DR. HAMAD AL-SHEIKH

MINISTER, SCHOLAR, AUTHOR

Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Sheikh, the Saudi education minister, has played a critical role in ensuring a smooth start to the new academic year for about 6 million school students and more than 500,000 teachers around the country amid the pandemic.

Before being appointed minister on Dec. 27, 2018, he held a number of senior positions in the education sector. Al-Sheikh has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University, in addition to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics.

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He worked as a teaching assistant at the economics department at the University of San Francisco between 1982 and 1983. He went on to serve as an assistant professor at King Saud University’s economics department. Later, he was promoted to the position of associate professor.

In 2006, Al-Sheikh was appointed head of the economics department at the College of Business Administration at King Saud University.

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He was dean at the King Abdullah Institute for Research and Consultative Studies between 2008 and 2009, before moving back to King Saud University to become the university deputy.

In 2011, Al-Sheikh became a professor at the university’s economics department and deputy minister of education, before being appointed minister in 2018. On the basis of his academic qualifications, and managerial and teaching experience, the education minister has been part of key government committees on issues such as economic affairs, development and labor market policies.

Al-Sheikh, who has written many books on economics, development and sports economy, supervised more than 300 research papers and studies as dean at King Abdullah Institute for Research and Consultative Studies.

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Before becoming education minister, Al-Sheikh served as an adviser to the royal court. Most recently, he was made a board member of the National Center for Performance Measurement, a key component of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan.