Ashraf Ghani

Born in Logar in 1949, Ghani studied abroad — Lebanon, then Columbia for a PhD in cultural anthropology — and spent the 1990s at the World Bank. He returned to Afghanistan in December 2001 after the Taliban fell, served as Karzai's finance minister, then ran for president in 2009 and placed fourth. The 2014 election was so disputed that the U.S. brokered a power-split: Ghani president, rival Abdullah Abdullah chief executive. Re-elected in 2020, he pushed a technocratic vision, filled cabinets with young graduates, and tried to negotiate with the Taliban. Corruption persisted, promises went un…