Executives

Shahed is the founder/executive director of the InterContinental Music Awards. Based in Los Angeles, he is an award-winning artist, multimedia producer, and GRAMMY® Member. A music industry mentor, inventor and entrepreneur, Shahed was born in Tehran, Iran. He discovered music at eight years old when he started playing the Santoor (Iranian Traditional Instrument). His fondness and talents for music composition, audio recording and creativity led him by the time he turned 18 years of age to record five patents and several prizes of invention and innovation-related festivals.

Shahed pursued his higher education in four different fields, including Information Technology as his academic major, Music Composition, Sound Engineering and Video Production. In 2009, he graduated from Southern Cross University of Australia with a B.S. in Computer Engineering. In 2010, he moved to Mediterranean to continue his education at Eastern Mediterranean University, completing two master degrees in Information Systems and Visual Arts. He also had successful activities in Media, Music and Sound Engineering with famous orchestras like Hoora Guitar Orchestra and Violet Symphonic Orchestra in Iran.

Living in multicultural environments and collaborating with talented artists from different cultures inspired Shahed in 2011 to establish the InterContinental Concert Series (ICC), which evolved into the InterContinental Music Awards (ICMA)that he executive produces today. ICMA is dedicated to honoring and promoting artists from around the world in myriad ways, while also embracing values that uplift humanity.

Music Connection Magazine featured Shahed as a multi-talented DIY artist in January 2017 and placed him among the Hot 100 Live Unsigned Artists in 2016. Shahed has been granted Permanent Resident status through EB-1 (Extraordinary Ability in the field of Art) by the United States Government.

Merry is the executive assistant and the host of the InterContinental Music Awards’ StarSpot live interviews, focuses on sharing the experiences and stories of well-known musicians.

Among the many people that Merry interviews are Dan Kimpel, one of the most respected figures in American media, Juliet Lyons and Flaviyake, Grammy voting members, Rachel Mason, an international judge for the entertainment industry, Kitt Wakeley, a 2023 Grammy Award-winning American artist, Sangeeta Kaur, a 2022 Grammy Award-winning Vietnamese-American singer, Shalev Alon, a mixing engineer best known for his work on the music for Marvel and Star Wars (Live) Shows, and many others.

Merry coms from Middle East, born in a historic and cultural environment. She has always been passionate about film and music, and literally every single event that is related to this world. The first steps that eventually led her into the entertainment industry were actively following the news and interviews about singers and celebrities.

In addition to her personality and passion, Merry has a nice background in English literature and American culture, which gives her a broad understanding of interpersonal relationships and cultural awareness.