Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Biography

Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan was born in Al Ain in 1948, the eldest son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the future first president of the United Arab Emirates. He was taught by private tutors and attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. In February 1969 he was named crown prince of Abu Dhabi and head of its defence department, building up the Abu Dhabi Defence Force that later became the core of the UAE armed forces.

After the federation was formed in 1971 he headed the Abu Dhabi cabinet, and from 1973 to 1977 he was deputy prime minister of the UAE; from 1974 he chaired Abu Dhabi's Executive Council. In 1976 he helped found the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and became deputy commander of the UAE armed forces, and from the late 1980s he headed the Supreme Petroleum Council. As his father's health declined in the late 1990s he took over many presidential duties.

Khalifa became ruler of Abu Dhabi on 2 November 2004 and was elected president of the UAE the next day. He brought institutions such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi and New York University Abu Dhabi to the emirate, founded Etihad Airways, and directed emergency funds to Dubai in the 2008 financial crisis; the Burj Khalifa was named after him in 2010. After a stroke in 2014 his half-brother Mohamed bin Zayed ran the state's affairs, and Mohamed succeeded him when he died in May 2022.