The founding Rector of ADA University, Ambassador Hafiz Pashayev previously served (2006-2019) as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. After 13 years of tenure (1993-2006) as the country's first Ambassador to the United States, Hafiz Pashayev found himself with the unexpected career of launching Azerbaijan's first academy for young diplomats. The goal of this training institute was to recruit a crash course in modern diplomacy new to the country and to give them skills for the advancement of foreign policy goals.

Rector Pashayev's vision for ADA extended beyond education, however, he imagined this place as an intellectual epicenter with responsibilities to Azerbaijani society, largely to cultivate innovative leaders with a global perspective, who will, in turn, offer fresh insights and solutions to the challenges the country faces.Thus, short-term training programs grew into full undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary programs attracting the brightest applicants and molding the generation with the new mentality. A scholar himself, Professor Pashayev received his degrees in Physics from Azerbaijan State University over time and joined the Physics Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, advancing from the position of researcher to the head of the Metal Physics laboratory.