Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (born 1955 in the UAE) is the chairman of Dubai World

Dubai World

Dubai World is an investment company that manages and supervises a portfolio of businesses and projects for the Dubai government across a wide range of industry segments and projects that promote Dubai as a hub for commerce and trading. It is the emirate's flag bearer in global investments and has...

, a diversified holding company based in the United Arab Emirates and owned by the government of Dubai.

Family background

The Sulayem family has been one Dubai's most prominent business and political families since at least the early 20th century. Ahmed bin Sulayem's father was a key advisor to Dubai's ruling Maktoum family.

Business career

Mr. Bin Sulayem's first job after graduating from college in the late 1970s was as a customs inspector at Dubai's then sleepy port. He told Fortune Magazine in 2008 that his future career was set when a man mistakenly came into his office one day and in the course of chatting suggested that Dubai could serve as an entrepot for the tea trade if it created a tax-free zone at the port. That chance meeting encouraged him to travel the world studying tax-free trading zones. When he returned home he approached Dubai's future ruler and family friend Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum , also Sheikh Mohammed, , is the Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates , and absolute monarch of Dubai.-Personal life and education:...

 with a proposal to build a free trade zone at the port. "If you really believe in it, you go run it." Bin Sulayem said Sheikh Mohammed told him. "I was 30."

That conversation led to Bin Sulayem serving as the first chairman of the Dubai government's tax-free Jebel Ali Free Zone

Jebel Ali Free Zone

Jebel Ali Free Zone is a free economic zone located in the Jebel Ali area at the far western end of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, near Abu Dhabi...

  when it was founded in 1985.

Since the 1980s, Bin Sulayem has been one of the most prominent businessmen in Dubai, with a string of government-linked ventures. In addition to chairing Dubai World he helped found Nakheel, one of the UAE's largest property developers and Istithmar, a major investment holding company in Dubai

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

. Both companies are Dubai World subsidiaries.

He also served on the board of the Investment Corporation of Dubai

Investment Corporation of Dubai

The Investment Corporation of Dubai is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Established in May 2006 with the transfer of the government's portfolio of investments from The Department of Finance's Investment Division, its role is to supervise the...

, the emirate's Sovereign Wealth Fund

Sovereign wealth fund

A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, property, precious metals or other financial instruments. Sovereign wealth funds invest globally. Some of them have grabbed attention making bad investments in several Wall Street financial...

, until November, 2009, when Bin Sulayem was removed from that post in the wake of the debt crisis that struck Dubai that year. In late 2009 and early 2010, Dubai was struggling to pay $80 billion in debt, most of it linked to Dubai World and its subsidiaries.

The Wall Street Journal's influential Heard on the Street column said in October 2009 that Dubai World "has just been radically restructured after running up almost $60 billion of liabilities on ill-judged acquisitions like struggling Madison Avenue retailer Barneys and the Queen Elizabeth II liner, which has since largely languished in a Dubai dry dock" and that "surprisingly, senior management remains in place, including Sultan bin Sulayem, the chairman who masterminded the expansion."" Sulayem was finally removed from his post in December, 2010 and was replaced by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, a member of the royal family.

Education and awards

He received a B.S. in economics from Temple University

Temple University

Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

 in Philadelphia, the United States.

He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University in Dubai

Middlesex University

Middlesex University is a university in north London, England. It is located in the historic county boundaries of Middlesex from which it takes its name. It is one of the post-1992 universities and is a member of Million+ working group...