Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (Arabic: خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان‎; born 25 January 1948; referred to as Sheikh Khalifa) is the President of the United Arab Emirates, the Emir of Abu Dhabi and the commander of the Union Defence Force. He is also a prominent philanthropist, and has spent over $460 million in humanitarian projects from his personal fortune.

He succeeded to the position of the Emir of Abu Dhabi on November 2004 after the death of his father Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, thereby becoming the President of the Federation the next day. As Crown Prince, he had already been acting as president since the late 1990s while his father was in ill health. Khalifa is also chairman of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages over $600 billion in assets. The Al Nahyan family is believed to have a fortune of $150 billion collectively as a family.

Biography

Early life

Khalifa was born to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan and Sheikha Hassa bint Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi (then part of the Trucial States), on January 1948. He is the eldest son of Sheikh Zayed and is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.