Farzad Dibachi

Farzad Dibachi is a serial entrepreneur and business executive. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Noribachi. Previously, Dibachi founded other Silicon Valley companies including Niku, later acquired by CA, Inc., and Diba, which he sold to Sun Microsystems. He is also the co-author of the book Just Add Management: Seven Steps to Creating a Productive Workplace and Motivating Your Employees In Challenging Times.

Dibachi was born and raised in Iran until his family immigrated to the United States in 1979 after the Islamic revolution. Later, Dibachi attended San Jose State University in California where he received degrees in mechanical engineering and computer science.

Dibachi started his career at General Electric before he joined Oracle Corporation in 1992. While there, he served as the senior vice president of new media and worked closely with Larry Ellison developing the company’s business strategy for a network computer. Dibachi left Oracle in 1995 to establish Diba, Inc., a microelectronics company and early designer of “information appliances” for the Web that he co-founded with his brother Farid. The company licensed its software and provided hardware designs to companies to manufacturer devices.

Microsoft reached out for an acquisition 15 months after Dibachi started the company, but Dibachi rejected the offer. He served as the company’s president and chief executive until it was sold in 1997 to Sun Microsystems for $75 million. In 1998, Dibachi co-founded Niku Corporation with his wife Rhonda. The technology company, an early player in the Professional Service Applications (PSA), specialized in software for consulting companies, law firms and advertising agencies and was one of the first companies to provide its software as open source. Niku’s web division Iniku, an early cloud-based computing platform, built a marketplace for services to let contractors and large clients come together to negotiate proposals and run projects through the site.

The Dibachi’s took the company public in 2000 on NASDAQ with Goldman Sachs as the lead underwriter. Niku’s value tripled on its first day with its initial price rising 183 percent. That same year, it was included on Forbes Magazine’s annual Forbes 500 List. Dibachi served as Niku’s chairman, CEO and president until it was acquired by Computer Associates, now known as CA, Inc., in 2005 for $350 million.

In 2006, Dibachi and his wife founded Noribachi, an LED lighting product manufacturer for commercial and industrial applications. They initially opened the company in Albuquerque, and then relocated its headquarters and manufacturing operations to Los Angeles. Dibachi remains very active in the company's day to day operations. In 2015, Noribachi ranked 224 on the Inc. 5000 list. Dibachi was recognized as Entrepreneur's 2016 "Innovation" leader for his work with Noribachi technology on the Entrepreneur 360 List.

Dibachi met his wife Rhonda while working at General Electric. They married in 1988 and have one son together. Dibachi and his wife are also founding donors of Pacific Community Ventures, a non-profit community-development organization.