He created JPL’s Innovation Foundry, an internal startup ecosystem akin to accelerator/incubator outfits in Silicon Valley. For six years, he managed an annual $100M internal investment fund for identifying and maturing nascent technologies, and mission concepts that showed the potential to grow into funded space projects.He and Anousheh Ansari represented Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi at the 89th Academy Awards on for its winning in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Because of Farhadi’s absence due to president Trump’s 2017 immigration ban over seven Muslim countries including Homeland; Farhadi selected Naderi and Ansari as his representatives at the Oscars, given that both of them are successful Persian-Americans who immigrated to the US. On February 26, 2017, they accepted the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for The Salesman on Farhadi’s behalf.