Esfandiar Zafar was born in Tehran and lived there until the age of 16 when he graduated from high school. He moved to the United States in order to continue his studies. He obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and a Master of Science Degree in Computer Science at Stevens Institute of Technology located in Hoboken, NJ. He started his career in IT while he was a graduate student at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he provided support to students, staff and faculty as a computer consultant. He moved to Nashville, TN in 1985 when he started working for the Computer Center at Vanderbilt as a system programmer. In 1987 he became a member of the network group in the Computer Center shortly after installation of the campus network. In 1989 he became the manager of the networks group and remained in the same position until 2001. During this time he led the group in expanding the campus data network to all buildings on campus, and reengineering the campus data network several times, transitioning it from Broadband technology to FDDI to ATM and to its current state of Gigabit Ethernet. At the same time he led the expansion of the Cable TV network to all Residence Halls and reengineering it to keep up with newer technologies. Since 2001 he has filled various roles at ITS including Group leader for Communication Services, Network Operations Center, and Planning and Technical Implementations Groups. He has been in the position of Director for Application Hosting since June 2004.