Who We Are
Shabbir Safdar, Founder
Shabbir has seen digital campaigns and techniques evolve since before the Internet was commonly used as a communications tool. As Founder of Virilion, Shabbir's role has evolved as well, now working with clients to develop the best strategy to attract attention for their causes, rebuff their critics, and give voice to their supporters online.
Shabbir is well known for his ability to explain technology in terms that non-technological people can clearly understand. He has been a popular speaker to groups of trade associations, nonprofits, and communications and public affairs professionals. With diverse audiences from the California Farm Bureau Federation to the USENIX Security Symposium, Shabbir is comfortable with audiences of every technological sophistication.
Prior to starting Virilion in 1997, Shabbir served as Vice President for Information Security at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Shabbir also established and led the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW). VTW broke ground as a Net-based grassroots organization, organizing voters and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation into a never-before seen coalition defending free speech on the Internet.
Shabbir blogs about the changes digital media has on public relations at www.truthypr.com. He lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife and son, where he dreams of growing up to be a professional poker player someday.”