UAE - Profile - Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

The minister of finance and industry, Shaikh Hamdan is the second son of the late Shaikh Rashid of Dubai. He has held this portfolio since the mid-1970s. He is president of the Dubai Municipal Council, a key position he has been holding since the 1970s. The Dubai Municipal Council acts as a local government in Dubai and, by implication, Shaikh Hamdan can be regarded as a local prime minister. But he does not act as such. In addition, Shaikh Hamdan is the deputy ruler of Dubai. He is president of the governing board of Port Rashid, a post he has held since 1973. He has also been the UAE's chief representative at the IMF, the OPEC Fund and to the Arab states. He frequently accompanies UAE President Shaikh Zayed on state visits. Like Shaikh Maktoum, however, Shaikh Hamdan is less dynamic than his younger brother Shaikh Mohammed (see next profile). Hamdan is considered the squire among the four Al Maktoum brothers and is seen as the treasurer of Dubai, if the emirate is viewed as a "family corporation" (as explained in the previous profile). Shaikh Hamdan was born in 1945 as the second son of the late Shaikh Rashid. He received his higher education at Cambridge (UK), as in the case of Shaikh Maktoum. He began his career as a UAE minister since the union was created in December 1971. Apart from his passion for horses, he likes hunting. Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum: The crown prince of Dubai since late 1990 and UAE defence minister since the early 1970s, Shaikh Mohammed is considered the "strongman" of the UAE. He controls most sectors in Dubai, notably including the hydrocarbon industry, and directs the family's horse- breeding business.

Shaikh Mohammed's post as federal defence minister is a counter-weight to that of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed, who is the deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces. Shaikh Mohammed holds the rank of general. Born in 1949 as the third son of late Shaikh Rashid, Shaikh Mohammed received a military education from the Mons Officer Cadet Training College and Sandhurst in the UK. He also studied at Cambridge. Shaikh Mohammed began his career as director of the police and public security in Dubai before the UAE was created. He founded a 6,000-strong army for Dubai. He became UAE minister of defence in 1972. Shaikh Mohammed has been the effective head of the Dubai Petroleum Department since 1982 and as such he controls the hydrocarbon sector and the related downstream industries. He has acquired wide technical and marketing knowledge of the oil business, a complex subject, that few citizens in Dubai could emulate. "The Boss", as Shaikh Mohammed is known by expatriate advisors, has a keen interest in the financial and business affairs of this emirate, which are the main portfolios of his brother Shaikh Hamdan. Nearly all the CEOs of businesses in which the Dubai government has full ownership or majority control have been nominated by him. It was at Shaikh Mohammed's initiative that the Emirates Petroleum Products Co. (EPPCO) was established in Dubai in 1980 as a local and regional oil marketing unit. Likewise, the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) was established more recently to operate as an oil refiner with a condensate splitter scheduled to be on stream next year. Shaikh Mohammed was behind Dubai's Jebel Ali free zone, Emirates Airline and various other projects. He was behind the local government programme, launched at the beginning of 1997, to raise the non-oil sectors' contribution to Dubai's GDP from 81.2% in 1996 to 100% by 2015 (see Downstream Trends of this week). Shaikh Mohammed has a unique passion for horse racing. He and his brothers have some of the fastest thoroughbreds in the world. They have dominated British horse-racing for more than 12 years. Their racing interests extend to Australia and the brothers are described as the world's most dominant thoroughbred owners. Shaikh Mohammed has established a horse-racing operation in Dubai. The Al Quoz racing stables are located near Jebel Ali in a cluster of inconspicuous buildings with whitewash walls and mud-red tiled roofs. The stables not only house some of the finest thoroughbreds in the world, but they are also the headquarters of Godolphin - the Shaikh Mohammed-inspired racing operation. After having started up horse-racing in Dubai, Shaikh Mohammed has moved the horses which did not measure up in England to the Dubai stables since 1993. This has affected horse-racing in Australia. Recently, Shaikh Mohammed criticised the stud conditions in Britain and hinted he would move the family business out of the UK. This caused a major sensation

in Britain, where a big part of the business is dependent on the operations of the Godolphin company. Shaikh Ahmad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum: Born in 1950 as the fourth son of the late Shaikh Rashid Bin Said, Shaikh Ahmad is the youngest of the ruling Maktoum brothers. With a high military rank, he heads the local armed forces and police. Shaikh Ahmad graduated from the Mons Officer Cadet Training College in Britain. He began his career as chief of police and internal security in 1973. In 1977, he became head of the central command of the Dubai armed forces. He keeps holding these positions, although he is frequently abroad (as explained in OMT). He likes hunting and motoring, apart from the common Maktoum passion for horses.