The Tavakolis lived in Iran for over a year during the time the Shah was overthrown, leaving in 1979, three months after Ayatollah Khomeini returned.
Back in the US she worked as an engineer while studying at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where she received an MBA in finance in 1981.
[4] She taught "Derivatives: Futures, Forwards, Options and Swaps" at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as adjunct associate professor of finance.
Her book Credit derivatives: a guide to instruments and applications, published in 1998 warned about documentation risk and information asymmetry creating economic distortions.
The discussions began after Buffett invited her to lunch after receiving a copy of her book Credit Derivatives and Synthetic Structures (1998, 2001).
[13] Henry Paulson, the prime architect of the bailout, was CEO of Goldman Sachs at the time those CDS agreements were entered into.