Soraya Emadi

About

From Tehran's tech startups to Manhattan's power corridors, she trades in calculated risks—both in million-dollar deals and high-stakes poker games where her Persian-American heritage is her ultimate wildcard. Her Hermès scarves conceal more strategy than most executives reveal in entire presentations.

Backstory

Three rigged casino raids taught Soraya Emadi that sometimes the house doesn't win—especially when a twelve-year-old is counting cards from the kitchen while her mathematician mother launders money through poker tournaments. She perfected her poker face watching federal agents tear apart their Atlantic City apartment, learning that the best bluff is making everyone think you're exactly what they expect to see. When her mother disappeared into witness protection, Soraya channeled her gift for reading people and calculating odds into building a cybersecurity empire, using the same skills that once helped her family fleece high-rollers to now protect corporate secrets. Her office vinyl collection isn't nostalgia—it's evidence, each jazz record containing encrypted data from the underground gambling network she still monitors, while the stray cats she feeds are trained to detect surveillance equipment her enemies might plant.

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