I was born Arsalan Navidi on June 6, 1959 in Tehran, Iran to a Petroleum Engineer and a National Iranian Oil Company executive father and a home maker mother. I completed my elementary education at the Marica School (also known as Shahdokht Farahnaz), followed by my secondary education at Razi High School both of which are located in Tehran. In 1977, after graduating from Razi, I emmigrated to Washington, DC to pursue my education at university level. After receiving my bachelor's degree in Chemistry from The American University in 1982, I pursued an MChE degree in Chemical Engineering at The Catholic University of America both of which are located in Washington, DC.

Upon graduation from Catholic University in 1985, I accepted a position as an Environmental Engineer with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy, and relocated to Trenton, New Jersey. After two years of employment with NJDEPE, in 1987 I accepted a Sr. Consultant/Project Manager position with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and returned to the Washington, DC area. In 1990, after becoming naturalized as a U.S. Citizen, I was offerred a position as a Project Manager with Rust Environmental & Infrastructure, where I was employed until 1994. Following Rust, Ogden Environmental & Energy Services asked me to join them in a Sr. Project Manager capacity, where I remained employed until 1995.

On August 19, 2000, I became the proud father of a baby boy named Nicholas Alexander, which we call "Nicky".

During my professional career, I gradually deviated from engineering and concentrated more on computer-related aspects of my field, until I no longer practiced engineering and spent full-time programming, desigining and developing computer systems and software applications. In 2000, I became Microsoft-Certified (MCP).

In 1996, I established a limited liability company named Visual Development International (VDI) where I have been employed since. VDI was dissolved in 2008 and replaced by MAMINA, LLC. Some of the organizations to whom VDI has provided its services include Anser, Westat, FDIC Sallie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac , American Red Cross, The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

I have an older sister, Mandy and a younger brother, Ali, both of whom also reside in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Mandy received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University and resides in Germantown, MD. My brother, who completed his masters degree in International Transaction at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, is a Software QA Test Engineer and lives in Centreville, Virginia. My father, Majid passed away in 2014 and my mother Iran lives near us.

I have many hobbies such as traveling, photography, running and skiing, but my most favorite hobbies are the sport of Triathlon and running marathons.