Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan was born 7 September 1948, the eldest son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE's first president. As crown prince of Abu Dhabi, he carried out presidential duties in practice from the late 1990s when his father's health declined. He succeeded as ruler of Abu Dhabi on 2 November 2004 and was elected UAE president the next day. His tenure saw the UAE become a regional economic powerhouse with a growing non-oil economy; he drew cultural and academic institutions to Abu Dhabi - the Louvre, NYU, the Sorbonne - and established Etihad Airways. A pro-Western modernizer, he steered the country through a volatile regional moment and built closer ties with the United States and Israel. In January 2014 he suffered a stroke and receded from active governance, though he retained ceremonial powers until his death on 13 May 2022.