Leadership Team
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Meet Farsheed Ferdowsi
Founder & Executive Chairman
Farsheed Ferdowsi, founder and CEO of Inova Payroll, describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur.” During his prolific 40-year business career, he has founded ten companies, created countless software solutions, and is recognized as an online payroll pioneer. He was one of the first to create an internet payroll product, PowerPayroll, in the late 1990s with his company, PayMaxx. Other SaaS solutions followed, including the first employee self-service software, a micro-market online payroll product, and one of the first employee engagement online software portals.
PowerPayroll was recognized by Smart Business magazine as the Most Valuable Product for 2001 and won several other prestigious awards. Farsheed sold PayMaxx in 2005 and founded Inova Payroll in 2011. Today Inova is the third largest independently held payroll/HR provider in the U.S. with offices across the country.
Over the years, Farsheed has served on the Board of Directors of XFormity Technologies, Inc. and nTelagent, Inc., as well as numerous local community boards. He was recognized by the Nashville Business Journal as the Entrepreneur of the Year and is an alumnus of Leadership Nashville.
Farsheed has also authored two books, Mushroom in the Sand (2009) and Under the Staircase—A Martyr’s Journey (2022), a nonfiction biography of his father, Fatollah Ferdowsi.
He holds a master’s degree in structural engineering from U.C. Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Vanderbilt University.
