Mani Erfan

Mani Erfan is a chemical engineer, industrial executive, and international entrepreneur with more than 33 years of leadership in the global catalyst industry. Based in Houston, Texas, he has built and led technical businesses in catalyst manufacturing, purification technologies, and recycling. He founded Unicat Catalyst Technologies from inception and grew it into a worldwide catalyst company, with cumulative product sales exceeding $700 million before its sale in 2020. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of IRA Industrial Solutions, an international catalyst-recycling business generating approximately $8 million in annual revenue.

Erfan was born in Iran in 1966. His father was a commercial pilot with Iran Air and accumulated approximately 38,000 flight hours over his career, one of the highest recorded totals worldwide at the time. In 1983, at the age of 17, he immigrated to the United States and adjusted to a new language, culture, and education system. He began his higher education at the University of Florida in 1984 and pursued a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. He completed 157 credit hours in less than four years and graduated in August 1988 with high honors and a cumulative GPA of 3.88.

After graduation, he worked as a Process Engineer at Chevron Chemical’s Cedar Bayou operations in Texas from August 1988 to January 1990. In 1990, he joined Haldor Topsoe in Houston as a Sales Engineer for ammonia catalyst sales, managing a 26-state territory. Over three years, he increased annual sales from approximately $1.4 million to between $6.2 and $6.5 million, becoming the youngest Sales Manager at the time.

In 1993, Erfan joined Parkans International in Houston as International Sales Manager and grew overseas revenue from $1 million to approximately $11 million per year, later becoming General Sales Manager in 2000. He founded Unicat in 2000 with roughly $50,000 and led it to peak annual revenues of approximately $40 million before it was sold for approximately $38 million in August 2020. In parallel, he founded IRA Catalyst Consultants in 1999, later operating as IRA Industrial Solutions, managing work in more than 10 countries and reaching $7.5–$8 million in annual revenue by 2021.

Since 1992, he has supported evangelism and church planting, founded CCM Evangelical Ministries, launched New Life Online Bible College with approximately 4,500 students, oversees Esarat with approximately 1,500 clients, and leads Hayatehno.com, which produced 152 programs in 2024 and 2025, while supporting over 20 full-time pastors in the Middle East. Over the past 20 years, he has personally donated several million dollars, giving $200,000 to $300,000 annually to multiple organizations and ministries. Mani Erfan continues to lead in both industry and ministry.

Website: https://manierfantx.com/