At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest person, at thirty two years old, to ever have served as a central banker.
Alireza Nobari held graduate degrees from Ecole Polytechnique and Stanford in mathematics, physics, economics and operations research.
And during that time, he appeared on American ABC television channel programme Nightline with Ted Koppel.
He spent months in hiding and finally escaped when Reza Abdolahi (the older brother of one of his close associates) paid two of Iran's top athletes to walk him over the Zagros Mountains to safety in Turkey.
But the two athletes charged with his safety managed to rouse him with a simple threat, "If they find you, you will not like what they will do to you so it is better we shoot you now."