Kourosh Mahboubian Founder and CEO

Kourosh Mahboubian has been a successful entrepreneur for nearly 20 years. In 1988, as a young art dealer, seeing an opportunity to acquire a good lease, he launched Cyrus Gallery, on New York’s celebrated 57th Street “Gallery Row”. Beginning with a small initial investment he struggled through a couple of difficult early years to emerge with a thriving gallery that was generating huge sales volumes by 1992. In 1993, he retired from the art market, using his success to finance a new venture that would allow him to pursue his passion for and expertise in sub-aquatic exploration. That same year, he co-founded Mad Dog Expeditions, together with his long-time friend Christine Dennison. Mad Dog Expeditions is a New York based outfitting company that pioneered many concepts in the fields of underwater exploration, diver safety and education, expeditionary travel and ecotourism. During his tenure as the company’s CEO, Mr. Mahboubian led countless teams in the world’s most remote locations, including the High Arctic, the Amazon, Papua New Guinea and many uncharted shipwrecks and underwater caves. A renowned expert diver, he frequently conducted projects under the kinds of extreme conditions that one might only see when experimenting with hypothermia under polar ice; jumping out of helicopters; or filming wild animals in their natural environments. His work has resulted in better dive technology and exploration gear design; contributions to textbooks; published articles and photographs; numerous feature stories in the international media; and film and television credits for work done with Asahi Television of Japan, TV Globo of Brazil and the IMAX Amazon movie. He has traveled in 45 countries, and is an elected fellow of the Explorers Club. In 1998, Mr. Mahboubian left Mad Dog Expeditions to spend more time with his family. Merging his experiences in the art world, his love of exploration and his dedication to his children, he began laying the foundation for Wild Blue. Since then, he has been actively promoting the cause of geographic, environmental and cultural awareness for children. His work with children has included leading groups in the field; teaching photography, snorkeling, scuba diving, coral reef ecology, and wilderness skills; and making frequent lecture presentations of his experiences to elementary, middle and high school audiences. Mr. Mahboubian is the proud father of Nilou (9), Julian (7) and Dylan (9 months), who are also contributors to Wild Blue.