? Mohammad Mosaddegh. He was the prime minister of Iran who nationalized Iranian oil and took it out of the hands of the British and was ousted during a US-backed coup. He had the power to use the military and the people to fight off the coup; but didn’t because he didn’t want a single drop of Iranian blood being shed on his behalf. My dad knew him and would tell me stories about him and his humility. He’s the only one I know who wasn’t corrupted by absolute power.
15. What is your favorite car? BMW i8.
16. How do you usually spend your weekends?  Hiking, going out to dinner with family and friends, playing sports, projects around the house, and depending on the time of year, Visual IQ!
17. What is your favorite thing about yourself? My unusual experiences. They help me stay (somewhat) grounded, and see things from other people’s perspectives.  
18. If you could be any animal, which would you be and why? I love swimming so I’d be a dolphin because they are elegant swimmers, are gentle and intelligent creatures with human-like emotions. Also, any creature that can impale a shark is a winner in my book.
19. What are your top 3 favorite movies? Tombstone, Usual Suspects, and tied for 3^rd place: Star Wars, Forest Gump, and the Seven Samurai.
20. What are some of your pet peeves? Oh, this is a long list but here’s a semi-condensed version: People who don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom (I have a list of people in the office – not in Marketing); loading the dishwasher “incorrectly” (in other words, not my way); leaving the leftovers out for a long time when people are done eating (instead of putting them in the fridge); overall clutter (think Monica from Friends); and finally one of my biggest pet peeves is the way men (fathers in particular) are represented mostly as bumbling idiots on TV shows—we’re not all doofusses!