Technocrat, academician and a diplomat

Dr Abdullatif Al Zayani, who has been appointed the country’s new foreign minister, has had successful careers as a technocrat, academician and a diplomat. Dr Al Zayani became Secretary-General of the GCC on April 1, 2011.

Prior to his appointment, he was advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the rank of Minister, chairman of the Joint Steering Committee between Bahrain and the United Kingdom and chairman of the ministry’s Development and Regulation committee. Dr Al Zayani graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in UK.

He is also a graduate of the Aeronautical Engineering programme, Perth Scotland in 1978. He holds a PhD in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California in 1986, and a Master’s Degree in Logistics Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton, Ohio in 1980.

In 1988, he received the sword of honour along with the title of Master Logistician from the US Army after attending the Command and General Staff course, Fort Leavenworth Kansas. He also attended the Leaders in Development Programme, Harvard University in 2008.

He held several leading positions in the Bahrain Defence Force and in the Ministry of Interior. He was also a professor in “Mathematics and Statistics” at the University of Maryland, Bahrain, and in “ Quantitative Methods” at the University of Bahrain. His teaching career also included teaching statistics, quantitative methods and total quality management at the Arabian Gulf University and supervising students as partial fulfilment for Masters of Science in Technology Management.

He was awarded several Bahraini and international decorations. The current secretary-general of Gulf Co-operation Council will become Bahrain’s foreign ministry when his term ends on March 31. Dr Al Zayani will take over from Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa who has been in charge of the foreign affairs since September 26, 2005.

Shaikh Khalid joined the foreign ministry in 1985 and became ambassador to the UK in September 2001, to the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and Norway in 2002 and to Sweden in 2003. In his twitter message, Shaikh Khalid congratulated Dr Al Zayani on the appointment.

“Your Majesty, with all my effort and ability, I will continue to serve the nation as long as I live. I was also honoured to work under HRH the Premier and HRH the Crown Prince. And now I hand over the responsibilities to my dear brother.”