Political and Business Career
Al Nahyan is the third son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, and his third wife, Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi.
Upon the death of his father, Al Nayhan became Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in November 2004 and was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces in January 2005. Later that month, he was promoted to the rank of General. Since December 2004, he has also been the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, which is responsible for the development and planning of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and is a member of the Supreme Petroleum Council. He also serves as a Special Advisor to the President of the UAE, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, his older brother. He is also head of the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ADCED), which is the economic policy advisory council in Abu Dhabi.
Al Nahyan is also the head of the Mubadala Development Company which, since its establishment in 2002, represents the main investment vehicle for the government of Abu Dhabi. Al Nahyan is also a director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi.
In addition, he is the head of the UAE Offsets Program Bureau and is the head of the Abu Dhabi Education Council which was set up in September 2005 to develop education and vocational training. His efforts in the realm of economic development are aimed at increasing economic diversification in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. As the Head of the UAE Offsets Group, Al Nahyan is involved with the task of channelling defence-related investments into profitable projects across different sectors in order to help diversify the economy of the UAE. He is the head of AIDA.
In 2008, the first group of Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed University scholars were selected as part of the New York University at Abu Dhabi campus intitiative, recognizing outstanding students in the United Arab Emirates and providing them with special academic and leadership opportunities.
June 2009 saw Al Nayhan and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France inaugurate an exhibition at the Emirates Palace Hotel which included works of art purchased for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, as well as loans from the French national museums to mark the beginning of the construction work of the Louvre outpost, located in the cultural district in Saadiyat Island. Al Nayhan also stated that he is confident that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be able to "accumulate a prestigious art collection" by the time of its opening in 2012.
In November 2010 Al Nayhan and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan welcomed Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to the UAE for their second state visit. Al Nahyan also accompanied the Queen and the Duke on a tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque at the beginning of their visit. In January 2011, Al Nahyan received U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In 2012, he represented UAE in the Nuclear Security Summit (2012) hosted by South Korea.
Read more about this topic: Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan
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